Yuzu Marmalade Yogurt Cake

Apologies for the long absence! Was super busy with family matters, and also took a 9-day holiday to Australia recently =D I reckon I'm still going to be very busy with family commitments for the next couple of months, and baking/cooking has unfortunately taken a backseat during this period. Nevertheless, I realised I still have a few blog posts in draft mode collecting dust! Probably it's a good idea to sneak in some free time and finish up the posts :p

Ok, and so this is the final installation of my yuzu recipe exploration since I brought some back from Kyoto in February :) Had made Yuzu Marmalade, Yuzu Curd, Yuzu Tart and finally Yuzu Marmalade Yogurt Cake because I needed to use up my yuzu marmalade before it turned bad! 

I'm not a big fan of dense cakes like butter cakes and prefer lighter ones like chiffon or sponge. But I have attempted Yuzu Chiffon Cake 3 years ago already; I reckon I ought to give butter cake a try, and probably yuzu and butter might make a good combination.

And so after researching on the internet for different types of suitable recipes, I finally concluded with this particular one that combines yuzu marmalade and yogurt. Greek yogurt is a stable in my fridge and I liked the idea of adding it to the batter, hopefully the cake can turn out more moist and tender (I hate dry and dense cakes).

Here are all the ingredients used in this recipe, namely a mixture of all purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, salt, unsalted butter, caster sugar, greek yogurt, yuzu marmalade, eggs, yuzu oil and yuzu zest. The yuzu oil and zest are optional if not available. I bought them in Tokyo.

Actually attempted the recipe 2 times. The first time, there was too much batter for my loaf pan and ended up filling 2 more paper cases. The second attempt, I adjusted the recipe making it just the right amount of batter for the pan.

Yuzu Yogurt Marmalade Cake
(Recipe 1 - makes one loaf and two cupcakes | Recipe 2 - makes one loaf)

Ingredients

• Recipe 1                                    > Recipe 2

• 155g all purpose flour                > 130g all purpose flour
• 35g cake flour                           -
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder        > 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4g salt                                    > 1/2 tsp salt
• 170g unsalted butter                  > 120g unsalted butter
• 150g caster sugar                      > 100g caster sugar
• 3 eggs                                       > 2 eggs
• 150g yuzu marmalade                > 100g yuzu marmalade
• 150g Greek yogurt                    > 100g Greek yogurt
• 2 tsp yuzu zest                           > 1 & 1/4 tsp yuzu zest
• 1/2 tsp yuzu oil                          > 1/3 tsp yuzu oil

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 175C, top bottom heat. Grease and flour a 9" by 5" loaf pan.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
3. Mix yuzu marmalade, greek yogurt, yuzu zest and yuzu oil together. Set aside.
4. In a stand mixer, beat unsalted butter with caster sugar till pale and fluffy, about 4-5 mins.
5. Add eggs, one at a time till just incorporated.
6. Add flour mixture into batter in 3 additions, alternating with yuzu yogurt mixture in 2 additions. Mix till just blended.
7. Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Bake at 175C for 50 mins, until surface of cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre emerges clean.
8. Remove cake pan from oven and let it cool on wire rack for 10 mins. Turn the cake out of the pan and let cool completely before slicing.

** The cake is nice to eat on its own, but for a more luxurious presentation, I mixed about 2 tbsp of greek yogurt and 70g yuzu marmalade, cooked in a heavy sauce pan until slightly thickened and drizzle the sauce over the cake.

I totally loved how the cake turned out! Rich and moist, slightly dense but still tender enough for my palate. Most important, the aroma of the yuzu marmalade was really tantalising! Hmmmm.... yummy yummy yummy! 

Ate both cupcakes, kept a few slices of the loaf for myself and gifted the rest away.

Second attempt, with adjusted recipe to fill one loaf pan.

For this second attempt, the cake turned out a tad too moist though. Or probably I didn't mix the dry and wet ingredients thoroughly, you can see the bottom of the cake a bit too wet.

But still, they were totally delish! Once again, kept a few slices for myself and gifted the remaining loaf to a dear friend.

I think the next time I try recipe 2 again, I may have to reduce the amount of wet ingredients and/or increase dry ingredients. Nonetheless, the recipe is certainly a keeper. Even though I may not have any more homemade yuzu marmalade, I could experiment with Korean Citron Tea next time :)