The inspiration for this cake batter came from Despina Tanner (of Boucla café in Subi fame) who used it to make her wonderful Plum Buttercake. Despina is a fabulous baker, and I will never forget the first time I tasted her delicious cake (our children went to primary school together, and I was always in awe of her amazing baking skills!).
Since then I have adapted this recipe for my own purposes.
When baking it has always been stressed to me that eggs should be at room temperature, so I take them out of the fridge the day before I plan to bake. With the butter I also take it out of the fridge the night before baking if the weather is cool, or an hour before baking if the weather is warm. Having the chill off these items can make a little difference … but if you forget to do this please don’t worry … it is just a suggestion.
I have given both the Thermomix and non-Thermomix method for this cake … each will give a slightly different result due to the method of processing.
I prefer to make the icing the day before I need it and refrigerate overnight … this allows flavours to develop but this it totally optional … it can be used straight away if you wish.
The quantities given with give you a firmer icing, so for a looser icing use more sour cream.
If you wish to make a chocolate buttercream, then add 20g Dutch cocoa with the last 100g of icing sugar, and you will need to add a touch more sour cream … check and adjust to desired consistency as you go … see here for the recipe for my chocolate buttercake using my chocolate cream cheese icing, see here for the cupcake version, see here for the buttercake with fruit version, and see here coconut and lime buttercake version … all of them delicious and easy to make.
It is a large cake, and a great one for birthdays and other family celebrations.
- 250g butter, room temperature
- 150g plain yoghurt
- 200g full cream milk
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- 4 x 59g eggs, room temperature
- 420g golden caster sugar, or plain caster sugar
- 400g self-raising flour
- 40g custard powder
- 120g butter, cold, straight from the fridge, cut into cubes
- 400g icing sugar (you will add this in 4 lots of 100g)
- 2 tsp coconut essence (or vanilla extract for vanilla buttercream)
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes
- 20 to 40g + sour cream (or cream if you don’t have sour cream)
- shredded coconut for decorating (if desired)
- Preheat oven to 170 (fan forced)
- Arrange rack into middle of oven
- Grease and line 24 cm cake tin (base measurement)
- Place butter into TM bowl and mix 40 seconds / 50 degrees / speed 4 (this will loosen up the butter, but not melt it completely which you don’t want to do … if it is completely melted the cake will be heavier)
- Insert butterfly, add yoghurt, milk, vanilla and eggs and mix 10 seconds / speed 3
- Add sugar, flour and custard powder … you will see that the bowl is very full so use a spatula or spoon to stir though some of the batter to bring liquid from the bottom to the top before continuing … replace lid and mix 10 seconds / speed 3
- Lift lid, stir around the top again, and mix 30 seconds / speed 3
- Pour batter into cake tin smoothing the top when you have finished
- TIP: to get all the batter out, remove butterfly scraping off the mix, sit in on the upturned lid, remove as much batter as possible from bowl into cake tin using a flexible spatula, return butterfly to bowl and spin 2 seconds / speed 5 so that the remaining batter on the butterfly will spin off onto the sides of the bowl allowing you to easily remove the last bits
- Bake for 1 hour, or when a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean (it takes exactly an hour and 10 minutes in my oven)
- Cool for 15 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely before icing
- Preheat oven and prepare cake tin as per above instructions
- Place butter into mixing bowl and soften it lightly (easiest to do this in the microwave) but not melt it ... you want it to be really soft but not runny, put aside for a moment
- Place yoghurt, milk, eggs and vanilla in a separate container
- With your hand beater, mix these four ingredients together for a few seconds, then add the egg mix to the butter in the separate bowl and blend again for another few seconds until all the wet ingredients are well incorporated
- Sieve together the sugar, flour and custard powder
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix with the hand beater for at least two minutes … during this time the mix should fluff up quite a lot
- Pour mixture into cake tin and bake as per above
- Place butter to TM bowl and mix 20 seconds / speed 4
- Add first lot of 100g icing sugar and mix 10 seconds / speed 4
- Add second lot of 100g icing sugar and mix 10 seconds / speed 4
- Add third lot of 100g icing sugar and mix 10 seconds / speed 4, scrape bowl
- Add final 100g icing sugar, coconut essence, sea salt flakes and 40g sour cream and mix 10 seconds / speed 4, scrape around bowl and repeat
- Check consistency and if a looser icing is required add another 20g sour cream and mix 10 seconds / speed 4
- Refrigerate overnight to allow flavours to develop (icing can be used straight away but I like to do this - it is an optional step)
- Remove icing from the fridge a couple of hours before you wish to use it and allow to come to room temperature (loosen buttercream in container by stirring with a spoon before spreading)
- Spread over cake and top with coconut shreds
- Allow icing to set for about an hour before cutting
I have given both the Thermomix and non Thermomix method for this cake ... each will give a slightly different result due to the method of processing.
