Flours in Yogurt Pot Cake

Asked by smushface. Answered on 17th January 2015

Full question

Why does the recipe for Nigella's Yogurt Pot Cake on the website differ from the Nigellisima episode where it's featured? The Nigellisima episode calls for corn starch, but no flour. Is it the same without flour? I tried to make it but took a chance and substituted cake flour instead of cornstarch and all-purpose flour, but it was way too floury and heavy/dense. I'm going to try to remake it with half the amount of cake flour, but was just wondering about the discrepancy between the printed version and what was demonstrated on the show.

Our answer

Nigella's recipe for Yogurt Pot Cake (from Nigellissima and on the Nigella website) was featured on the TV show Nigellissima. Unfortunately when the series was edited only the addition of the cornflour (cornstarch) was included in the sequence. We are very sorry if this has caused any confusion and the full recipe is available on Nigella's website. Nigella's recipes published on her website and in her books are the definitive versions.

The recipe does include both cornflour (cornstarch) and plain (all-purpose) flour for a light texture as the addition of cornflour reduces the gluten content and gives the cake a more tender texture. Potato starch can also be used instead of cornflour. Although cake flour has a lower gluten content than plain flour, it still has a higher gluten content than the combination of flours in the recipe and this may have contributed to the heavier texture of the cake.