Eggless Sponge Cake, with a surprise

Sponge cake is a forever favourite in our house. Yes, its heavenly – the rich , smooth , heavy cake. But I stop myself from baking it ever so often, because of the amount of butter it takes. So imagine my joy when I discovered this recipe by Nags.

Just a cup of yogurt, and half a cup of oil, and this cake is magic. Its moist, tasty and heavy, and yet with a slight crumb. Just how I like my cakes. And yet, so incredibly easy to make.

I decided to take this a step further and make cupcakes out of this with jam in their centre. For novelty’s sake, I used Kitchen’s of India’s Pineapple & Green chilli jam. It added a slightly tangy and sour taste to the cupcakes, thus enhancing the whole experience.

Recipe from – Nags’ Edible Garden

Ingredients [Makes one 8” cake , or 10 medium sized cupcakes]
All-purpose flour / maida - 1.5 C
Plain thick curds / yogurt - 1 C (not too sour, at room temperature)
Sugar - 3/4 C
Baking soda - 1/2 Tsp
Baking powder - 1 1/4 Tsp
Vegetable oil - 1/2 C
Vanilla extract - 1 Tsp
 
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F / 180C.
Prepare the muffin pan by lining up the muffin liners
Beat the yogurt well removing any lumps and add the sugar to it.
Beat well and add the baking powder and baking soda to it.
Beat again and set aside for 5 mins until you see small bubbles on the surface of the mixture.
To this, add the vanilla extract and oil. Mix well until the ingredients are combined.
Sift in the flour in three batches into this mixture.
Gently fold the mixture using a whisk or rubbet spatula (or even a wooden spoon) until you see no more streaks of flour.
Pour into the muffin tin lined with muffin cups. Pour one spoon of the batter followed by one smaller spoonful of jam. Now cover this with another spoon of the batter
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30-35 mins until the top turns a golden brown and a tooth pick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out with dry crumbs.
Cool completely before serving.