When my eldest daughter was about one-year-old I read my first ‘mummy’ book called ‘French Children Don’t Throw Food’. An interesting read for a first time mum whose child obviously loved to throw everything from the dinner table.

In all honesty I can’t remember half of the book. But I do remember that I enjoyed learning about the Parisian culture and how French parents introduce their kids to cheese, in all its forms, early. What I remember most are the food-related passages and the fact that many French parents start cooking with their kids when they are very little. In the book there is an easy yoghurt cake recipe, the first cake that French kids make. It is called ‘Le Gâteau Au Yaourt’.

This ‘gâteau’ has become one of my girls’ classic recipes while waiting for daddy to come home from work on Fridays. The original French recipe doesn’t contain fruits but we have modified it by replacing some of the flour with high quality cocoa powder and berries or chocolate chips. The idea is to be creative and have a great time as a family.

Please remember that when you cook with children it is completely normal for things to get messy. To minimise the mess I recommend that you:

1. Measure the ingredients in advance
2. Have the equipment ready
3. Have the cake pan ready

(Although with this recipe kids can easily measure the ingredients – have extra eggs just in case! – being prepared will make things easier.)

The original recipe uses a glass yoghurt pot as a measure. In London it is easy to buy yoghurt in glass pots from Ocado (an online supermarket). I bought them a couple of times and saved them for future use. But in case you don’t have glass pots, I provide their equivalent in grams and ml.

Bon Appétit!

Le Gâteau au Yaourt

Portions: 8-10

Prep Time: 20 minutes  (plus 40 – 50 minutes in the oven)

Ingredients

1/2 pot of sunflower oil (75ml)

1 pot of natural yoghurt (150g or 2/3cup)

2 pots of sugar (230g)

3 pots of self-rising flour (255g)

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Equipment

1 cake pan (25cm x 11.5cm)

1 scissors

1 deep bowl (to avoid extra mess)

1 spatula

1 balloon whisk

1 spoon

1 bowl or plate (for the egg shells)

Spray oil or sunflower oil

Parchment paper

Kitchen towel

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ UK Gas 4.
2. Add spray oil to the pan and put a rectangle of parchment paper on the bottom.

3. Crack the four eggs into the bowl and whisk them.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients in the following order: yoghurt, oil, sugar, flour and vanilla. Whisk after each added ingredient.

5. Transfer the mix into the cake pan with the spatula.

6. Put the cake pan into the oven for around 40-50 minutes or until a cake tester (or sushi stick) comes out clean after inserting it in the middle of the cake.

7. Once ready allow the cake to cool out of the pan (preferably over a cooling rack, you can use a cool rack from the oven too).

8. Be careful removing the cake from the pan as it will be very soft. Pull it away from the four sides using a knife and remove it carefully.

Tip: for its chocolate version replace 1/2 of one pot of flour with a good quality unsweetened cocoa powder. When using berries sprinkle them with flour before adding them to the mix (last step in the recipe). I love to add berries on top of the mix as a final touch (without flour).

I have tried many recipes of this gâteau, including the one from the book above. The posted recipe comes from the blog Croque Maman.