FOOD BLOG: roast the toast: quince yogurt cake

i know we don't talk cake much around here. there's good reason on my end:
my name is tigress and i am a cake monster. don't get me around cake! (or cake around me, as it were)

i'll turn into houdini right before your very eyes. and then, poof, i'll turn you into tweety bird 'cause before you even know it you'll be like, "huh? i tawt i taw a pwetty cake!?"

ahem - or something like that.

but you know, since we've been preserving together over the past year and a half, and i feel somewhat responsible for all those jars taking up real estate on your larder shelves. i look at this as my duty.

i did it for you.

quince yogurt cake
adapted from D.I.Y. delicious by vanessa barrington

1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar (i use raw)
scant 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon rosewater
2/3 cup plain full fat yogurt
3 cups preserved quince in rose syrup, lightly drained and chopped *
1 cup walnut halves
10 inch round springform pan, buttered and floured lightly

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees. once hot, place walnut halves on baking sheet and bake for 5-7 minutes. just until you smell the most delicious aroma upon opening oven door. let cool on tray. keep oven heated for cake.

2. sift flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into a bowl.

3. in another bowl beat together softened butter, all of the raw (or white if you're using) sugar, and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar until well blended.

4. mix in the dry ingredients until almost blended, add the yogurt and stir to combine. add the chopped quince and fold.

5. pour into the springform pan (batter will be somewhat thick) and smooth the top.

6. break the walnut halves into pieces, this is done easily now that they are toasted. mix with the remainder of the brown sugar and sprinkle evenly over top of the cake.

7. bake for approximately 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

8. let cool completely on a rack before removing from the springform.

this is the kind of cake i dream about, the kind that makes me do magic tricks.

however, when you make it, it may actually last. which means if you don't eat it all within two days you can put in the fridge for up to a week, or frozen for a month, wrapped well.

* pawnote - i've used my quince preserves here - and it's divine! but this cake can deftly adapt to any kind of preserved fruit in sryup. got peaches? go for it, and switch out the 3/4 rose water for 1 teaspoon vanilla. pears? do it! and if you don't have fruit in jars, use up those berries or plums that have been hanging out in your freezer since last summer!