The Great Indian Bride Hunt – with a Side of Sponge Cake.

No don’t get me wrong. A sponge cake has almost nothing to do with a bride hunt of any kind whatsoever. Although I must add that it does have a HUGE role in keeping my senses intact and energy levels up and running while I’m participating in this bride hunting circus quite actively.

So the bride in question is my brother’s significant other – and I’m assigned a rather huge responsibility to sniff that right match out from a bevy of matrimonial portals. The groom to be is totally in sync, but completely perplexed by the complexity of the internet diaspora and rather confused of with the manner the online marriage psyche goes.

To begin the great Indian bride hunt, we (me and my brother) made his matrimonial profile, ceremoniously loaded it with all the indispensable details, added our parental blessings to it and put it up online for the prospective brides to view. All well so far, just that there were no real matches (like from girls who might be interested in us) to choose from! Disappointed with the results, I relied on the Web’s creativity to bail me out, and there I hit upon a facial feature search, in which if I like a girl (perhaps purely for her looks) I can ask the web to do a similar search and if will hunt all the similarly looking girls and line up for us to choose. I tried, and I had five 25 year old with a dimpled chin gazing at me from my computer screen. Whoa, it can’t get more hilarious that this!

 Now if you are thinking that by now the match is already fixed and my brother is gleefully exchanging numbers and meeting women, you can’t be far from wrong.


Why Not? You ask. SO, as far as the online matrimonial dynamics go (or what I understand of it), the bride and the groom come in the second round of screening.   My brother is mightily miffed, but has grudgingly accepted the fact that if he were to start calling the prospective brides, he will run the risk of being seen as a ’no values’ guy. As it’s not really a US speed dating in an Indian Avatar. It’s truly an ‘ancient traditions weds Web 2.0’ circus come alive. 

The current modus operandi for us is that the elders of my family (even I fall into this category now as I have been assigned the task-remember?) do the first round, where the ideal matches are sorted out, spoken with and moved to the second round only after getting the affirmative nods.

Interestingly, most of these searches are done on a weekend, which is why I’m here talking about it. So today our entire family gathered online, communally wracked their brains on the perfect matches and participated in the exercise of mailing the doe eyed brides. Now, we practically have nothing to do expect for to wait and watch.

And what I do during these in between times on a semi –idle weekend is bake a cake, And nothing' better than  a light and airy Sponge Cake to lift the spirits up.  I certainly can’t do it better than Smitten Kitchen.  My only adaptation was to to leave out the cognac and lemon combination for the lack of both in my pantry.

Airy Sponge Cake

Ingredients: 

1 3/4th cups (226 gms) butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (200 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) baking powder
Salt
4 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar

Method : 
Do the usual cake dance, like the dry together and wet together. The only trick is to fluff the eggs like feather and sifts the flour fine. Once done, Mix it and bake it.

The sweeter side of the bride hunting madness.

Quick Yellow Cake with Chocolate Ganache frosting : Celebrating Twos

Two is a magical age.

(But I’m also getting the hang of what it means by the word troublesome twos.)
My little Miss S has started talking non-stop…with all her words clear as a day…and my days are always so full answering her inane curiosities.

Oh how she loves everything around her, whether it’s the garbage man ringing the doorbell in the morning or the loud whoosh of the incoming bikes in our society in the evening. She welcomes one and all with a warm hello. She’ll laugh at all playful stupid antics (and sometimes the non-deliberate ones too, when you do actually fall or hit your head accidentally) and the silly tickling sessions, dance at the most mellow hint of music and never stop looking, gazing and breathing it all in.

Birthdays are her latest fascination. We whole heartedly give in, considering it is her birthday month. She claps at the sight of a cake, and all she wants is a knife and a candle. Of course she offers me bite once she is done with the role play of being the birthday girl, but what enthralls me more is the glint in her eye when she is in front of the cake, and in my world it indeed calls for a party.

Party we did. That too three times over. I’ll not get into the details of chronicling those, expect for sharing the joy we felt looking at her cream stained lips  and having leftover bites of her freshly cut cake.
She is our little cakelet …and by the time you read this, she will be two years old.

I know, I’m not alone in this… you too must love your little one(s) with this muchness.

Here’s the Butter cake with Chocolate Ganache recipe which, I baked for her. I’m certainly not a baker and neither great at decorating cakes – but I still feel that these were the only moments in my life where I felt the cakes came alive. Yes, my little S’s grin vouched for it.

