To be honest I did not know what to expect from this cake. Stephen was in Italy and was constantly raving about this gooey, so soft a cake their Swiss chef made for the crew. He described to me all the ingredients that rather made my crew’s eyes roll…. figs, dates, poppy seeds?

But he said I must try to bake it and he guarantees that it’s heavenly.
Every time we chat, the first thing we talk about is food; what have the chef cooked for them or what I have cooked for my crew.

I did meet their chef, Carolina, when I visited him in Viareggio and we ended up talking about Switzerland, and food of course. So as promised I will experiment and post this story as my “Thank You” for the Clan crew who were so lovely and who welcomed me.

The only thing I changed in this recipe is that I did not use fruit based yoghurt. The stewies shopped soya yoghurt so I opted for Greek style yoghurt (not Fage but rather a French brand Danone.. if ever I see Fage here in Valencia I will surely stock up).

So I checked my baking cupboard, found everything that I needed when the captain asked me what kind of cake I was going to make. I said it’s something where you put everything in,blend and bake.. hoho.

He is probably hoping I will do some tart au citron, his favourite…

One crew read the recipe again… and wondered what happens and why 1/3 of the mixture is added last. I guessed that this makes the cake gooey. The recipe does not say the size of the baking tin but from my own estimate 8″ would be perfect. I was almost tempted to make cookies out of the batter but how was I suppose to stir the rest of the batter?

After the cake had settled, I left it in the oven for while before taking it out.
Ah the excitement… we sliced it before it even turned cold.

Verdict: it tasted very Christmassy – the orange chocolate added to it made that flavour stand out.
Crunchy too from the poppy seeds and chocolate bits.
But we all agreed of its sheer deliciousness.
As per Stephen’s instructions: serve it with caramel sauce.

Oh yes I failed to cut down the crew sugar intake…


Ingredients:

1 pot of Yoghurt (any flavour – but mixed berries or fig is nice)
(Use the Yoghurt pot for the following measures)

2 Sugar (Demerara or Brown)
3 Self Raising Flour, or 3 normal flour and add 3 teaspoons baking powder.
1 Fat (Melted butter or Vegetable oil)
1 Orange – Juice and Peel
A little swig of Molasses if available
1 fig (cut into small pieces)
about 8 Dates, again cut into small pieces
(Can add more or different fruits if you like, but add more flour in that case)
1 pack of 70% dark chocolate
Poppy seeds
About 3 eggs (more or less to make creamy batter)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together and put 3/4 of the mixture in a cake tin and place in the oven at 200 degrees. Bake until brown on the outside.

Remove from oven and give it a good stir around, adding the rest of the mixture at the same time.

Finish baking in the oven at around 180 degrees… not for long… just until set.