This is what I came up with on March 8th, International Women's Day. Fresh, delicious, healthy and pretty! It really makes a great dessert/breakfast/tea snack for any day.
And you know what I'll say next.
It's so simple to make!
Ingredients:
For the crust:
10 pieces (~5 oz) graham crackers
5 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
For the mousse:
1 tub (32 oz) Greek yogurt, whole fat preferred
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
(optional, for the berry flavor) 1 package (1.2 oz) freeze dried raspberries
Topping (optional):
1 cup Crème Fraîche (aka French cultured cream)
1/4 cup powdered sugar, or any flavoring/sweetening agent
Fresh berries
Tools:
Not required, but strongly recommended, to make the whole thing even easier!
Blender, with 2 blender containers so you can use 1 for the wet and 1 for the dry ingredients
Steps:
Preheat the oven to 330 degree F; prepare a 9 inch springform cake pan - it's OK to use any cake pan available esp. if you don't need to showcase the side of the cake!
Use the blender to break the graham crackers until it's fine and sandy; if you are not using a blender, simply put the crackers in a zip lock bag, and crush it with a rolling pin (lots of fun!); drizzle coconut oil and mix well with the cracker grounds. There you have it, the crust dough!
Pour the cracker-oil mixture onto the baking pan, use the backe of your hand or the bottom of a glass to press it down until it's packed and smooth; bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Into a blender container, add the eggs, yogurt, vanilla extract, cornstarch and sugar, pulse several times until it's well blended; again, you can simply mix by hand in a big mixing bowl.
You can skip this step if you are making a vanilla flavored cake; to make a berry flavored cake, split the yogurt mixture into 2, save half for the vanilla flavor; into the other half, add dried berry powder - wait, where did you get this? Oh I forgot to mention, simply throw the dried raspberries into the blender and blend it till it becomes powder!. No blender you say? I heard you can purchase the berry powder directly from the grocery store or online shops!
If you are making one single flavor, bake the cake in the oven for 45 minutes; if you are making layered cake, pour the bottom layer, bake for 20 minutes, then another layer, and 20 minutes, repeat until it's fully baked.
Take out the cake, it should be set around the edges and jiggly in the center; let it cool down for at least 30 minutes; loosely cover with tin foil, and let it chill in the fridge for at least one hour (preferably longer than 4 hours).
Prepare the topping by mixing the crème fraîche with powdered sugar or your favorite flavor.
Take out the cake, remove the ring if you are using a spring form pan; you might see some water condensation on the cake, if there is any, carefully remove it with paper towel; decorate the cake with the cream topping and fresh berries if you choose to.
Enjoy!
Notes: there are so many flavors to try out such as chocolate, mango, banana, strawberries, etc.. One little thing to pay attention to is when you are using fresh fruits like mangoes, puree it first before mixing with the yogurt mixture. The other little thing is fresh fruits bring in additional water content, so you may want to strain it first, use the puree for the cake and save the juice for a fruit syrup!