Quick Yellow Cake with Chocolate Ganache frosting

Ingredients for Quick Yellow Cake

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Ingredients for the Choclate Ganache

250 gms chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons flavored liqueur (purely optional)

Method for the cake : 

Mix all the dry ingredients together, all I did was to whirr for 30 sec to mix and aerate.
Then all the wet ones, which includes the eggs, plus any extracts (such as vanilla) go into another bowl and lightly whisked.

Mix both until well blended.

Pour all into whatever well greased pan you are baking in, and bake for around 35 min or until done.

Method for the Choclate Ganache

Heat heavy cream on medium high till it reaches the boiling point, then remove cream from heat and pour the cream on the chocolate and still until the chocolate melts and mixes evenly and is glossy to look . Allow the Choclate Ganache to cool before pouring over cakes as a glaze.

I cooled my cake before glazing. Then covered with sprinkles and added a kit kat boundry.Tied with a satin ribbon.

Done!!

Straight-from-my-heart Chewy Oats Cookies

Valentine is just round the corner. And here I’m sitting and pondering about love.

Not the sweet mushy sort of love though (and if that's what you came looking for here - this is NOT for you. Rest- Read on)

B--ut the morbid fear of this artificially manufactured day of Love called Valentines, I once had. Not that I need to worry about singledom anymore and thankfully (even when I was a single person pushing mid-twenties) I never really felt the pressure to be accompanied at any other time of the year. You know - being single is the least of the single person’s worry – it’s  the parents woe in the country I live in. Ha! Still in my 20s the anxiety of an onrushing V day was just too much.

I never had the grief of celebrating this holiday in my teens as this concept of dedicating a day to love was still taking roots in India. A decade later was when it hit me hard.  Cookies, cakes, coffee shops with love sorbets and shakes. All I wanted was to sit in one of those celebrating love cafes and gaze deep into the eyes of my so-called valentine, being serenaded by chocolates or roses. None of it would actually happen. I hated the day with all my might. I hated the fact that it would make a repeated appearance year after year, taking the couples to dizzying levels of love, but me. I had been patient with it. Fast forward a few years and I thought all my problems were solved with our marriage.

Looks like the Richard Gere of pretty Woman (who visibly turned my life upside down)had no telltale effect on my husband. In his dictionary Valentine’s is just another day.

My dreams went kaput. 

Year on year I tried to coach him with heavy doses of the chicklits. No avail.

Enough is enough. This year on – I decide to serenade myself. I have promised to bake love potions and foods which captures my heart and makes it flutter.

Add to it a gift that my credit card can bear without cringing.

And I’m set.


Somewhere along the line I think this s quote from the movie ‘Love Actually’ too did its bit to help me survive "Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinions starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there -- fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends."

Yes, I’m a romantic at heart, and waiting for the day when these movies cause a change of heart for my husband. Till then- there are these Chewy oats cookies.

My preparations start now. A huge classic oat cookie is the first to arrive. Hearts sure are missing as I baked and took pictures last Christmas, but who says I cannot do it again for the love of me.

C’mon wear your aprons and bake some love for yourself.

Chewy Oats Cookie (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar, packed
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup (120 grams) raisins
1/2 cup walnuts (65 grams), chopped (optional)

In a large bowl, whisk together the butter the sugar, the egg and vanilla.  Now mix the flour salt and soda in another bowl. Now add the oats and walnuts. Mix all of it together.

Chill the dough for an hour and then scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them. If you are impatient like me, you can sure bake them right away. Whatever you choose to do, you need to first heat oven to 175°C or 350 F then put them in for 20-25 minutes.

I like mine super thick so I doubled the dough for each one and covered each with a parchment paper.
Once they are out they’ll look like indulgence.

Just my way to celebrate the season of love !!

Orange Christmas Cookie- My Confectionery Salute to the Christmas

Here I’m, standing next to my kitchen counter, with my laptop in tow, totally inspired, thinking of a cookie recipe.

No ---Please don’t judge me yet, Bengali cooking still remains my forte but with blogosphere all abuzz with Christmas and the cookies, I’m itching to bake this season. After all being a ‘Global Netizen’ , I can definitely canker up my oven and copy a recipe or two.

 I have to admit that all the resistance is because Christmas cookies were never a part and parcel of my growing up days. I think that had more to do with a vast repertoire of Bengali sweet treats which my mother dutifully covered for each season and festival that she never got to baking cookies; it was something we always bought from the nearby bakery and since it was store bought it had no business to be on our holiday table. Of course, how could we celebrate any sanctified occasion with store bought food? A sacrilege!

Now with a toddler in the house who is beginning demand a C-O-C-K-EEE every now and then, I really felt a strong need to get her some home baked cookies echoing the holiday spirit. Finally, Christmas cookies at home seemed to be the answer. Baking things at home would also mean that it can occupy a space on the holiday table.

