boozy sultana yoghurt cake

When it's your turn on the office-morning-tea roster, here is the cake for you:

Patterned cloth from Frangipani Fabrics

This cake uses three of my favourite ingredients in the kitchen, either to eat or bake with: sultanas (I load my breakfast oats up with them), almond meal, and greek yoghurt (or natural yoghurt. I haven't entirely worked out the difference between the two).

Actually, let's make that four: because this cake is a splendid spin on the tradition sultana cake. How? By soaking the sultanas in old-lady sherry, for as long as possible, until the fruit is as plump as drops of amber. The yoghurt adds a delicious zing to the cake batter, but the sherry imparts a Christmas-like glow all round.

So put your turn on the office roster in your Outlook, with a two week reminder, and start soaking now. You - and your co-workers - won't be disappointed.

Boozy sultana yoghurt cake
On my scrawled out recipe, many years old, I have attributed this to 'In the Kitchen', but I can't find this book on my local library's database or by googling. by Allan Campion and Michelle Curtis.
The recipe specified soaking the sultanas overnight, but I think this is insufficient; if you can go for a week or two, you will be amply rewarded. Why not keep a stash of sultanas-in-sherry in your fridge all the time, just in case?
Finally, I used a ring tin, but have also made individual cupcakes, and the recipe specified a 22 cm tin (I assume round). So use whatever tin you wish, but adjust the cooking time accordingly.

• Soak 1 cup of sultanas in enough sherry to just cover the fruit (I use a 'medium' sherry). You may want to top this up, especially if you are soaking for a long time. Cover and pop in the fridge to get nicely inebriated; at least overnight or as noted above, for a couple of weeks.
• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 180 and prep your desired baking tin.
• Cream 125gms soft butter with 1 cup sugar.
• Add 2 eggs.
• Now fold in 1 1/4 cups almond meal, 1 1/2 cups SR flour, and 1 cup greek or natural yoghurt. You should get a nice creamy mix (be sure to lick the bowl!).
• Now drain your tipsy sultanas, reserving any leftover liquor (drink as a little cook's reward, or pour over a piece of plain cake, or use to start your next batch of boozy sultanas).
• Fold the sultanas thru your cake batter. Dollop into your tin, then bake. As a guide, this ring tin version took about 45 minutes; I'd noted the cupcakes as 30 minutes; and the original recipe specified 35 minutes. The top will look gently brown, the sides will pull away and a skewer will come out clean.
• Try just one piece - quality control, of course - then be strong and pop the cake in a container to take to the office morning tea.