A hint of sweetness

You know what’s harder than cooking for one person?  Baking for one person.

Unless I’m willing to blow up like Violet Beauregard in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I typically don’t bake for myself.  My parents and sister have been willing guinea pigs for my past baking experiments - including exploded pies, not-so-delicious-but-healthy cookies, chalky brownies.  However, because of my sister’s psoriasis and my parents’ rapidly growing concern with their own health, they’ve been trying to cut down their sugar intake.  No candy, no desserts, no milkshakes (to Siri’s dismay).  Also, this is the famous wedding weekend so I’m trying a bit of a ‘clean eating’ diet to promote healthy skin and fit into my dress.  No sugar this week.  Except for the sugar that’s in my daily caramel macchiato and then the 5 lbs of Swedish fish that I eat when I come home every evening.  But no sugar except for that.

Luckily, this weekend I stumbled upon Carolyn’s recipe for Greek Yogurt Cake.  Y’all, this cake is pretty flipping awesome.  My mom would have liked this cake with slivers of almonds and my sister would have liked this cake with frosting.  I think it was pretty darn good on its own and the amount of sugar can be adjusted to your liking, as I did below.

Greek Yogurt Cake

(Adapted from Carolyn Jung's recipe)

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup Greek yogurt (I used fat free Fage)
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and position the rack in the middle. Butter a 9-by-2-inch springform pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir together the yogurt and honey in a small bowl.

Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating until fully incorporated. Beat in vanilla extract.

Add flour mixture to the butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the yogurt and beginning and ending with the flour.

Transfer the batter to a prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove the sides of the pan and invert the cake and lift off the pan bottom.

We dove into it while it was still warm and toasty - deeelicious. Slice the cake and serve with whatever you would like on the top or on the side.


Comments

  1. It looks good! Yum! You're right though, cooking, never mind baking, for one person is a real pain. I'm trying to cut down on sugar and I can relatively easily do without the obvious ones like sweets (candy) but find that I still need something especially when I'm getting cold and tired. I think the fact that it's still only around 14C max at the moment doesn't help... xo

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  2. Yum! Maybe I'll make this over the weekend. I haven't baked anything in a while and it looks so good!

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  3. sounds delicious. but I'm on a no sugar diet, too. so no cake for me :(

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  4. Ooooo...that cake sounds yummy yet easy enough to make. And ugh...I feel for your sis and parents. I had to cut down on suger when I was preggers, and it was HARD!

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  5. If I was the type of person that baked... I would be all up on this. But I'm not.

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  6. Oh hooray! A recipe post! This looks amazing! And I love the idea of slivered almonds. Hello, YUM! I'll let you know if I get up the courage to try it!

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  7. Oh my! This looks too good!

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  8. this looks like the perfect sweet. though i agree with your mom on the slivered almonds.

    my twins love swedish fish too, it's their favorite candy. sounds like they would love to spend an evening at your house ;)

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  9. I can't get enough of baking now that I'm pregnant. This baby girl is truly influencing me ;). I like making sweets that aren't too sweet for easy breakfasts. This cake looks awesome! Love that you are committed to not extra sugar except for the macchiato + swedish fish ;). Funny.

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  10. Yum! That looks delicious. I think I'd prefer it with frosting, too, but that's because I just love frosting :) Thanks for sharing, Rooth.

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  11. As you know from my Instagram feed, I am not afraid at baking for one, even when it means I eat an entire pan of cake on my own. One day I am either going to drop dead or, like my dad always said would happen, just expand outwards like a balloon one morning a POOOOF be a blimp. xo

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  12. ...mail me my piece in the mail Ruth!

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  13. I'm not following. What box do I buy that has all of those ingredients??? I've read about something called baking from scratch, but I believed it to be a myth.

    Sounds like you've cut way back on your coffee intake in addition to the sugar.

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  14. It sounds like your sugar intake is just fine ;). The sugar in caramel macchiatos doesn't actually count. I had one this weekend for the first time in two years and it was delicious! I'm envious you get one every day.

    My sister actually makes cookie dough and only bakes the cookies she needs at a time, she keeps the rest in the freezer. You could try that. I tried to make one of those cakes with avocado instead of eggs and oil and it was delicious as long as you smothered it with almond butter so you couldn't taste the avocado. Black bean brownies were just as bad.

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  15. Mmm . . . cake! I'll definitely have to give this recipe a try!

    As for the caramel macchiato, I'm trying to keep it to one a week. We have a new coffee place in town and the coffee is so smooth and delicious. I've already had one for the week--now I want another. Sigh. Oh bother . . .

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  16. Sounds like good cake! I have the exact issue with baking as there is just me in my uni house at the minute, and it doesn't help that when everyone moved out they left me with leftover cake anyway...

    K.

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