Call it a ‘thinking’ inheritance if you must.

Well, it was fun, although after my first day spent entirely in the kitchen baking, I had Mangsho aar Luchi(Chicken and puffed fried bread) for dinner - I think my Bengali side was tetchy against this entire baking and butter overdose.

Now that I’m done, you can have a look at what I came up with :

Orange Christmas Cookie (Yields 24 Smiling Cookies)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Zest of 2 Large oranges
1 tsp Salt
100gms /1 cup Butter, softened
3/4 cup Sugar (I mixed brown and white Sugar)
1 Egg yolk
2 tbsp Heavy cream

To make the dough:
Mix flour, orange zest and salt. Blend butter, sugar, yolk and cream with a mixer until well combined and frothy. Now add the flour and keep mixing until a firm dough forms. It will be very coarse. Now wrap them in a plastic wrap and store in fridge for a few hours.

To bake:
Preheat oven to 175 C (350 F). Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut with the help of a cookie cutter. Now you can transfer baking sheet and bake for  9-12 minutes, until edges are golden in colour. Cool on a rack for a few hours and decorate as you please.

I used the reindeer theme.With chocolate horns and red candy nose.

Boy! Was she thrilled.

Linking this to these parties : Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop , The Sunday Showcase Party , nifty thrifty sunday , Sundae Scoop , Think Pink Sundays , One Creative Weekend , Clever Chicks Blog Hop , Sugar & Slice Sunday , Martha Mondays Link Up Party ,A Round Tuit , Creative Mondays ( Claire & Judy ) , More The Merrier Monday , Make it Pretty Monday , Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Tasteful Tuesdays , Tuesday Confessional Link Party , Tuesday Time Out , Tuesday Talent Show , Crazy Sweet Tuesday , Wednesday Adorned from Above , Whatcha' Whipped Up , Hookin Up with HoH , It's a Party! , Cast Party Wednesday , Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Wednesday Extravaganza , Riverton Housewives Round Up , Sweet Treats & Swanky Stuff , Weekend Show Off Party , Full Plate Thursday , SYS Blog Link Party , Creative Thursday Link Party , Blog Stalking Thursday , Creative Juice Thursday , Thursday's treasures ( Christie, Debi & Joan ) , Showcase Your Talent Thursday , Fantastic Thursday! , Tasty Thursday , fridays unfolded , Simply Link{Party} , what's shakin' link party , Friday Favorites , Happy Hour Friday , Delicately Constructed Friday! , Feature Yourself Friday , Shine On Fridays ( Kara & Amy ) , Foodtastic Friday , Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday Link Party , Foodie Friday , Freedom Fridays , Show Off Friday , Do Something Crafty Friday , Farm Girl Blog Fest , Sweets for a Saturday , Strut Your Stuff Saturday ,Serenity Saturday , Sweet Saturday , SHOW-licious Craft Showcase , Your Great Idea Link Party 

Warm Strawberry Cake and A Cool Mom Story

Before I had a baby and we were just – I mean just about beginning to think about going the family way; I used to imagine how I’ll be as a mother.

Not that I could imagine myself to be anywhere near my mom.

My mother's hair falls below her waist. Her forehead decked by a bid red bindi. A typical red and white bangle adorns her hand indicating that she is tied in the holy matrimony of marriage. She sings while she cooks and I think that’s what adds that magic touch to her food. The whole appearance boasts of an ideal Indian woman.Me, on the other hand would cut a sorry picture in my sweats, messy kitchen and out of tune singing. This unmatched comparison somewhere told me that I need to change the tracks of my dream.

 I decided to me a super cool momma. Decided that I’ll cut most barrier of the R.U.L.E.S. Things which used to put me off at say when I was six  or my thirteen year old brain hated.

Oh like if you want to wear your red shoes with yellow pants and purple sweat, go ahead do those type of mom. What so embarrassing about it, you are three and have right to behave your age.

Oh like you are twelve and want to wear a little high heel. Do it . Just don’t complain when you fall. In fact I’ll buy you one of you like, of course -with a warning that I’ll not be hearing the twisted ankle tale afterwards.

I was definitely a cool mom – unless of course till the reality struck me.

Since this is not happening, and I desperately want to keep up to my cool mom tag, let me just do this instead....warm strawberry cake with clotted cream.

Am I not cool enough?

Strawberry Cake

Ingredients

6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup powdered sugar + a 2 tbsp extra for dusting the berries
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk at room temprature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven 180°C. Grease your cake pan well and keep aside.

Whisk all dry ingredients together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl al the wet ones go in.  once done, add dry mixture gradually, mixing both until just smooth.

