Honey and Yogurt Loaf

I'm back on bake mode. Isn't the new year the best time to start new habits, routines, plans and strategies. What is it about the first month of the year that gets us all so enthu. I've actually been sticking to my blog goals, by researching recipes, trying out new ones and making time to come pen them down here. I hope this sets the tone for the rest of the year. Actually, why not. 

I couldn't help but fall in love with this recipe just by looking at the list of ingredients. Honey and yogurt in a cake sounded just great together, specially in a cake. Sounded like good old fashioned baking and there is nothing I love more. The original recipe calls for walnuts, but I rarely ever have walnuts lying around in my kitchen. What I had in plenty though, were opened packets of dry fruits scrambled across in my pantry, considering we just got done with Christmas and I decided to use those instead. Although we are in January, I just made 2 batches of Christmas fruit cake with all the leftover rum soaked fruits I had. While I generally store leftover soaked fruits in my fridge, I just felt like baking some more fruit cake coz really you can never make enough fruit cake. Considering there were enough takers for it, making them a few weeks after Christmas was an easy decision. I also felt, like you could enjoy it more solitarily, when there aren't all those other Christmas goodies hounding you and vying for your attention. Maybe this is a new year tradition I could start. If you have leftover soaked fruits, you could try this recipe I posted earlier for Christmas Cake. Old recipe but still very much loved.   

Back to my yogurt loaf. This humble cake is gorgeous on it's own, but if you'd like to show it some extra love, it has a gentle syrup made from runny honey to top it. This makes it incredibly soft and almost melt in your mouth, and now that's the kind of cake I absolutely love. So maybe I wouldn't skip the syrup at all, specially because all you have to do is mix honey and water and put it on the stove, leaving it there for about 10 minutes. You could do this once you have the cake in the oven. So might as well. 

So let me take you one step closer to making this lil piece of heaven and share this recipe right here. 

Honey and Yogurt Loaf

Ingredients :

For the cake

190 gms unsalted butter plus for greasing

160 gms sugar

3 eggs

190 gms flour plus for dusting the tin.

1tsp baking powder

2 tbsp plain yogurt

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp runny honey

1 cup mixed dry fruits, roughly chopped. (I used cashews, almonds and raisins)

For the syrup

2 tbsp honey

1/4 cup water.

1. Grease a medium sized loaf tin with butter and dust the tin with flour. Keep aside. Preheat the oven to a standard 180 C

2. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter till it is creamy and then add the sugar. Beat on medium speed till it is well blended. 

3. Follow this with cracking in the eggs one by one.  Beat after each addition just until incorporated. 

4. Hold a sieve over the bowl and sift in the flour and baking powder. I like to first mix with a spoon till the flour mixes with the butter and then beat the mixture on low speed till it is fully blended. 

5. In a small bowl, mix the yogurt, honey and vanilla essence and add it to the batter. 

6. Toss in the dry fruits and beat the mixture on low speed till it just about comes together. 

7. Pour this slightly thick batter into the prepared loaf tin and put in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes. 

8. While the cake is baking, mix the honey and water in a small saucepan to make the syrup. Put the saucepan on a low flame and let it boil and reduce to about half its original quantity. Keep aside

9. Check on the  cake in about 45 minutes. The cake is done when you insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake and it comes out dry. When the cake has baked, take it out of the oven and pour the syrup all over , with the cake still in the tin. Let it cool for about 20 minutes before you take out the cake. 

10. As hard as you might find it, let the cake cool completely on a wire rack before you slice it. Enjoy this lil goodness you have just created. Happy Baking.