Lime Yoghurt Cake with Raspberry Sauce

In an ideal world, I’d have cake in the house all the time. When I don’t have cake in the house, I’m always tempted to go and buy some, even though I know it won’t be great, or usually even good at all. This yoghurt cake is a cake I wouldn’t feel guilty about eating quite a lot of, and it’s a much better option than my very-desperate-for-cake fallback, the 5 minute microwave cake in a mug (it does the job, but gourmet it ain’t). I think this cake is adaptable enough that as long as I have some plain yoghurt around, I’d always be able to make some version of it. So I think this will be a new heavy rotation recipe.

I won’t retype the recipe here, because it’s beautifully explained already on Smitten Kitchen of course: Lime Yoghurt Cake with Blackberry Sauce.

I didn’t have any blackberries, but I did have frozen raspberries, so I used those. And I had bottled lime juice, so I omitted the zest and didn’t suffer a bit for it. I also used full fat Greek yoghurt, which may have given it a bit of extra tang. I loved it.

The greatest thing about this cake, I think, is that it’s an all-day sort of cake. It’s not at all too sweet to eat for breakfast. In fact, there’s probably less sugar in one slice than you’d normally find in a lot of cereals out there. And it’s so light and moist and spongey. It goes well with tea. And I did indeed have it for breakfast on at least one occasion.

I also really like SK’s idea of the everyday cake, and this is certainly a good example. Fast and super simple to make, but impressive and tasty enough to serve at a party or bring to someone’s house. I think next time I’ll try making it with rum or even hazelnut liqueur instead of the lime juice and topping it with a light drizzle of chocolate. I’d also like to try an orange flavoured version with some other kind of topping.

In any case, Smitten Kitchen wins again!

Next up on the baking agenda is something to carry the elephant-shaped sprinkles I got from Sainsbury’s a few weeks ago. Probably some kind of basic-type yellow cupcake jazzed up with a flavouring and tasty chocolate frosting. Mmmm. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting. The classics never get old.

We ate some before we went out for dinner, which may have been a bad plan, because dinner involved quite a bit of food. I didn’t know where we were going til we got there because I wanted a surprise, so all day I was wondering what kind of tasty stuff I was in for. We went to The Outsider on George IV Bridge.

According to reviews on The List, More than a few people have not been impressed with the service, but we had absolutely no problem. They had a weird policy of having to take outdoor coats to the coat room, but aside from that, our waitress was lovely and the rest of the staff I encountered were quite normal. But lets get to the important stuff.

They clunked a plate of bread and dipping oil down in front of us before we even had menus, which bodes well with me, especially in this country where you rarely ever get bread for free. I ordered a bottle of Australian shiraz, don’t remember what kind it was now but it was excellent.

The Outsider doesn’t do traditional starters. Instead they have various plates of skewers (or ‘Chunky Healthy Lines’). We got the monkfish with bacon, roasted tomato, and salsa, which also came with salad and a carroty-raisiny coleslaw type concoction in a pita. There were two enormous hunks of monkfish on my skewer and, because of the cake I’d already eaten, I was worried about getting through my main course. The fish was cooked perfectly, and I got extra tomatoes because Scott is not a fan.

For the main course, I ordered venison in juniper berries with barley and steamed greens. Scott got half a rabbit with prune and calvados sauce and parsnips. We also ordered a side dish of sweet potatoes in cumin-y spices and pumpkin seed to share, which was absolutely unnecessary given the size of the main dishes, but I ate some anyway because they were lovely.

My venison was perfect. The light in the place was too low for me to tell for sure, but I’m fairly sure it was nearly rare, because it melted in my mouth. I ate all the greens, per usual, and I would have eaten all the barley had I not been stuffed to capacity. Scott’s rabbit was a bit dry and the sauce was a little overwhelming for him. I tasted it. Not awful, but not the best rabbit I’ve ever tasted. Then again, I’ve only ever had it in a stew-type pie thing, so who knows what it’s meant to be like? Anyway, I definitely picked the better dish this time. Usually it’s the other way around. There was a pork belly confit on the menu that we both wished we could have tasted as well.

We had absolutely no room for dessert, so instead we went to the Bow Bar on Victoria Street for some whisky. They’ve got 145 malts! First I had a 16 year-old double matured Lagavulin, which was about £6. Nice, warm and rich. Scott had some Blair Athol whichw as a bit lighter. I’m no good at tasting notes when it comes to this stuff, but I know what I like, and what I like tends to be Islay malts. Peaty, strong and delicious. A lot of people can’t handle the stuff. That’s not meant as a boast, I’m just saying, for reference, that I like things that other people tend to think they could run their car on.

We had a pint each after that as we sat there staring at the wall of whisky, and Scott said ‘why didn’t you get a 25 year-old whisky for your 25th birthday’? We eyed a 25 year-old Laphroaig on the top shelf and decided to share it, because what the hell? It was £18, but worth it. I know grown men who have issues with Laphroaig 10 year because it’s like drinking smokey, alcoholic peat (so naturally, I love it), but this was really mellow. That extra 15 years really takes the edge off.

All in all, an awesome way to turn 25. And on top of it, Scott got me some nice balsamic vinegar, a salami flavored with white truffle, and some epic argyle knee socks. (I am a fan of long, crazy socks. Especially in the winter.)