Wednesday 9 November 2011

Chocolate Chip, Hazelnut and Orange Cake

I'm not sure if this cake was a result of lack of time, lack of ingredients, lack of imagination or lack of enthusiasm for baking. Although I enjoy baking 90% of the time, I hate having to bake when I'm not in the mood! To produce something quickly for CT's daily slice of cake, I went back to this foolproof cake made with yogurt and oil, loosely based on this recipe from Ina Garten. I've simplified the recipe, and now mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet in another, and mix them until just combined, before folding in any lumpy additions. This time, I was limited by a rather sparse storecupboard and a wish not to repeat flavours used recently (except chocolate, of course!)

So here, I mixed 200g plain flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 200g caster sugar and the zest of a large orange in a mixing bowl. In a smaller bowl, I whisked 150ml low fat yogurt, 100mls sour cream, 3 eggs and 110mls sunflower oil until smooth. After mixing the wet ingredients into the dry, I folded in 100g of chopped 74% chocolate and 50g chopped toasted hazelnuts.

The cake mixture was baked in a 20cm(8") round tin for 50-60 minutes (or until a test probe comes out clean) at 180C.

This time the cake was a little heavier than usual, which may have been due to using sour cream in place of some of the yogurt. - I just scraped together enough by using a mixture of the two! It didn't seem to affect anyone's appetite for it - even FB, who isn't much of a cake eater, had a slice (although she may just have been hungry!)

5 comments:

Phil in the Kitchen said...

I suspect that you're right and the sour cream would have made the cake a little heavier. Still sounds great to me, though, especially since I'm slightly obsessed by cakes with hazelnuts for some reason.

Caroline said...

Looks like a great variation on your standard recipe. How useful to be able to have such a useful basic to adapt that will work reliably and fit easily into your life.

Suelle said...

It certainly is a useful recipe, C. I had a similarly versatile recipe using butter, but this is even quicker to mix up and get into the oven!

Phil - I think I use hazelnuts in baking more than any of the other nuts.

Chele said...

Sour cream does seem to make a cake a little more dense ... but then I like that in a cake so I wouldn't complain at all. Love the chunks of chocolate too ;0)

Gloria Baker said...

Love baking and this look amazing! gloria