Chocolate Yogurt Cake

*Adapted from Fauzia's Kitchen 

Pre-heat your oven at 175 C and grease/line an 8" round pan.

TIPS:
• Make sure everything is at room temperature when you start.
• Sift the flour with the self raising flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda two or three times just to aerate it, makes the cake very light and fluffy.
• If the yoghurt you are using is too watery, you can thicken it by pouring it into a cheesecloth/muslin cloth, and tie it in such a way that it can hang for a while, all the excess water will drain out and you will be left with a lovely thick yoghurt.

Ingredients

1 cup sugar, grinded to a powder (200gm)
½ cup butter or margarine (112gm)
1 cup all-purpose/plain flour (120gm)
½ cup self-rising flour (60gm) ( or 1/2 cup flour+3/4 spoon baking powder and a pinch salt)
½ cup cocoa powder (60gm)
1 cup heavy thick yoghurt (200ml)
½ cup milk (100ml)
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla essence
1 ½  tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt ( if using salted butter skip it, I skipped)

Instructions

1. Add the grinded sugar to the butter/margarine, and cream together until light and fluffy. Don't rush past this stage, it is the one that will determine the texture of your final results, so do it for at least 7-10 minutes. I use grinder for it mostly

2. Now add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then add the vanilla essence. Add the yoghurt and milk and beat well, then remove the mixer/machine and take a wooden spoon to do rest of steps.

3.  Add in the flour ingredients in two or three additions, folding it in after each addition. Do not over mix, just fold until everything is well incorporated. Pour into your pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Leave the cake in the pan for about 5 minutes, then turn it over on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the ganache, I didn't want it too thick because I wanted some of it to be absorbed into the cake.

Ingredients

½ cup whipping cream (100ml)
150 gm. dark cooking chocolate, chopped and at room temperature ( I used normal dark chocolate+ milk chocolate in market)

Instructions

Heat the cream until it almost starts to boil around the edges. Remove from the heat and add in the chopped chocolate. Stir until smooth.

Slice the cake in half, add half of the ganache to the center place the second half of the cake and pour the rest over the top, letting it drip down the sides. Garnish if you want with nuts or chocolate flakes. I used some strawberry and almond flakes on top.

Home Made Curd!

Ingredients-

1 gallon whole milk - you can use 2% or skim milk
1 cup starter culture - plain yogurt at room temperature

I made curd of around 300 ml milk and used 1 tbsp of culture.

Method #1

1. Bring milk to just a boil and then set aside to cool. One can use partially hot milk (boiled before)in summers and boiled milk in winters. Discard any "skin" that may have formed on the milk. Heating the milk to boiling kills any undesirable bacteria that might be present and also changes the properties of the milk protein so that it gives the yogurt a firmer body and texture.

2. Cool the milk by using two vessels to blend it. The higher you take milk to cool it the more air enters it and more nicely curd come out. Just cool enough or until luke warm to touch. - about 110 degrees F . Never put it hot or the milk will break off.

3. Spread the starter culture into the container that you are going to make the yogurt in. Blend it nicely so it goes to all corner of the container. Pour the warm milk into it with one hand and keep mixing the milk with another. Don't stop mixing till the milk is poured. Mix well but gently. Do not incorporate too much air. If too much air is mixed in, the starter culture will grow slowly. Cover with a couple of towels top and bottom to maintain an even temperature. I set curd in a small thick bowl (mud make) and covered it tightly(2 knots) with a thick cloth and then covered it with a woolen cloth nicely. I used a hot case with a thick hot thing holding cloth inside and then cover it with 2 containers. I kept it in portion below the gas.

4.Keep covered at room temperature for 3-4 hours(summers). If we want a bit sweet yogurt one can mix half a teaspoon of sugar and set.

Yogurt containers can be kept warm in a gas oven with pilot light and electric bulb, or an electric oven with light bulb of sufficient wattage - approximately 100 watts. Wide-mouth thermos bottles, heating pads, and sunny windows also have been used. Do not stir the yogurt during this period. It takes more hours in winter and I usualy set them at night and its done by morning. Around 6 hours.

Refrigerate for 8 hours before serving. To store, keep in refrigerator. The yogurt will keep well, a week or two.


Method #2

1.Boil the milk and allow it to cool well. Use preferably whole milk to get a thick consistency of the yogurt.

2.Pour the milk to another vessel because, it might have remnants that we don't want.

3.Add cultured buttermilk 2-3 tablespoons.

4.Cover it & Place it in the oven and set oven to 350 degrees for 2-3 minutes.

5.Now switch off the oven!! Let the milk be in the oven overnight. Next morning you will have a rich thick yogurt !. Remove it from the oven and place it in the fridge.