This ginger cake turned out pretty well. It's a 'yoghurt pot' recipe; you use a yoghurt pot to measure everything including a pot of yoghurt.
I copied out the recipe (from where?) back when I was newly married, so that must have been around 1978.
I used my old geography book; for some reason we were issued with rather superior red hardback exercise books, and I had plenty of spare pages. So the first dozen pages are notes and diagrams on coastal erosion before it turns into cakes and casseroles.
Anyway, back to the cake. I used plain yoghurt, soft brown sugar, plenty of ground ginger and a generous amount of chopped up crystallised ginger. I baked it in the air fryer (don't tell Paul Hollywood) for 35-40 minutes at 165°C.
It's a good basic mix for all kinds of variations like coffee, lemon, chocolate, fruit...
The second recipe, 'chicken casserole' was the height of sophistication in our student days. Once I was married, during my last year at university, I used to make it for lunch at weekends. Not any more; our tastes have changed!
We had spaghetti at lunch time; I used this gauge
I rediscovered it recently. I measured a woman's and a man's portion, and it was very generous. I should probably do two women's next time... although BB manfully worked his way through the most enormous helping.
Good for him - he needs the fuel. He's spent the past couple of days trying to mend the washing machine in my father's flat. It appears to have been used for making industrial quantities of paper maché, which has caused chaos with its innards. It's looking hopeful, but there's still a couple more hours of testing it and running it to go.
Music
Sing along if you can remember the words...
That yogurt cake looks good but I must say....measuring by the yogurt pot is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI hope that messed up washer is not beyond repair.
I used a teacup for measuring as my yoghurt came from a big tub. We don’t usually measure in cups in the UK; I have to look up the conversion for cup or stick of butter every time.
DeleteWe hoping washing machine is heading for fixed... we shall see....
My problem is that yogurt pots over here are much smaller so the ratio to the eggs would be way off. Any idea how many fluid ounces are in a yogurt cup? I guess I could try looking for one on Tesco’s website.
DeleteI'll measure the capacity of my teacups in ml and then you can convert it to whatever fluid ounces you like... I have a feeling that your fluid ounces are different to ours in the UK?
DeleteNo, the fluid ounces are the same. The US have 8 ounces to a cup instead of 10 as in the UK. The American pint is still 2 cups, but that makes it 16 ounces instead of 20 so the pint and gallon are smaller. In Canada we use the American cup (8 ounces) but the British pint ( 20 ounces - 2 1/2 cups). Very few recipes call for pints so it doesn’t often cause confusion.
DeleteMy teacups holds 4 fluid ounces or 120ml. The eggs were medium. Does that help? It made a fairly floppy mixture.
DeleteThat’s great thank you. I did look on Tesco’s website but the yogurt pots were all sold by weight so that didn’t help. Now I just have to translate the egg sizes. A British medium is 53-63 gm. A Canadian large is 56 gm and an extra large is 63 gm. I usually use the extra large for British recipes and most North American recipes call for large so I buy my eggs according to origin of the recipe.
DeleteIt's a tolerant recipe. If the mix looks too sloppy, add some flour. If it looks stiff, add a bit of milk!
DeleteOh I love Ginger cake!
ReplyDeleteThat man and woman portion thing reminds me of the cookbook I was taught from in school (of which I found a copy at a boot sale once and brought it all the way to America with me lol). It gave all descriptions of meals that men who worked certain jobs should have - desk jobs, physical work lol. It's quite interesting to read and still has some great recipes!
It makes quite a difference; when my husband was made redundant he had to go from being IT director to packing heavy crates in a warehouse and the weight dropped off him. I had to make endless batches of bread pudding for his pack lunch to try and stop him becoming a wraith.
DeleteI always get spaghetti amounts wrong, either way too much or woefully not enough. I need one of those gauge things. I have a similar recipe for yoghurt cake and that was given to me in the late 1970s so it must have been a "thing" then. I always smile when I hear Mozart's horn concerto it sounds so lively. Good luck with the washing machine. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteAt least I've mastered the art of draining spaghetti without it all ending up in the sink - the secret is always use a colander!
DeleteI use 100 gr. pasta per person.
ReplyDeleteUsing a scale is much easier for me, for cooking or baking.
~ skye
Thank you! I can never remember how much per person. Pasta shapes are easier; 2 of my handfuls for me, 3 for him.
DeleteI have a craving for ginger cake now!
ReplyDeleteGo on! Make one!
DeleteI used to use condensed soup for all sorts - undiluted mushroom stirred into cooked chicken being sauteed with onions, mushrooms, peppers if I had them etc and serve with rice, tomato stirred into browned mince and cooked pasta, etc etc etc. Unfortunately it used to have gluten in and I became intolerant and I missed it!
ReplyDeleteI like the look of that cake.
I think I found the condensed soups too salty in the end.
Delete