184 – Meskouta – Moroccan Yogurt Cake Recipe

Ingredients :

• 3 eggs (separated into egg yolks and egg whites)
• 1 cup (4 oz / 114 grams) of yogurt strawberry flavor (or any flavor of your choice)
• Use the yogurt cup to measure the following
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)
• A pinch of salt

Directions :

Step 1:
1- First, pour 1 ½ cups of sugar over 3 egg yolks. Remember to use the yogurt cup for all the measurements in this recipe. Using an egg beater, beat the egg yolks and sugar until you get a creamy whitish mixture.
2- Add ½ cup of vegetable oil and mix in using a spatula.
3- Once the oil is completely incorporated, add the yogurt and continue mixing gently using a rotational movement , moving the spatula from bottom to up.
4- Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, you can also use almond extract or another flavor of your choice.
5- Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder and continue mixing.
6- To spice things up a bit, I am adding 1 teaspoon of ground ginger to the batter. You can either omit it, or replace it with another spice like ground cinnamon or cardamom.
7- Now we are going to add the flour. We will need 2 ½ cups of flour, sift the flour and add to the batter little by little. Mix in some of the flour and when it’s completely incorporated, add a little more until done.

Step 2:
1- In a separate bowl, beat 3 egg whites with a pinch of salt using an egg beater. Make sure that the egg whites have no traces of egg yolks when you separate the eggs, and that the egg beater heads are clean and dry – otherwise, the egg whites wont fluff. Beat the egg whites for about 5 minutes until they get firm with white peaks.
2- The last step is to incorporate the egg whites to the batter. Add the egg whites little by little to the batter, mix gently in a rotational movement with a spatula, and when that portion of the egg white is completely incorporated then add a little more until done. The final batter should be creamy and smooth!

Step 3:
1- Here, I am using an 8” baking pan. First butter the pan, then cover it with parchment paper. The reason I butter the pan is for the parchment paper to stick. Add the batter to the pan, and shake the pan to even out the batter. You can cut excess parchment paper on the edges with scissors.
2- Preheat your oven to 360 F degrees which is 180 C degrees.
3- Bake the cake for around 50 minutes. You know that your cake is ready by pressing gently on the surface, it should feel firm.
4- Remove the cake from the pan – and now you see why I love parchment paper, all I have to do is pull it out. Remove the parchment paper from the cake and let the cake rest until it reaches room temperature.
5- Here, let me cut a slice for you… another slice… look at this cake, spongy, but not too spongy, holding itself together, which is perfect if you want to top it with jam, a heavenly texture that brings all my childhood memories in a bite… speaking about a bite, I am taking this one…. Oh yum, let me take another one… bonne appétit!