Vanilla Yoghurt Buttercake

This recipe is a keeper. You know it's a keeper when you've substituted an  ingredient and it still works.  Here I've substituted milk with yoghurt. This was out of necessity really as I've ran out of milk. It turned out beautifully, moist and tender.  The yoghurt also added a bit of a tang and gave it a lift. Really yummy!

My Daughter G couldn't stop eating this cake. Not to toot my own horns, I think this yoghurt version tastes even better than the original one. My dear Hubby on the other hand loves the orginal version. Well, to each his own!


Vanilla Yoghurt Buttercake
(Recipe adapted from Simple Indulgence)

Ingredients:

150g unsalted butter, cut into cubes at room temperature

100g castor sugar
3 egg yolks
1½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
125ml plain yoghurt
175g cake flour
1½ tsp baking powder
3 egg white
40g castor sugar


Notes:
Original recipe uses milk instead of plain yoghurt.

Preparation:
Grease and line a 7” round cake pan with parchment paper.
Pre-heat oven at 200°C.

Method:

1. Sift the cake flour and baking powder together into a bowl.
2. In a mixing bowl,  put in the butter and 100g of sugar. Using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add in the egg yolks, one at a time  and beat until it is incorporated. Add in the vanilla extract.
4. At low speed, add in one third of the flour mixture and one third of the plain yoghurt alternately until done. Stop once mixture is well blended.
5. In a separate clean bowl, whisk the egg white and 40g castor sugar until stiff. It's ready when the bowl is overturned and the egg white stays put.
6. Fold in the egg white into the yolk and flour mixture until well blended. The batter may look a little curdled.
7. Pour out the batter into the cake pan lined with baking paper.
8. Reduce temperature to180°C - 190°C  and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
9. Remove cake from oven and  place it to cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before unmoulding. After unmoulding, remove the baking paper and leave to cool completely.

About UFOs and Cow Pies

UFO's, anyone?

Here's  my recreation of a popular tart known as UFO, and  among the Chinese speaking community Cow Pie Tart! Call whichever way you like, but Cow Pie seems more endearing to me. Haha, I'm crude!

This delicious tart is a specialty originating from Sandakan, an east coast town in Sabah. It is basically a thin sponge cake with a creamy custard  topping surrounded by soft billowy meringue. This tart or rather cake is usually sold in old style Chinese coffee shops. One tart is never enough, and growing up, I remember this cow pie tart is bought by the carton. In those days, as styrofoam boxes were unheard of  and  take away boxes were not common, empty cigarette cartons were used to pack the cow pies! I still remember the smell of  eggy deliciousness intermingling with tobacco. Ah, nostalgia. 



How about some Cow Pies?



Sponge Sheet Cake
(recipe adapted from Essential Pastries & Cakes by Jimmy Chang)

Ingredients:
5 large eggs
100g icing sugar
30ml water
30ml vegetable oil
100gm superfine flour
1tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1) Using an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar until thick fluffy and pale.
2) Sift in flour and vanilla essence. Fold gently until well combined.
3) In another bowl, mix water and oil together. Add in 1/3 of the batter and mix well. Then combine with the rest of the remaining batter.
4) Pour into a baking paper lined swiss roll pan. Bake at 170C for 9 minutes  or until skewer comes out clean when tested.


Pastry Cream
(recipe adapted from Corner Cafe here)

Ingredients:
500ml milk
4 egg yolks
110g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
4 tbsp cornflour
1 pinch salt (only if not adding butter, or using unsalted butter)
50g unsalted butter, for additional shine and firmness

Method:
1. Whisk together egg yolks, 1/4 cup milk (60ml), sugar and vanilla extract. Mix in cornflour and salt (if using).
2. In a saucepan, bring the remaining milk to just below boiling point. Slowly pour the hot milk in small stream into the egg mixture while stirring constantly with a whisk (very important). Once incorporated, pour everything back into the saucepan.
3. Whisk the mixture over medium heat until it thickens and firms up. Remove from heat and whisk in butter.
4. Pour the hot custard into a bowl and plunge the bottom of the bowl into another larger bowl of iced-water to cool, give it a whisk. (Or you could transfer the hot custard into a wide bowl, then cover with  clingfilm  pressed against it  and leave aside to cool completely.) Keep in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Meringue

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
6 tablespoons caster sugar

Method:
Beat egg whites and caster sugar until fluffy, shiny and stiff. Do not overbeat. The meringue  should be smooth when piped out.(I had overbeaten mine a little. Hence, the lumpy appearence.)


Assembly:
With a 3 inch round cookie cutter, stamp out individual cake bases from the sponge sheet. Then, using a piping bag, pipe meringue  on top of cake base along the cicumference to make a wall to contain the pastry cream. Once that's done, pipe the pastry cream to fill the middle. Turn on the grill function of your oven (upper heat element) and  bake until the meringue is lightly browned. You can also do this with a blowtorch if you own one. Done!
Note: There will be a lot of leftover pastry cream and meringue. I'd suggest cutting the respective recipes in half.