Yazdi Cake

It is raised with yogurt and three separate raising agents, which is what makes it so open.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk), dairy (yogurt).

Ingredients

• 250 g plain flour
• 200 g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150 g butter, melted, or solid vegetable fat
• 150 g plain yogurt
• 80 ml milk
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sodium citrate, optional
• 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 60 g raisins, optional
• 40 g pistachios, slivered

Method

1. IT IS RAISED WITH YOGURT AND THREE SEPARATE RAISING AGENTS, WHICH IS WHAT MAKES IT SO OPEN. Its article lists the ingredients plainly and the list is the interesting part: egg, sugar, solid oil or butter, white flour, SODIUM CITRATE, SODIUM BICARBONATE, BAKING POWDER, yogurt, milk, cardamom, and raisins and sliced pistachio if wanted. Three chemical raisers plus yogurt in one small cake is unusual and it is deliberate: the yogurt's acid reacts with the bicarbonate immediately, the baking powder gives a second lift in the oven, and the citrate is a buffer that keeps the crumb tender. The result is a very light, very open cake that rises to a domed top and cracks across it.
2. THE SODIUM CITRATE IS IN ITS ARTICLE AND IS OPTIONAL HERE. It is sold as a food acid salt and most kitchens will not have it. Leave it out and the cake is slightly closer-grained; it is not a failure.
3. THE BATTER IS MIXED IN THE ORDER FAT, SUGAR, EGG, THEN THE REST. Melted butter beaten with the sugar, the eggs one at a time, then the yogurt and milk, then the dry ingredients folded in. Overmixing after the flour goes in toughens it and wastes the first reaction.
4. IT GOES INTO THE OVEN IMMEDIATELY. With bicarbonate against yogurt the first lift begins in the bowl. A batter left standing twenty minutes has already spent it.
5. IT IS BAKED IN SMALL CASES, NOT ONE TIN. Paper cases or a muffin tray, filled two-thirds. The open crumb will not support itself in a large cake.
6. 180C FOR TWENTY-TWO MINUTES AND THE DOOR STAYS SHUT. A chemically raised cake this light will drop if the oven is opened in the first fifteen minutes.
7. THE PISTACHIOS GO ON BEFORE BAKING. Slivered, scattered over the raw batter. They sink a little and sit just under the crust.
8. IT IS A CAKE FOR VISITORS AND IT IS EATEN WITH TEA. Its article is specific: it is used at social visits and daily tea rituals, served alongside hot Persian tea when guests arrive. It also appears alongside the long-boiled Yazdi coffee on this site.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Iran · All recipes