Serves 8

I’ve always enjoyed reading novels that tell stories of French country living, featuring quirky characters who are quintessentially French. I’ve been intrigued by this slow, sometimes hard, way of life where things are done “just so” and pride is part of every bit of French produce or dish that is prepared. Imagine my delight when I found such a book some fifteen years ago that kept me turning pages not only in pursuit of an entertaining, heartwarming story, but also because wonderful French recipes were shared every few pages along the way!

In her book, “On Rue Tatin”, Susan Loomis brought these recipes to life for me and I was soon trying them out in my kitchen. Among my favourites was this yoghurt cake and I made it a few times before we moved house some years ago. It was during that move that I lost the book.

Clearly just misplaced, it suddenly showed up on a bookshelf last week and I can’t begin to tell you how thrilled I was. Determined to see if it was as good as I remembered, I baked it straight away. I can confirm that it is absolutely delicious and and definitely worth me sharing it with you!

Here’s What Goes In

1 and a half cups of cake flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

3 large eggs

1 cup of sugar

Half a cup of plain full fat yoghurt

Half a cup of butter, melted and cooled

90g of good quality dark chocolate, melted and cooled

Icing sugar, to dust

How To Do It

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and grease and line a round cake tin.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until they are thick and pale yellow in colour. Add the flour and baking powder and combine. Fold in the yoghurt and vanilla essence, before adding the melted butter.

Pour half the batter into the prepared cake tin. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and allow to cool, then fold it into the remaining batter until it is thoroughly combined. Pour this chocolate batter into the plain batter already in the cake tin and use a spatula to create marble swirls.

Pop the cake into the centre of the oven and bake for about 35 minutes or until the top of the cake is slightly mounded and your finger leaves a very slight impression when you touch it. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack and allow to completely cool. Dust the cake with a bit of icing sugar before serving.