Since I am going to India in a few weeks time, I am in a major fridge cleaning spree. I know V won’t use any of the baking stuff that I have stored up and am sure they won’t last till the time I am back. I also have to make enough room in the fridge to stock up food for V’s coming forced bachelor days. At least for the initial few days- then he is on his own. I had been planning to make a cake for my mom’s birthday- which was yesterday, the Jan 12th. The idea was to make a red velvet cake with cream cheese filling. But, then I had raspberries- so it became red velvet with raspberry cream cheese. But, there was no cream cheese in the fridge. Thought of going to the store to get some- and just as I was about to I remembered I had some greek yogurt that had been sitting in the fridge. Hmm…can I use it as a substitute- googled but did not find any confident yes in the search results. Tasted it and thought it might just work. So the cake became, Red Velvet cake with a raspberry greek yogurt filling. That’s what I thought!
I decided to make the filling first. Thank god that’s what I did. The yogurt creamed really good, but when I added the raspberry puree it thinned down. I tried thickening it, with my amateur techniques, but nothing helped. Looking at the consistency, I thought of turning that batter into cake batter. Added some flour, leavener, poppy seeds- and put it in the oven for it to do its trick! I decided to take the cake for my movie afternoon with my friends and they looooooved it- even the one who is on a strict diet and avoids all sweet stuff- she ate three pieces one after the other. I am so proud of myself! 🙂
(I just hope I wrote down all the components correctly! =/ )
RASPBERRY GREEK YOGURT POPPY SEED CAKE
INGREDIENTS
Raspberry puree (gives about 1/3 cup raspberry puree)
- 10 ounces raspberries, frozen and thawed
- 1/2 cup sugar
For the cake:
- 16 ounce vanilla flavored greek yogurt
- 2 ounce white chocolate, melted
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/3 cup flour
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Pinch salt
- 2 tbsp poppy seeds
DIRECTIONS
For the puree, thaw the raspberries over a strainer placed over a large bowl. Once thawed, press the raspberries to squeeze out at least 1 cup of juice. Process the crushed raspberry in a food processor and pass through a fine sieve to get the pureed raspberry sans seeds. Reduce the raspberry juice to 1/4 cup. Add the sugar and dissolve completely. Add to the puree. Let cool.
In a bowl, sift the flour, salt, baking powder.
Cream together the yogurt, butter and sugar till light, fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition. Add the melted white chocolate and vanilla essence. Add the lemon zest and the raspberry puree.
Mix the dry ingredients to the wet. Add the poppy seeds.
Bake at 350 F for about 40 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for five minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. Once cool, cut slices and serve sprinkled with powdered sugar.
