Orange Yoghurt Cake

This is a recipe adapted from Donna Hay's Lemon Yoghurt Cake and everyone who tastes it, falls in love with it. My eldest son who only likes a limited number of cake flavours and always defaults to chocolate when there's a choice, lists this cake as one of his absolute favourites! It melts in your mouth. It's very simple to make and doesn't differ much from the original. It just has a slightly more subtle citrus flavour. I even took my Thermomix away on holidays with me recently and whipped up this cake for house guests. It was lovely to have a homemade treat whilst away. Don't be fooled by the name - whilst the yoghurt and fruit combination makes it sound healthy, it does have a good dose of sugar in it. But hey, as long as you're not eating it every day, it's great as a treat. 

 

Note that I have included weight and cup measurements (as does Donna Hay) because I mix mine in the Thermomix which measures ingredients by weight. This recipe is written out as a Thermomix one but can be easily mixed without. I use a large bundt tin, however I have made it in other slightly smaller tins and it has still turned out okay. It's just prettier in the bundt tin.

 

Orange Yoghurt Cake

 

3/4 cup (180ml light olive oil)

2 eggs

1 tablespoon finely grated orange rind*

1/4 cup (60ml) orange juice, either freshly squeezed or store bought

1 cup (280g) plain Greek-style yoghurt

1 3/4 cups (385g) caster sugar

2 cups (300g) self-raising flour

 

Icing

1 cup (160g) sifted icing sugar

1 tablespoon orange juice, either freshly squeezed or store bought

1/2 tablespoon boiling water

 

* You can grate this by hand or simply cut the skin off an orange and grate it in thermomix (about 30 seconds/speed 7)

 

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius fan forced.

 

2. Place the oil, eggs, orange rind, orange juice, yoghurt, sugar and flour in Thermomix bowl and mix for 15 seconds, speed 5. Scrape down sides and mix for a further 10 seconds at speed 5.

 

3. Pour into a greased cake tin and bake for approximately 50 minutes or until cooked.

 

4. Allow the cake to stand for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. A handy tip if you want less cleaning up afterwards, is to place a piece of baking paper or foil on the bench/sink underneath the wire rack to catch the drippings of icing in the final step.

 

5. Whilst the cake is in the tin or immediately after turning it out onto wire rack, make the orange icing by mixing together the icing sugar, orange juice and boiling water. If it's too thick or you've made it a bit too early and it starts to harden, just add a touch more of the boiling water. I usually just mix this by hand in a small bowl.

 

6. Whilst cake is still hot, pour/drizzle the orange icing over the top, allowing it to trickle down the sides of the cake. This cake can be served almost immediately but tastes just as wonderful a few days later (if it lasts that long)!