Blackberry and Lime Yoghurt Cake

Generally when I decide to make something, I usually have chosen the key ingredient before I find a recipe or method for it.  For instance, if I were to spot a ripe, fragrant peach in the height of summer, my mind would begin to tick, cogs would start to turn and before I know it, I'd be buried up to my chin in recipe books. This time, however, the recipe came to me first.

The recipe was for a cake in the February issue of the Sydney Morning Herald's 'Sydney Magazine' by John Wilson who had adapted it from a Stephanie Alexander recipe.  I swear that the picture of this puckered and fruit laden cake actually winked at me and whispered in a soft and dreamy voice: "Aren't I pretty? Wouldn't you just love to bake me? Go on, you know you want to…"

The other beautiful thing about this recipe was the topping: eggs, sugar, cinnamon and butter drizzled all over the top. I was dying to see what that would be like.

So I ripped the recipe out and stashed it in my wallet until I found the perfect fruit to use with it - the recipe called for raspberries and nectarines but I was feeling creative.
I am a big fan of fruit-based desserts, especially ones that require you to bake it in some kind of cake batter. I love it that the fruit turns soft, sweet and transforms into something really special. 
I found my perfect key ingredient in the form of a big tub of blackberries. I have wanted to make something with blackberries for some time now and have been waiting for them to come into season. After buying them, I stashed them in the freezer until I was ready to get baking.

Then I ruined the cake.
I used the wrong sized tin, it was awful. I baked it for half an hour longer than I was meant to just to try and save it. Then it became burnt on the outside and still liquid in the middle. I would have taken a photo (because who doesn't love to see a disaster such as this) but I binned it before I could look at it any further.

I still had blackberries and cake on my mind so I went and got a couple more punnets; they didn't look as nice as the others but (eh,what can you do) they tasted lovely.
So once again, the ingredient was going to guide me to the recipe. And guide me it did, right to a recipe that I had bookmarked forever ago from Smitten Kitchen. This was a cake that wouldn't give me grief, a cake that contained yoghurt and limes, a cake that only required one bowl and contained only 2 eggs. This was a happy cake. 

Deb's (from Smitten Kitchen) recipe had used blackberries in the form of a beautiful sauce that she draped over the cake, but I was way over doing any extra work at this stage. So instead I just dropped my blackberries into the batter so that I could see that some would submerge below the surface whilst some would stay on top to create a most excellent effect. 

Yes, this cake turned out very well, no worries.

Blackberry and Lime Yoghurt Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
1 cup of plain, unsweetened yoghurt
1/3 cup of vegetable oil, I used rice bran oil
1 cup sugar
Zest from 2 limes
1/4 cup of lime juice
2 punnets of blackberries
2 eggs
1 2/3 cup of plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 22cm cake tin. I used a spring-form tin so did not need to line it but if you don't have one of these, line the base with baking paper.
2. Add the yoghurt, sugar, lime juice, oil and zest from one of the limes to a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine
3. Add the eggs 1 at a time, whisking the first one in before adding the second one.
4. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt directly into your wet ingredients, stir until just combined. Don't over stir.
5. Pour the batter into the cake tin and scatter the blackberries over the top, some will sink down.
6. Bake in the oven for 35 to 45 minutes depending on your oven or until a skewer comes out clean.
7. Cool the cake on a wire rack, then grate the zest from the remaining lime evenly over the top of the cake.
8. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar.