Earlier this year, Helados Jauja flicked me an email with a collaboration proposal.
It was the height of Summer, it was hot, and ice-cream seemed like a good idea. Jauja ice-creams are genuinely artisan, crafted from only fresh produce without any gelatine, colouring or flavouring. Each ice-cream is made from individually crafted recipes. carefully designed to balance and harmonize different elements with the ultimate aim of pleasuring the human palate.
The challenge was that I would pick two ingredients, they would pick another two ingredients, and with those four ingredients, I would make a cake, and they would make an ice-cream. Then we would have a night with some bloggers and loyal customers (and Prosecco, weee!!) to unveil our creations.
The ingredients had to be natural to stick with their values of fresh, pure, natural; not processed based. With my current lemongrass obsession, I went with the classic combination of lemongrass and ginger; although chocolate and hazelnut was a close second choice. Po Lin, the awesome Malaysian who is chief ice-cream maker/creator/all around nice person, chose apple and lemon.
I had no idea what to do.
Actually, I lie.
I had a thought to do a ginger based cake with a lemongrass syrup, apple topping and maybe candied lemons or lemon cream but I wasn’t convinced. I had ZERO time leading up to the cake/ice-cream launch date to trial any recipes, so on the drive back from Daylesford one late Sunday night, I had a light bulb moment…. thank god, as the event was 3 days later and I had to bake it the night after!
The cake was a success, and the syrup actually works with the cake (much to my surprise and delight!!). If you don’t remember, I ADORE yoghurt in cakes. Something about the texture, the *moistness*, the flavour. It’s magic.
Thank you to the ever bubbly Min, Po Lin and the team at Helados Jauja for letting me be your first ‘Plus One’, it’ was fun 
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 220g (1 cup) caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 lemon, zested, juiced
- 200g (1 1/3 cups) self-raising flour
- 200g (3/4 cup) natural yoghurt
- 2 large apples, quartered, sliced
- 2 lemongrass stalks (pale part only)
- a thumb sized piece of ginger
- 750ml water
- palm sugar, to taste
- Lightly bash the ginger, then cut into chunky size pieces. Add lemongrass, ginger and a little palm sugar to water; bring to the boil, then let simmer for around an hour. You may need to turn up the heat to make it thicker and more of a syrup consistency toward the end. Strain and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line base and sides of a 20cm round cake pan.
- Beat butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy, the beat in eggs, one at a time; it may look a bit curdled, but don't worry. Gently fold in lemon zest and flour, alternating with the yoghurt. Using a spatula, scrape mixture into the prepared pan. Arrange the apple slices on top of the cake, then bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove cake from oven, but leave it in the pan. Using a fine skewer, pierce cake all over 30 times. Spoon hot syrup over the cake so it soaks evenly.
- Cool, then serve.