Pour into prepared cake pan. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter as well as in thebottom,  in a single layer .Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 40 minutes at 180 C(325 F) or until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minute. Let cool in pan on a rack. Cut into wedges. Serve with whipped cream.

Sending this entry to Bake Fest, CooksJoy

Aunt's Apple Cake - The last Bite of October

October is flooding my pantry with apples !

I’m frantically thinking of things to do with ‘em – instead of just biting the glorious red beauties in a bid to keep the doctors away.

I’m pouring into blogs , drooling over the pictures…inertia is gripping me at large. Too meticulous a recipe, and I’m scared to even attempt. Too simple and I start feeling dumb. Baking is not really my forte, but BAKE I will.

Bake what is the question.

After mopping around (and eating a few more apples I get the answer)  - re-creating an old apple gem. I remember the taste vividly.

It was a few decades back at my aunt’s place in Haldwani (foothills of Nainital). The apples and berries were in full bloom.She served this delicious dessert of an apple cake with home-whipped cream -a perfect anecdote to a balmy winter night.

I can't remember what was the occasion for the melt in my mouth after dinner dessert. All I remember is the taste. Maybe the occasion was me. 

It must have been that good to have had made a permanent place in my little brain. Good enough to make me miss my aunt(even after decades of not meeting her in person) and her fresh whipped cream with hot apple cake, it’s like they were made for each other.

The perfect marriage.

Mushy Apples cozily nestled in a bed of warm crumbles with a dollop of fresh cream. 

It is afterall the last bite of October!

Aunt's Apple Cake

3/4 cup all-purpose flour/Maida
3/4 tsp baking powder
4 large apples (I used red juicy variety-peeled an  cut to thin slices)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons dark rum (optional)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled


1 Preheat oven to 180 C. Lightly grease and flour a 20x30cm cake tin.
2. Beat vegetable butter and eggs until foamy. Add the sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and Rum; mix well.
3. Line the diced apples on the cake tin. Spoon mixture into prepared tin (it will be very thick).

4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes. Cool cake in tin for 10 minutes before removing.


PS : I made it a grown up cake by adding rum and savouring with Baileys. You can ignore the Rum and serve with clotted cream or Jam to kiddies.

Storing : This cake remains moist for days together. According to my aunt, it gets more comforting with each passing day. Leave the cake on its plate and just press a piece of plastic wrap .

Sending this entry to Lavender and Lovage and What Kate Baked

Banana Squares - Noddying on a Saturday morning ..

Banana Squares - Noddying on  a Saturday morning ..

"By the fire I sit and dream
And in the flames I see
Pictures of the lovely things
That never come to me ... "
                                  Enid Blyton                  
        
Is it too early to read out a copy of Little Noddy to my little one?  Will she take to it like her mom?

l  grew up reading these pricless beauties.Initially they used to be read out to me by my mom . Later perhaps at the age of 4-5, I started reading them myself. Of course Noddy is not the only one, my choices ranged from batul the great, nonte phonte , champak, nandan and Noddy. Maybe after a year or two I took to Tintin and then there were years of Nancy Drew, Famous Five and Secret Seven (for some reason - never took to Hardy Boys!!) . My Childhood book collection was so dependent on my baba's visits to Kolkata book fair and also the annual extravaganza of the Lucknow Mahotsavv.  I guess, I would have had been deprived of the Noddy world had it not been for these International book fairs.

Noddy of course deserves a special mention out of this entire lot. It took me to an unfamiliar territory. Some sight and smells which I was not aware of and too little and unexposed to imagine. The only thing I could imagine longingly was the food Noddy and his friends would eat, e.g.


"Tubby is a little sad but he asks Noddy to make up a song about him whilst he eats his fourth slice of ginger-cake and Noddy is more than happy to oblige before the bear trots off home. "

Noddy learns what a bath is when he sees one in the grand house that belongs to Mr. Tubby and his wife and then it's eating time and there's a cosy little picture of them all having tea and cake.

Simple litle eats all sounded exotic to me at that time ...reading it made me crave and hanker after mom, and then she would yield and bake me a cake. 

The Noddy world is still unknown to my little one, but bake a cake- I will. And try to add some Noddy fun. 

Recipe adapted from Nags cookbook 

Basic banana bread (blender recipe) 

Blender Banana Bread is so simple it's really a sin not to try if you have little ones at home, some bananas and an over.

1 1/2 cups maida/all-purpose flour

1 packed brown cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 ripe bananas

2 eggs  ( To make these banana squares egg free all you need to do is just add 150 ml of milk for every egg; it works just the same and you can't even taste the difference.)

