Apple Yogurt Cake {Egg Free}

I am not a very big fan of bakes without eggs, so you wouldn’t come acrosss a recipe without eggs very often here. Not that I detest the taste of the cakes or cookies sans eggs, but candidly speaking, I just fear baking them. Fear of if it’ll rise or not, if it’ll get the desired texture which probably an egg based recipe has got. So actually, after baking so many cakes and cookies, I still feel terribly challenged, when it comes to egg-free baking. And I feel terrible too, when I can’t bake something good for my mamma and grandma {it’s very common in India for people to abstain from eggs and meat}.

And as festive season of Durga Puja and Navratras (Nine days of fasting) are around, it is a strict taboo to the eggs and meat in the house. And the quest for an egg free recipe started. It was nothing unusual, until I found this recipe at Deeba’s blog. Her beautiful blog represents the seasoned baker in her and the way she presents her recipes, is highly remarkable. Being a strong advocate of using local produce, she inspires to substitute the hard-found baking ingredients in India with the locally available ones.

I changed the recipe a bit to add some new flavors to it. I had few apples left in my fridge, which I added to the cake. Some cinnamon along with apples gave cake a wonderful flavor of an apple pie. Also, I replaced some amount of flour with almond meal to give the cake a better grainy texture. All that yogurt which went into the cake, made it very moist. It tasted and hold the shape better, the next morning.

At the end, I was extremely satisfied to have bake a cake for my sweeties.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sieved
1/2 cup almond meal
1 apple, peeled, cored and grated
1 cup yogurt
3/4 cup sugar powdered
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon powder {optional}
1/2 cup dried cranberries {optional}

Instructions

1. Soak the cranberries in hot water for 5 minutes, pat dry.
2. Whip yogurt, sugar, vanilla essence and cinnamon powder for 5 minutes.
3. Add baking soda and baking powder, mix well and let stand for 3 minutes.
4. Mix in the olive oil and grated apple.
5. Next, slowly add the flour, almond meal and cranberries together in 4 lots, blending in well after each addition.
6. Pour the batter into an 8 inch springform pan, greased and lined with parchment paper.
7. Bake in a 200 C preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes, until the skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
8. Cool the cake in pan for 30 minutes and then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Wait for at least an hour before slicing the cake.