Ingredients

Method

• 3 extra-large free-range eggs
• 200 g caster sugar
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 300 g self-raising flour, sifted
• 300 g full-cream plain yoghurt
• ½ cup sunflower oil
• pink peppercorns, to decorate (optional)
For the strawberry-and-cream frosting:
• 6 strawberries, trimmed and halved
• 1 T caster sugar
• ¼ cup cream
• 125 g butter, softened
• 280 g icing sugar, sifted

Method

Ingredients

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Beat together the eggs and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the lemon juice, then fold in the flour, yoghurt and oil. Mix well.
3. Spoon the mixture into 2 x 20 cm well-greased cake tins and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool and remove from the pans.
4. To make the frosting, sprinkle the strawberries with the caster sugar and chill for 30 minutes while the cakes are baking and cooling.
5. Purée the berries with the cream. Beat the butter and icing sugar until very creamy and add the berry mixture. Spread the icing onto one cake and sandwich the two layers together. Cover the entire cake with the remaining frosting and decorate with pink peppercorns if you like.

Cook's note: My nana was an excellent baker. We’d often bake together using just a wooden spoon and a Mason mixing bowl, which I still have today and use to serve my salads. Baking was a weekly ritual; sometimes even twice a week. My nan would leave the butter out in the sun to soften and we’d sit together on her swing chair next to the pool and take turns creaming the butter and sugar. (I once sat on the canvas deckchair and beat so hard that the canvas tore and I fell onto the grass. But I saved the bowl!)

My inspiration for this cake is the incredible sponge cakes she made. I often make this one using the scraps of leftover yoghurt the kids leave in the fridge. It’s a bit denser than her featherlight cakes, and the frosting is inspired by her favourite dessert – strawberries and cream. She used to sprinkle strawberries with caster sugar and leave them in the fridge to release their vibrant red juice. I loved the way the cream would marble in the juice when you dished them up, such lovely memories!” – Abigail Donnelly

Like what you see? Subscribe to our YouTube channel here.