Yoghurt cake with strawberries

The cake can be lightly dusted with icing sugar, drizzled with honey or, in this instance, served with warm, quickly poached strawberries.

Ingredients

• 280 g natural yoghurt
• 3 eggs
• 125 ml (½ cup) olive oil, plus extra for greasing
• 220 g (1 cup) caster sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
• 300 g (2 cups) self-raising flour, sifted
• ½ tsp fine salt

Strawberries

• 250 g strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 5 ml rum
• 50 ml water

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 23 cm-diameter springform cake tin with baking paper.

In a mixing bowl, combine the yoghurt, eggs, oil and sugar, whisking together until a smooth consistency.

Fold in the vanilla seeds, flour and salt, making sure that there are no lumps.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes – 1 hour; if the top starts to brown before the cake is cooked, place a piece of foil over the tin. The cake is cooked when a skewer is inserted and comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, prepare the strawberries. Place all the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar and cook until the strawberries have softened slightly. Set aside and keep warm.

To serve, cut the cake into slices and spoon over the warm strawberries.

Photography by Benito Martin. Styling by Lynsey Fryers. Food preparation by Nick Banbury. Creative concept by Belinda So.

Paul West is the host of River Cottage Australia, on SBS and on SBS On Demand. For more recipes from Paul, click here.

The cake can be lightly dusted with icing sugar, drizzled with honey or, in this instance, served with warm, quickly poached strawberries.