Yogurt Pot Cake

Asked by Connoiseur. Answered on 6th July 2013

Full question

Hi! I saw Nigella making the Yogurt Pot Cake on the Nigellissima show and it looked very easy. My query is do you use all purpose flour besides cornflour in the cake? Regards Connoisuer

Our answer

Nigella's Yogurt Pot Cake, or ciambella, is very easy to make as it is just stirred together, there is no creaming of butter and sugar and eggs. The full recipe can be found on p.185 of the book Nigellissima and it does contain both cornflour (cornstarch) or potato flour plus plain flour (all-purpose flour).

You need 2 yogurt potfuls of plain flour in the recipe and it is added after the vanilla extract has been added to the egg yolk, sugar and yogurt mixture. Please note that it must be plain flour as the leavening in the cake comes from the whiske egg whites and not from any chemical leavening. If you use self-raising flour then the cake will rise up too much when it bakes and then collapse as it cools.