Other vegan alternatives are 

1 egg = 1 heaped tablespoon soya powder or 1/4 cup tofu. 
1 egg = 2 heaped tbsp potato starch or arrowroot powder. 

Preheat oven to 170 C. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar and baking soda.

Put oil, bananas and eggs and sugar into another bowl (or the blender!) and mix/blend to a smooth gooey paste..

Pour the banana mixture into the flour mix and stir until combined.Do not blend it hard as you will miss out on air pockets.

Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for about 40 mins or till a stick comes out clean. 

For the Banana Squares

This is a dense bread. After the bread cools. Cut it into squares. fry the pieces in canola oil and dust with powdered sugar. This adds a party spirit to plan ol banana bread. try it!

________________________________________________________________________

This is all wet stuff getting into the blender!

 I love the way the packed brown sugar looks...they add an entire new dimension to a regular banana bread.

 Sprinkle Cinnamon on top of dry ingredients. The fragrance just fills the house.

 You are supposed to sprinkle the dry flour mixture into the wet one., but this one is easy. Just whip it all up.

 This is how the bread looks after 40 minutes - heating up in the oven.

Cut em up , drizzle some choclate syrup.get chai, enjoy!

Cut into squares and fry. Remember to sprinke sugar on top. 

Serve it for a little kids party - you'll be an overnight star. I promise. 

This entry is being sent to Healthy Kids-Combo Meal, Nithu's Kitchen ,Fun and Food Cafe and Cooksjoyhttp://cooksjoy.com/blog/bake-fest-hosting-schedule

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies

Its Tuesday ---- after  a hectic Monday,  with work going upto 1:30 AM in the night , working lunch and a sweaty gym session in the morning. It's time to do it all over again on a Tuesday. Heck-this schedule continues for the next remaining four day and I'm tired thinking about it all already. Let Peanut butter be my Nirvana point.Its more of getting something you like -- adding more of what you love. Bake them all till they are all in a mushy togetherness - find that perfect pairing - hot choclate- horlicks- tea - oh! whatever. This is a combination that one can never go wrong with ...find a cozy corner. Sit back and enjoy....

Can we have more love (we are talking the edible variety - you Dirty Dirty mind ;) for the rest of the remaining days of the week too !! 

Here is the recipe thats been adapted from the The-girl-who-ate-everything

Ingredients:

1 cup + 2 TBS peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened (I used Amul)

1/4 cup white sugar (you can substitute with splenda for the calorie conscious )

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 TBS milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

My adaptation was to skip the Peanut butter chips and the chocolate chips. I could not find these easily in India.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the peanut butter, butter. Once combined beat in the white sugar, and brown sugar until well blended. Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla. In a large bowl mix  all the dry ingredients. Gently add to creamed mixture and mix until almost combined. Chill cookie dough for at least half an hour.

Roll tablespoonful’s of dough into balls. Place dough balls on parchment lined baking sheets. Carefully press each ball with fork tines to create a criss-cross pattern. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are lightly browned. Please be careful as they burn easily. Keep checking. Turn off oven when they are browned.

Yogurt and Orange Tea Cake

Yogurt and Orange Tea Cake

 Its monday morning 8 AM , not a best time for a working mom who has to dress up a jumpy toddler, put breakfast up on the table , eat , get dressed and zip out of the house all in an hours time. Who has the time to listen to insane food requests, but then I'm  a MOM. One look at my little ones hope filled eyes and I'm all a MELTED CANDY. Today she wanks a yummy cake for her daycare snack time.

All of 1.5 years,she knows to spell C-A-K-E allright. and if she wants a yummy one, who can deny.

Run Run Run - dig into the pantry take it all out. Mix -Mix - Mix . . shove it in the oven . We are set :)

Easy peasy.

By the time we are done with the morning routine. The cake is ready and smiling in the oven. And now my little one is smiling along too.

My Monday is blue no more. Digging into a warm freshly baked cake is therapeutic. don't you think?

Today I finally had my moment of glory when I could sink my teeth into this warm and fluffy goodness. It was heaven . and oh! I have to mention this that NOT all good and heavenly tasting cakes are sinful. Here is the recipe if you want to try. Go colour your Mondays!

1 1/2 cups low fat plain yogurt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Rind of one orange (optional)
I/4th cup orange juice (optional)

Heat the oven to 150°C. Grease a 9-inch baking pan lightly with baking spray or oil,.

Briskly whisk together the yogurt, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and nutmeg right into the liquids and stir just until no lumps remain.
Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 35 minutes, till a tester comes out clean. Once done transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan.
Serve the cake warm or at room temperature. When well-wrapped, this keeps very well for several days.