Egg-Free Yoghurt Sponge Cake

 An Egg-free cake that does not look or taste like this! Picture by Paul Kidby
PS- sorry there is no cake picture-the original was so popular it was all eaten!

Making egg-free cake can be a challenge;  more than once my egg-free cakes are closer to a Dwarfish Battle Scone in consistency than a sponge cake, however this recipe seems to work and was liked by both non-egg cake eaters and egg-cake eaters alike.


Top tips:
Sift the flour, the sift it again, then again, then twice more for luck. No kidding; because there is no egg to help raise the mixture the flour has to be super-duper airy and well sifted to keep the cake sponge-like. I've adopted my sisters technique of the 5x sift.

Use the recipe as a guide only; adjust the mix to your cake mix on the day, sometimes you need more yoghurt, sometimes more flour (which you need to sift first ;) )

Prep Time; 30 min Cooking time: 30-40 min

For the cake

500g pot of Mango and passion fruit yoghurt (or you favourite flavour)
25g butter
50g  caster sugar
250g self raising flour

For the icing

1 table spoon of the same flavour yoghurt as the the cake
1 mug of icing sugar
a few drops of lemon juice.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until well combined and smooth.
3. Add about 150-200g of yoghurt to the butter and sugar and mix in well.
4. Sift the self raising flour between 2 big bowls at least 5 times, so the flour is well aerated. I tend to use a big measuring jug to do this- you should read about 50-100ml more to finish.

5. Top up the flour with spare if you've managed to loose lots on the work surface/ your clothes/ the dog in the sifting process. 

6. Add the yoghurt mix 1 tablespoon at a time, and mix into the flour with a pallet knife or the blade side of a table spoon. Don't use a wooden spoon as the air is more likely to get squashed out.

7. Add more yoghurt if the mix is a little dry, it should drop easily off a spoon in thickish dollops.

8. Pour into a 2lb loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 30-40 min, or until a knife comes away clean through the middle.

9. While the cake is baking: add the icing sugar, lemon and spoonful of yoghurt together  and mix well. Adjust to taste, then leave to stand.

10. Allow the cake to cool, then drizzle with the icing. Allow the icing to set before cutting, if you can resist!