Former Great British Bake Off star Manon Lagreve has shared a traditional French recipe for 'gateau au yaourt', a simple yoghurt cake that can be made in less than an hour.
Raised in the heart of France, the baking enthusiast learned culinary skills from her mother and grandmother and is well-versed in creating delectable treats from scratch.
Manon's recipes are steeped in her French roots, and she vouches for the simplicity of her yoghurt cake, a delight shared in her cookbook "Et Voila!: A Simple French Baking Love Story".
The London-based Instagram icon hailed it as "the simplest and quickest French cake" she knows and demonstrated the recipe in a short video on social media.
The "gateau au yaourt", as it's traditionally called, is renowned for its airy texture and tastes best when accompanied by fresh, fruity flavours.
Manon said: "The cake is so moist and versatile, you can make it with many flavours and shapes - I use my simple Bundt tin."
When it comes to ingredients, the baking expert ditches conventional measurements, using the yoghurt pot as a means of weighing other components.
Yoghurt cake recipe Ingredients- 125g pot of Greek yoghurt
- Two pots of white sugar (250g)
- Three eggs
- One pot of olive oil
- Three pots of plain flour
- One teaspoon of baking powder
- One pinch of salt
- One teaspoon of vanilla extract
- Fresh raspberries or blueberries
To recreate Manon's prized French yoghurt cake, assemble your ingredients on the counter along with a spacious mixing bowl and a choice of a Bundt or standard loaf tin. A dab of butter or a spritz of cooking spray will create a non-stick layer in the tin, which should then be dusted delicately with flour.
First, place the yoghurt into the bowl, then fill the pot twice with sugar, before stirring them together for a thorough mix, aiming for a velvety cream. Add the eggs and whisk everything together until the batter is soft, then add a dash of vanilla extract and pour in the oil, giving it another good stir.
Next, introduce the dry ingredients, which are the flour, salt, and baking powder. Sample the batter now to adjust the taste, adding extra vanilla if needed, before transferring it into the lined baking tin.
To prevent the blueberries or raspberries from sinking, coat them lightly with flour, then carefully arrange them atop the batter, pressing them down gently. Bake for 35 minutes at 180C, then once done, let it stand to cool for a brief 10 minutes.
Carefully invert the cake onto a stand to display the berry-covered side up. For the final touch, dust it with icing sugar and garnish with fresh rosemary. Manon exclaimed: "Et voila. This is the quickest French cake in your repertoire!"
