My cousin Zeynep baked this cake when we were in Mersin a few weeks ago, and I copied down the recipe even before tasting it. My insticts told me that it has got to be good since I do not recall her asking for a recipe and willing to try it right after getting back home. She quickly put together the ingredients and we had it with some linden blossom tea my mom made along with the home made cookies.

What made this cake interesting is the cup of orange juice poured over it right after it is baked. One can make a coctail out of all the citrus available; I bet it would be nice. The recipe can be adjusted to summer time by replacing the apples with peaches, too.

I suggest baking in a metal baking pan, instead of glass.

What you need:

1. 1 cup sugar
2. 2 eggs, room temperature
3. 2 1/2 cups flour
4. 1/2 cup extra light olive oil
5. 1/2 cup warm milk
6. 1 tsp baking pwder
7. 1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

1. 1 medium/large cooking apple
2. 2 Tbs sugar
3. 1 tsp cinnamon

After baking
1 cup of orange juice, freshly squeezed is preferred

Directions:

1. Slice the apple pretty thin and coat them with sugar and cinnamon, set aside
2. Heat the oven to 350F
3. Beat the sugar and eggs, add oil and milk
4. In another bowl, sift the flour with baking powder
5. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mix slowly, add the vanilla extract at the end making sure everything is mixed thoroughly
6. Grease a 10inch spring form pan, and pour the cake mix over
7. Put the apple sliced on the cake mix, not necessarily in any order
8. Bake for 30 – 35mins, until the inserted knife comes out clean
9. Take out of the oven, put on a cookie sheet to catch any orange juice that might spil and pour the orange juice over the cake; making sure every part gets its fair share
10. Let it cool on cooling racks, and do not forget to serve with a nice warm cup of tea or coffee

Bon Apetit

 

Before leaving for couple of weeks of vacation I slowly started to empty the fridge as much as I can. I surely was not going to throw away a big bowl of yogurt. Somehow I thought it might go faster when it is strained (or drained, how ever you want to look at it) and put it on a big piece of muslin that was put over a colander on Friday morning before I left for work. That night I moved the whole “structure” to the fridge and it was still draining the extra juice it had. On Saturday we were going to have our neighbours over, so I quickly thought about making a cake using all that strained yogurt. The result? Whenever I eat a cheesecake I cannot help but wonder “how much of that package was that piece of cake”, and this time there were no worries and had two slices without thinking twice. If you try it this way, you be the judge.

You know how it feels like the cheecake is not fully cooked when you take it out of the oven? The middle is all jiggly and you have to wait for it to cool to complete the baking process. If you have ever been around where they just poured concrete and giving you directions on how to keep it “moist”, especially when the weather is hot, so that it does not crack. Here, in the cheesecake we have to do something similar to make sure the cooling process is slow and thorogh all around the cake so it does not crack at the top. Some leave it in the (turned off) oven to achive this but since I usually make couple of things back to back when I heat the oven I do not have this “luxury”, so I deviced my own technique; invert the biggest salad bowl I have over the cake pan (without touching the pan itself, but maybe sitting on couple of inverted ramekins) to give a small green house effect to the cake while it is cooling. You do not really want this dome to touch your cake as it will get soggy and mess up your cake.

I was determined to make this cake just like Mine and Figen’s, and was very careful in pouring two colors separetely until I dropped the whole chocolate bowl and made a mess! Thanks God this is one of those “thick” cakes that the shape didn’t change so much. But it is not hard to see how nice theirs look compared to this guy. :)

Some time ago I made the same cake (this time using

Original recipe is from “New Cook Book” of Better Homes and Gardens, the changes I made are described above and will reflect in the ingredients list, too:

Ingredients:
(for 12 – 16 servings)

For crust:

1. 1 3/4 cups finely crushed graham crackers
2. 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
3. 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4. 1/2 cup butter, melted

For cake:

1. 700gr (about 24 oz) strained plain yogurt (unsalted)
2. 1 cup sugar
3. 2 Tsp flour
4. 1 tsp vanilla extract
5. 1/2 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
6. 2 eggs
7. 1/4 cup milk
8. 1 tsp lemon juice
9. 1/4 cup cholocate chips, melted

1. Mix the crust ingredients and press into a 8 – 9 inch spring form pan. Set pan aside
2. For the cake, mix the strained yogurt, sugar, flour, vanilla, lemon peel and lemon juice. Add the eggs at once beating on low speed just till combined. Stir in milk
3. Divide the cake mix into two bowls and mix in the melted chocolate chips into one of them
4. Pour 1/3 cup from the plain mix, and 1/3 cup from the chocolate mix into crust. Repeat this process until the filling finishes. (I used two different cup measures so the mixes do not mix up)
5. Bake in 375F oven for 40 – 45 minutes (for 8 inch pan) and 35 – 40 mins for 9 inch pan or until center appears nearly set when shaken and cool it slowly (my technique is mentioned above)
6. Remove the sides of the pan, cool the cake completely cover and chill at least 4 hrs before serving

Bon Apetit!

The image below is of the same cake, made using creme cheese and given marbled effect.