A few months ago, gripped by baking fever, I purchased Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I quickly decided to embark upon a mission to bake everything in the book, and turn myself from an occasional baker into a bit of an expert. My Grandad Ern was a Master Baker by trade; the man responsible for introducing Danish Pastries to England in fact, and I wish it had occurred to me to spend more time learning from him, rather than simply enjoying the fruits of his effortless labours. This project is almost a way of making amends for that; I'd like to follow in his footsteps (if not in my career, at least as a hobby) and continue the proud heritage of baking in my family.
I credit my friend Rachel with the idea to write a blog about my baking exploits, hoping that there will be more successes than failures as I attempt all 213 of the Queen of Baking's recipes.
So as not to bore the husband with a monotonous diet of sponges, followed by weeks of biscuits, I've decided to tackle the recipes by selecting the first bake from each chapter, followed by the second recipe and so on. I'm not going to pick and choose; I'm determined to face my baking demons and learn how to do everything baking-related, even if the consequences are disastrous!
Everything will be photographed, with comment about how I found baking it, and a husband rating (to be taken with a pinch of salt as he has a very selective cake-tooth).


Wednesday, 12 April 2023

115. Lemon Yoghurt Cake

Before posting this, I looked to see when I last blogged about a Mary Berry bake, and couldn't believe it had been 4 years ago! I mean, I'm not really surprised, as life has been very busy and I've not had much time to bake anything, nevermind continuing with this project. I've baked several recipes from Mary's book over and over again: it's my go-to for Victoria Sponge and cupcakes. I've baked many a Banana Loaf (that pandemic staple), and a few of her Crown Loaf loaves as well. But I haven't attempted anything new since 2019, which is a bit of a sad state of affairs really, so I'm thrilled to be back, and determined to keep going to see this project through to the end!

I chose a recipe from the early pages of the book, which didn't need loads of ingredients, just some Greek yoghurt and a lemon as the extras. Everything else is the baker's cupboard staple stuff, although I did realise I was low on caster sugar, as I've been baking with golden caster sugar lately, so had to deviate from the recipe a tiny bit and use some of that. It was a pretty straightforward recipe, but unlike a lot of her all-in-one method bakes, I had to cream the butter, sugar and egg yolks (first time I've separated eggs for a while) first. I didn't soften the butter enough (I tend to use olive spread these days which is already soft, but wanted to stick to the recipe), so my initial mixture had some lumps of yolky butter in it, which thankfully melted away with baking. I could tell it was going to be a really airy batter once I'd folded the flour and whisked egg whites in, and the cake rose beautifully.

It needed 1 hour in the oven, and once cooled, was iced with a very simple icing sugar and lemon juice mixture, and left to set. The four of us sampled a slice with a cup of tea, and everyone thought it was a lovely cake. The kids' instant reaction was 'yum!' It was really moist, and had quite a bouncy, firm texture; a little bit drier at the edges, but I quite liked that. What's left of the cake is now in the fridge, as per Mary's instruction (owing to the yoghurt content, I expect).

Baker's verdict: easy to make and would definitely make it again. A really tasty, nicely textured lemon cake.




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