I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

greek yogurt

Mango Yogurt Cake

Mango Yogurt Cake

Every 4-6 weeks, I get on crazy food shopping trips where it takes me 2 hours since I bring all our coupons and go up and down each aisle looking for the best deals. We supplement our fridge and pantry between marathon shopping trips with weekly trips to Haymarket to get produce for us and the rabbits and occasional trips for eggs, milk, and bread. I like this system since I get the best deal and have a well-stocked pantry allowing me to make almost anything at any point. Only trick is to remember to defrost the meat before going work- which I’m awful at remembering… le sigh.

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During one of my recent stock-ups I got a crazy amount of yogurt. My eyes were bigger than our stomachs situation. I knew we would go a bit bonkers just eating yogurt for B, L, D so I began to look around for some recipes to creatively use up all that cultured goodness. Well, since I know that plain Greek yogurt can be a great substitute for sour cream I decided to focus on using up some of the fruit flavored yogurts first. I grabbed a mango yogurt and dove on into the internets to find a recipe. While I enjoy Mango Lassi I quickly ruled that off as an option since I wanted to bake. My persistence paid off and I found a recipe for a Low Fat Mango Yogurt Cake.

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I used the recipe for the Mango Yogurt Cake as a jumping off point as the recipe called for yogurt and mango puree so I did some adjustments and used the fruit flavored yogurt instead of the 2 separate ingredients. Our house filled with such a lovely smell while it was baking. The resulting cake was light, sweet, and very fragrant.

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It is so cold now that this would be a nice cake to make. It will warm up your house and the tropical smells will take you away, far away. Maybe your imagination will take you the beach so you can work on your imaginary tan. Wouldn’t it be fun to imagine a sunny, hot beach with turquoise waters while you enjoy a slice of this cake?

Mango Yogurt Cake

Serves 10-12

Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  •  Zest of 1 small lemon
  • 1” fresh ginger, grated
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 cup Mango Greek Yogurt, such as Chobani
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt pan and place on a baking sheet.
  2. In a medium sized bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  3. Mix together the zest and freshly grated ginger with sugar until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
  4. Beat the egg whites and vanilla extract separately until frothy with small peaks.
  5. Cream the butter, oil and sugar in a large bowl. Then gently mix the egg whites into the creamed butter mixture. In this mixture, slowly fold the yogurt and flour mixture in 3 batches each.
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 50-60 minutes until the top is golden brown and the tester comes out clean.

Black Cherry Yogurt Brownies

Black Cherry Yogurt Brownies are fudgy brownies that use black cherry Greek yogurt in the batter. The Greek yogurt gives it a nice subtle tang with a hint of cherry.

Fudgy black cherry yogurt brownies

Do you know that you can in fact perform magic acts? Yep, once you make a batch of brownies you’ll have the magical ability to make everyone come running, and make those brownies disappear. These Black Cherry Yogurt Brownies are going to disappear in a flash. *Poof!* And they are gone!

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Strawberry Almond Stuffed French Toast

One of my favorite things is when I discover a new to me blog and I did that recently when I came across Alice’s Savory Sweet Life. Once I stumbled over there I was hooked. I spent a solid hour flipping around the recipes. And then I bought her cookbook. I could not wait to try something so I picked something that jumped out to me which was Alice’s  Strawberry Almond Stuffed French Toast. How could I pass that up?!?!

 

 

It is no secret that I prefer a savory breakfast/brunch more than a sweet one. But… when I have something sweet I go all out. Syrup is my downfall at breakfast. I love it all over pancakes, french toast, and oatmeal so it is no surprise that when I saw this recipe I just knew I would have to make it. It reminded me of a stuffed french toast I had at Stephanie’s  On Newbury when I first moved up to Boston. Nice reminder what a great brunch I had years and years ago when the city was so new to me.

 

 

I made some changes to the original recipe based upon what I had on hand and my on preferences. I swapped out the sour cream for greek yogurt, upped the amount of almond extract, and used a mixture of egg whites and whole eggs instead of using just whole eggs. Also, I mixed the strawberries right into the cream so it would be a consistent flavor and texture throughout the piece of french toast.

This stuffed French toast is so amazing. It is soft, fluffy, sweet, and so delightful. It is very easy to prepare and will satisfy everyone! Now don’t fret if you don’t have a crowd to serve if you are craving it. I individulally wrapped slices of cooked french toast and then froze them. Since then, I have brought slices out to enjoy at a later day and I have just had to let them thaw and have them warmed them in a skillet or toaster oven. yum!!

 

 

Strawberry Almond Stuffed French Toast

*Serves 6-8*

Ingredients

  • 6 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 6 oz greek yogurt
  • 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 tablespoon almond extract
  • 8 oz chopped strawberries
  • 2 eggs, 3 egg whites
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 loaf Italian Bread
  • Garnish – 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar and 1/3 cup slivered almonds

Process

  1. Using an electric hand or stand mixer, combine the cream cheese, yogurt, confectioner’s sugar, and almond extract until light and creamy. Fold the strawberries into the mixture. Transfer the cream mixture to a bowl or to a large piping bag.
  2. In a shallow bowl, like a casserole dish, beat the eggs, milk and almond extract together.
  3. Slice the bread into 1″ thick slices. Lay each piece down on a cutting board. While holding each piece down, create a pocket in the slices of bread by almost cutting it in half. (Placing your hand on top of the piece of bread will help keep the bread in place and help you monitor creating a pocket.)
  4. Spoon or pipe out 2 generous tablespoons of the filling inside the pocket of each slice. Gently close each slice of bread to help the filling stay inside.
  5. Over  medium high heat, heat a non-stick skillet to prepare it for the french toast. Immediately prior to putting pieces on the skillet, spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray or put a pat of butter on it.
  6. Once the pan is heated up, dip slices of bread in the egg mixture to coat both sides. Cook each side of the stuffed french toast is golden brown. Repeat this process until all slices are cooked.
  7. To garnish the dish, dust with confectioner’s sugar and slivered almonds or spoon any left over strawberries cream mixture on top of each slice. Serve with maple syrup, if desired.