Chris at Melcotte has announced her annual Cooking To Combat Cancer event. I hope you will join her. Chris has thoughtfully made the closing date April 29th so as not to clash with LiveSTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow, which finishes on April 19th. Isn't she just the sweetest person? Thanks Chris.
When I was diagnosed with cancer I bought all the books, read all the information, listened to all my friends, talked to my oncologist. I drank gallons of freshly juiced carrot juice, beetroot juice, apple juice. I swallowed flaxseed oil by the tablespoonful. I loaded my oatmeal with wheatgerm and bran. I drank the cleanest possible water by investing in an expensive filter.
Then one day I decided I didn't want the rest of my life to be controlled by what and how I ate. If I felt like carrot juice I would have it. I no longer would be juicing carrots and washing that damn juicer every morning. Somedays my grape juice would come in a bottle marked 13.5% alcohol. I had exercised and eaten reasonably healthy all my life. Changing my diet to bran and flaxseed oil would make no difference to my future....and god I hate flaxseed oil.
Now this didn't mean I would go out and eat cakes and sweets with gay abandon. No, that would just be silly wouldn't it? However the occasional cake or piece of chocolate would not hurt me. And cakes can be a little healthy with the right ingredients.
Back in 2001 and thanks to AFS, our beautiful French daughter, 16 year old Diane, entered our lives. She introduced me to Yogurt Cake, where she would use the yogurt jar to measure the ingredients. Together we made lots of yogurt cakes in the 12 months she lived with us.
Now she is all grown up, graduated, and coming to visit us in July. I'm not sure who is more excited, her or me. So I thought now might be a good time to renew my yogurt cake making skills. This recipe is from Clotilde's Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook. It contains two cancer fighting ingredients. Firstly yogurt, and secondly I have added some blueberries to the original recipe.
Gateau au Yaourt
2 eggs
250grams (1 cup) whole milk plain unsweetened yogurt
200g (1 cup) sugar
80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
240 grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon light rum
1/2 cup blueberries
Preheat the oven to 180° C (350° F), line the bottom of a round
25-cm (10-inch) cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides.
In
a large mixing-bowl, gently combine the yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla,
oil, and rum.
In another bowl, sift together the flour and baking
powder. Add the flour mixture into the yogurt mixture, and blend
together until just mixed.
Pour the batter into the prepared
cake pan. Place blueberries on top, they will sink into the batter as it cooks.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown
and a cake tester comes out clean. Let stand for ten minutes, and
transfer onto a rack to cool.
