A taste of yellow (and honey and yoghurt...)

LIVESTRONG Day 2007 is coming, a day dedicated to unify and help people with cancer. To celeberate LIVESTRONG Day 2007, I have decided to participate in A Taste of Yellow, whereby I baked a cake that had something yellow in it! =) I wanted to go all out and use yellow butter, yellow polenta/semolina, yellow honey...but I reeeaaalllyyy had an insane craving for YOGHURT and so, I baked the following cake...Lemon Banana Yoghurt Cake with Honey Lemon syrup.

The cake itself was yummy, the lemon, banana and honey flavours could definitely be felt and I particularly loved the fact that it had rivers of moist-ness throughout the cake due to the syrup I poured on the cake. The cake baked up nice and high, crusty and golden. You can taste the range of flavours throughout the cake, with the base having a strong banana flavour because of the bananas that I lined the base of the baking tin with and the middle of the cake slightly sour as the syrup had not reached it, and the top sweet and sticky from the honey. It's a good base recipe for a yoghurt cake, you could substitute lemon for orange or maybe add some blueberries or raisins in.

One big fat problem I faced was getting the banana to not stick to the bottom of the pan, so maybe Next time I will either have it lined with greaseproof paper or make sugary syrup for the base so that it will be self-saucing type of cake..maybe.

Lemon banana cake:

1 large banana, sliced not-too-thinly
2 1/2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (I would add more)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 melted butter
zest of two lemons
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
200ml plain low-fat yoghurt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius, butter a 9inch round cake tin
Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon)
Beat eggs and sugar together until thick and foamy
Add in the butter, juice, zest and extracts
Add in half the flour, mix well, followed by half the yoghurt
Add in 1/4 of flour and remaining yoghurt,mix well and finally add in remaining flour
Bake for 45 minutes or until golden (I can't rememeber how long mine took)
Let cool in tin

Honey Lemon syrup:

Mix the juice of 1 lemon, 4 tbsp of honey, 1 tbsp of water together

To finish:
Prick holes in the warm cake and pour in half the syrup, let sit for 10 minutes. Then pour in remaining syrup or if you want your cake to be less sweet, then don't bother with the other half. just half the syrup will do. =)