Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cake

I'm a stickler about proof-reading. The amount of bad writing out there is appalling (but often good for a laugh). Hoping not to contribute to it, I check my blog posts two, three, and even four times to make sure: 1) everything makes sense; 2) there are no egregious typos or misspellings. Even then, I miss one or two things here and there.

While it's important to proof-read (and correct) posts in general, it's especially important to double-check recipes. If one makes a mistake as simple as typing "baking powder" instead of "baking soda," someone attempting to cook with that recipe might be screwed. It's often difficult for a blogger to achieve even a modicum of credibility, so why risk losing it through carelessness?

So what does my mini-rant have to do with chocolate cake? I'm getting to that....

The other day, realizing that I probably wasn't going to eat the entire tub of Greek yogurt I had purchased earlier in the week, I searched the Interwebs for an interesting cake recipe. There were a goodly number of French yogurt cakes with lemon flavoring, but it was a chocolate yogurt cake that caught my eye. I quickly jotted down the ingredients--which included baking powder--made the batter and threw it in the oven. The original recipe said the cake would be thin, and would take 18-20 minutes to bake. After that much time, my cake was still so raw, it hadn't yet spread to fill the pan. I read the recipe over again, this time paying more attention to the method.

The ingredient list said "baking powder." The method said, "baking soda."

A quick e-mail to the blogger gave me the answer I wanted, albeit after my cake was already in the oven: "baking powder." Considering my nicely-risen cake took 35 minutes to cook, I suspect that her answer was still wrong and that she had used baking soda.

The cake turned out fine, although a bit dry, denser and more pound cake-y than the average fluffy chocolate cake. Something that I would categorize as a "snack cake," good with a cold glass of milk. Mr Minx didn't think the cake was sweet enough, so I tinkered with the recipe quite a bit, upping the sugar, decreasing the amount of flour, and changing the method completely. The result was lighter, with a moister crumb, yet still fairly dense, tasting chocolatey with a definite yogurt tang.

Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cake

3 tablespoons butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup plain Greek-style yogurt (I used Dannon)
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a square of parchment in the bottom of an 8" square pan and spray with Pam or other release spray.

In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl or mixer, cream butter and sugar together. One at a time, beat in egg, vanilla, yogurt, and milk. Add flour mixture and combine well. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.