I prefer to make the icing the day before I need it and refrigerate overnight … this allows flavours to develop but this it totally optional … it can be used straight away if you wish.
The quantities given with give you a firmer icing, so for a looser icing use more sour cream.
If you wish to make a chocolate buttercream, then add 20g Dutch cocoa with the last 100g of icing sugar, and you will need to add a touch more sour cream … check and adjust to desired consistency as you go ... see here for the recipe for my chocolate buttercake using my chocolate cream cheese icing.
It is a large cake, and a great one for birthdays and other family celebrations.
Hi Gina, what could I use instead of the ‘custard powder’? Would cornflour work?
Hi Cath … yes, you can use cornflour instead but you will need to add more vanilla to compensate for the loss of flavour in not using the custard powder … the truth is that the original recipe given to me by a Greek girl, whilst I have altered it a little, used custard powder, which is used a lot in Greek cooking for flavour and texture. I have also made the cake with just using cornflour but felt it missed a “little something”, so have reverted back to using custard powder. It is the only recipe I use it in … hope that helps xo Gina
Thanks Gina -this helps a lot 🙂 Have a lovely weekend ♥
You too Cath … looks like it is going to rain … so a good reason to be inside baking! xo
Thanks for the recipe Gina. I made this and cut it into 3 layers, using 2 layers for my sons cake and froze the top layer for my husbands cake a week later. It is a beautiful moist tasty cake and is lovely and firm when decorating. I took the ingredients out on a hot Perth day in the morning and baked the cake at night. I normally would not like to use custard powder, but I used it in this recipe.
Yum, I will definitely make this again.
Tamara … I am so pleased with your comments … I think this is a perfect cake for making into a celebration cake, as it holds itself up well to frosting/icing, and that is usually what happens with celebrations cakes. Like you I never use custard powder, but it is part of the very original recipe I was given my a dear friend who is Greek, and once I realised how many Greek recipes use custard powder in their baking for their “point of difference” I decided to do the same thing. I have made this cake without custard powder and used cornflour instead, but I truly believed it lacked a little “something”. It is hard to explain this to others, so I just appreciate it when people try and are happy with the result … especially if you don’t bake often as you want to be rewarded for any effort taken to bake special cakes for others. Thank you so much for letting me know you were happy with the outcome Tamara … wonderful news xo
I accidentally purchased cream as I thought this recipe used cream, could I use the cream in place of the yogurt? Thanks
Hi Diana … you actually need the acid in the yoghurt to give the right texture for the cake … if you don’t have yoghurt you could use cultured buttermilk or sour cream … if you don’t have either of those and don’t want to go to the shops, then I would try adding 20mls of lemon juice to the cream (add it then let it sit at room temperature for about an hour) to sour it up a little … I haven’t done that before myself but believe it would work … sorry for the late reply as I only saw your comment just now … hope it is not too late xo Gina
Hi Gina, in Australia we don’t have golden caster sugar. Should I substitute with caster sugar or brown sugar? Thanks
Hi Kim … thank you so much for your query … you have reminded me to update this recipe to give another option … I am in Perth and buy my golden caster sugar from a wholesaler as it has become more and more difficult to get (Woolies used to sell it), but I still like to use it if I can. When I don’t have golden caster sugar, then you can use either plain white caster sugar or raw caster sugar if that is your preference … I’ll update the recipe now to indicate plain caster sugar is fine too xo Gina
Thanks Gina. I didn’t realise you were in Australia too. I mean the website is .au but I didn’t pick up on that! LOL I have caster sugar, so will go with that and hope for the best.
I have used this recipe for a few years and used always use the golden caster sugar but lately I’ve been using coconut sugar. It makes it darker but also gives it a lovely flavour, my friends and family always ask what cake it is.
Thanks Diana. I can’t say I’ve heard of coconut sugar either. I’m going to use caster sugar. It should be fine.