Recipe : Blueberry & Yoghurt Cake

Where we live, we pretty much can only get the fruits and vegetables that are in season in the supermarkets, so when I saw punnets of blueberries for only .99c each in the middle of winter - I jumped in and grabbed them.  Then I had to figure out what to do with them, so off to Google I scampered, and I found this great Blueberry & Yoghurt recipe.

It's dead easy and tastes fab.  I've made it three times now - twice with fresh blueberries and once with frozen raspberries.  Our oven is old and leaks heat, so I had to cook for nearly 20 minutes longer each time to get a skewer to come out clean from the centre of the cake.  You might have to do similar time juggling with your oven.  When I used the frozen berries, it took even longer to cook, though it did work in the end.

The first time I used the fresh blueberries, I followed the instructions and pushed them into the top of the cake before baking.  The top of the cake started to burn a bit after half an hour or so, so I covered it with tinfoil for the remainder of the baking time, and the texture was a bit like a steamed pudding - yum!  The next time I stirred the blueberries through the batter and shook some vanilla sugar over the top - the top didn't burn, though most of the blueberries sank to the bottom.

Anyway, it's a really easy cake and you can experiment with it.  I think you could make it with any kind of berries or chopped softish fruit - whatever you can find in season that's cheap.  My notes in italics, as usual, so let's cook!

1. 125g butter (room temperature)
2. 1 cup caster sugar
3. 3 eggs (room temperature)
4. 2 cups plain flour
5. 2 teaspoons baking powder
6. 3/4 cup vanilla yoghurt
7. 1 cup blueberries

• Preheat oven to 180c
• Grease a 20cm round springform cake pan
• Line base and side with baking paper (didn't do this any of the three times I made it - too lazy - I just greased the sides and bottom with that squirty butter stuff, and they came out of the pan just fine)
• Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating to combine
• Sift half the flour over mixture (I didn't sift over the mixture - too messy - I just sifted the flour and the baking powder when I was measuring it at the start and added the sifted mixture as required)
• Add half the yoghurt
• Mix to combine
• Repeat with the remaining flour and yoghurt
• Spread mixture into prepared pan
• Press blueberries slightly into mixture (or stir them in, whatever you feel like)
• Bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer (or sharp knife) inserted into the centre comes out clean
• Cover cake loosely with foil if over browning during baking
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool (remove from pan after half an hour or so, leave it to cool a bit first)

Um, I was going to put a picture of the word "YUMMY" here, so I googled that - and I found this.  Seriously, has that kid got a mutant cupcake on a leash?