orange, almond and yoghurt loaf

Baking late at night is a bad idea, but sometimes you really want to have a cake ready for the next day (or for midnight munchies) so you go ahead regardless of tiredness. I was about to spoon the mixture for this cake into the tin when I thought "this is an unusually stiff mix" so I glanced back to the list of ingredients in the recipe. It turns out I had forgotten an egg.

Luckily I was at a stage where I could still add the necessary third egg, not halfway through baking! This is the kind of blunder you see on tv programmes like the Great British Bake Off and shout "YOU IDIOT!" at the contestant. This time I had the privilege of shouting at myself.

My cake turned out lovely, thankfully. It's one of those plain, unassuming cakes but that doesn't mean it's boring or not tasty. Neither the orange or almond is overpowering; they just happily sit together. Perhaps they're balanced by the vanilla extract, which oddly enough isn't mentioned in the recipe title despite being more obvious than the yoghurt.

Anyway, it's one of those fresh flavoured cakes which goes perfectly with an afternoon cup of tea or coffee. It's also rather nice with a light spread of marmalade, if you feel so inclined.

Orange, almond and yoghurt loaf
Recipe from Hummingbird Bakery "Cake Days" book

190g (7oz) unsalted butter, softened
190g (7oz) plain flour
1 tbsp finely grated orange zest (1 whole orange)
190g (7oz) caster sugar
3 large eggs
60g (2oz) ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt (optional, I didn't add it as I used salted butter)
 25g (1oz) plain yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
10g (1/3oz) flaked almonds (or a handful, if you don't care about being precise)

Preheat the oven to 170C/ 325F/ Gas 3. Grease and line a 8.5 x 17.5cm (3 1/2" x 7") loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

Beat together the butter, sugar and orange zest in a large bowl with your mixer until soft and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs individually, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything gets incorporated. In a separate bowl combine the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt. Tip this into the other mixture in two batches and mix on a slower speed on your mixer until just incorporated. Add the yoghurt and vanilla and mix until everything is combined.

Pour the batter into the loaf tin and scatter the flaked almonds on top before baking in the oven (on the middle shelf) for 50 - 60 minutes until golden, firm on top and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. I think my cake took 10 minutes longer to bake, so keep an eye on it depending on how quick your oven cooks as you don't want an overbaked, dry cake (or a sad, underbaked one!)

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.