Must Love Strawberries: A Strawberry Yogurt Cake

I loved the look of this cake when I pinned it over four months ago. 


Shortly there after, I also made it and am just now getting around to posting my results. 

I must admit that this cake is very moist! It is made with Greek yogurt and is flavored, and I mean FLAVORED with fresh strawberries. When you open the oven door to take the cake out, the strawberry aroma smacks you right in the face (nostrils)!  It is guaranteed to make your taste buds sing in anticipation of that first bite!

  
To make the Strawberry Yogurt Cake,
you will need:      

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tb. lemon juice, divided
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 8 oz. plain or vanilla, Greek yogurt
• 12 oz. fresh strawberries, diced
• 1 cup powdered sugar                               

 The recipe is easy to follow:

Preheat oven to 325*.Grease and flour a 10 inch bundt pan. Sift together the 2 1/4 cups of flour, baking soda and salt.  Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.
With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1tb. lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until blended.
Toss the strawberries with the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.

 *The consistency of the yogurt and the juiciness of the berries, greatly determined the consistency of the batter. Thick, (dryer) yogurt will produce a thicker batter, in which the berries won’t sink to the bottom (top) of the cake. Either way, it is a great cake.

 Pour the batter into a bundt pan.  Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

*You will have to watch the baking time when making this cake. After one hour, I couldn't get a clean toothpick so I extended the time by ten minutes before finally removing it from the oven.

 Allow to cool at least 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

*Since two cups of sugar was used in this recipe, it is sweet enough so I did not make the glaze.  And, it definitely wasn't needed! 

I would also use firm, just ripe, berries. I've made this cake twice and I noticed fully ripe strawberries bled into the batter and added additional moisture to the cake. 

This super moist cake is the perfect way to enjoy your LOVE OF STRAWBERRIES! "It’s thick, soft, and packed full of fresh strawberries with each and every slice. The yogurt and lemon create a wonderful tangy balance to it’s sweetness. It is wonderfully delicious on it’s own–but is also marvelous with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream!"

Enjoy!                                                                        










   

Autumn Decor

I'm working on my autumn decor.  I'm busy gathering seasonal items out of storage and making this and that to put together a fall vignette.  This will be my first fall decorating project in our new home. And I am really excited about that!

I've bought decorative fillers to place in vases to get that extra punch, as I'm sure many of you have too.  But, did you know that there are holes in a lot of the larger acrylic ones? I had never noticed until I was cleaning some recently and discovered the holes.  I felt real stupid for some reason.  Could it be that now I can use the fillers for something other than "filling,"  like what you might do with beads?  Why is it I feel like I'm the last of the crafters to realize these things? Now when I'm in a craft store looking at the lovely fillers or accents that are on display, I'm checking to see if there are holes in them too. Would you believe I even found fillers with holes at the dollar store?  And what a buy that was! 

With decorative fillers and wire, I am able to make an array of autumn colors into a large cluster of grapes. or whatever else the imagination can come up with.

  I string all of the filler beads onto floral wire that has not been cut from the bundle.

I separate one bead at a time and twist the wire.  With each successive bead, I pull it and the wire below the previous twisted bead (as in a grape cluster) and then twist the entire length of wire that will form the stem and cluster.

         

 Once all the beads are twisted in place below the previous bead, you can cut the wire.

 The stem automatically forms as you are pulling down the bead and twisting the wire.

 Now, I'm ready to place the grape cluster with the rest of my other fall items .

The only problem I have is that I can't decide how I want to display everything and where I want to put them  .   .   

Hmm .  .  .   oh well, it still feels like summer outside, so I think I have time to decide.   Tune in later to see!

Enjoy!