Chocolate Strawberry Yogurt Cake

This is only for 2 mini cakes , one for mama and one for papa. Must serve one to papa, if not he will be jealous. But make the one for mama extra special, maybe with extra strawberries. There is no cream here, so it is perfect for senior citizens who are careful about what they eat and this is definately not cloying but very light. :)

I made created this for someone I knew, who totally not well versed in cookery terms and rarely goes in the kitchen. For this year's Mother's Day, she wanted to make something for her mom, and tried out my Castella cake. Gosh, of all the cakes she wanted to do, she did a castella. Well, it didn't quite work out. With her determination and filial piety to make this day a special day, I decided to help her out a bit by making this cake for her reference. This is actually very easy but definitely will be long winded with the instructions, need to give very very proper elaboration, like what the Chinese say, "draw a picture that even shows the intestines". Please bear with me :)

To make the disposable cake ring and cake cutter
(You can skip this and use a pretty short glass to do this. Just use the glass as your cake cutter and the glass to serve the cake in it)

Stuff that you need:
8X30cm manila card, 2 pieces
Some plastic wrap or just cut from a plastic bag, bigger than the manila card 1inch on all sides
Or you can just use those plastic sheets used as binding covers and skip the manila card
Some cellophane tape
1 empty drink can
Marker pen
Blade Cutter or scissors

1. Wrap manila card strip with plastic wrap, secure with cellophane tape. (skip this step if using those plastic sheets)
2. Wrap manila card around empty drink can. Mark the spot where the card ends. This is the first mark. Make another mark 2-3mm after that first mark. This is your second mark. Remove from can, while retaining the curl. Move the end of the card to the second mark and secure it with cellophane tape. Cake ring is ready.
3. Place pen or pencil on a book about 1 inch thick.
4. Place can next to pen/pencil and turn the can (make sure base touches the table at all time), so that the pencil can make a line around the can.
5. Make an incision into the line using blade cutter. Cut along the line, make sure the line is on the shorter side, so that when you’re done cutting, the line is no longer there. Trim with sciccors.
6. There, you cake cutter is ready.

Making Temporary Cake ring

Making Temporary Cake cutter

Cake and fillingChocolate cake, any chocolate cake you enjoy eating, you only need four pieces of 1cm thick cake., Silverbird or any other dark moist chocolate cake will be fine.
140ml strawberry yogurt (single portion cup), I recommend Dutch Lady. Taken out from fridge 20 minutes before use, if this is too cold it will not give you a good smooth mixture with the gelatin later.
1 level tsp gelatin (measuring teaspoon)
2 Tbsp water (2X15ml), please use measuring tablespoon
1 level tsp sugar, or more
Some strawberries for decoration

1. Put 2 Tbsp of water into a ceramic rice bowl or any heatproof bowl, stainless steel also can.
2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Let it sit for 2 minutes.
3. Heat a pan of water, the water should be about 1 inch in height, bring to a simmer. On low heat, place bowl of gelatin into pan and heat the gelatin mixture until the gelatin melts. You will no longer see any grains of gelatin. Remove bowl from pan. Lightly stir it with a teaspoon so that the melted gelatin will be evenly dispersed in the liquid. If you need sugar, put it in now and gently stir.
4. Let gelatin mixture cool down, you should no longer feel that the bowl is warm.
5. While waiting for the gelatin to cool down, cut your cake with the drink can. Cut 4 circles of cake
6. Place cake rings onto a plate lined with baking paper or plastic wrap. Put one piece of cake into each cake ring. The cake should not feel loose in the ring. It should be nice and snug. Now back to the filling…..
7. Stir the yogurt to even it out. For right handers, with yogurt on your left hand and a spoon on your right, pour the yogurt into the gelatin mixture (Do not scrap the yogurt cup, have to be fast here) and quickly mix it. After you have mixed it, only then you scrap the yogurt cup clean into the gelatin bowl and mix again.
8. Pour 2 heaped teaspoon of yogurt onto each cake in ring. Place the 2nd piece of cake over yogurt in ring.
9. Pour the balance of yogurt into cake ring. Level the surface.
10. Place plate of cake into the freezer for 30 minutes (not more than this) or chill for a minimum of 2-3 hours. Overnight will be even better.
11. Transfer cake to serving plate.
12. Use a sharp blade cutter, cut the sticky tape to release cake ring.
13. Top with a chocolate coated strawberry, or a plain one, up to you.

Melting gelatin

Cutting Cake

Preparing the filling

Cake Assembly

Final touches, before serving

To make chocolate coated strawberry
Some cooking chocolate or some eating bittersweet chocolate will be fine
Cold strawberries

In a rice bowl, pour some boiling water, halfway up. Place another slightly bigger bowl (with chocolate in it) over the bowl with hot water. Let it sit for 1 minute. Then stir with a spoon to make sure the chocolate has melted. Dip strawberry into chocolate and let the chocolate harden.

And this final picture, the yogurt is actually frozen in heart shaped moulds, instead of made into jelly