Blackberry Tahini Yogurt Cake

Introduction:

We had a lot of whole milk yogurt sitting in the fridge past the expiration date, and I decided to make this cake! I’ve been seeing a lot of tahini in desserts lately and frankly I’m not sure I love the trend, but I’m game to try it out a couple times.


Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom or cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons plus 1 cup sugar
• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon, lime, or orange zest
• 2 cups fresh (or frozen, thawed) blackberries
• ¼ cup tahini

RECIPE PREPARATION

• Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly coat a 9"-diameter cake pan with nonstick spray; line bottom with a parchment paper round. Lightly coat parchment with nonstick spray. Mix cardamom and 2 Tbsp. sugar in a small bowl; set aside.
• Whisk flour, baking powder, 1 cup sugar, and ½ tsp. salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center; add eggs, yogurt, oil, and citrus zest and whisk to combine. Switch to a wooden spoon or rubber spatula and gradually work in dry ingredients, mixing until smooth. Fold in berries; scrape batter into prepared pan.

• Mix tahini, a pinch of salt, and remaining 2 Tbsp. sugar in another small bowl. Drizzle evenly over batter; sprinkle reserved cardamom sugar over top.
• Bake cake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 50–60 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool in pan. Invert onto a plate, then turn right side up.
• Do Ahead: Cake can be baked 2 days ahead. Store tightly covered at room temperature.

My notes:
I followed the recipe to the tee. I used ground cardamom, and fresh blackberries. The cake came together very quickly! I placed the cake pan on a cookie sheet and I’m glad I did because there was a very small amount of spillover.

I would not make the cake as is again, but I would totally do one of the “riffs”. I’d either use cinnamon instead of cardomom or do half and half. All cardamom had a slight bitter taste to it that I didn’t like. I’d also try almond butter instead of tahini. The tahini and cardamom combo wasn’t my favorite but I could see almond and cinnamon going together smashingly with the lemon scented cake. This could easily be make with blueberries as well. The cake was springy and soft and took about 53 minutes to bake in the oven. Visually, the cake doesn’t look that amazing— maybe my tahini mix was too thin and it spread funny? I’d consider some turbinado or powdered sugar to make it look better--maybe even a crumb topping, coffee cake style. The cake stayed moist for 3-4 days at room temperature.



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