The weather is nasty, so I needed some play time in the kitchen. And my favorite toys are made from heavy metal. I love my cast iron cake pans nearly as much as my ancient waffle irons, but most of those require an open fire, which isn’t exactly convenient in my kitchen.

So, cake it is. A whole spelt vanilla cake with a handful of chocolate sprinkles thrown in.

If you want to bake in a cast iron cake pan, there are two ways. I buttered it heavily and then dusted the pan with a mix of flour and breadcrumbs to keep the dough from sticking. I’ll show you the other way, which involves pre-heating the pan, another time.

The pan I used is 11.5 cm high and 26.5 cm in diameter. If your cake pan is smaller, you might want to use some of the batter to make muffins.

• 300 thick, greek yogurt
• 4 eggs
• 500g freshly milled spelt
• 250g canola oil
• a good pinch of salt
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• about 3/4 cup of chocolate sprinkles

Just throw everything except the sprinkles into a bowl and mix it until you have a smooth batter. Add the sprinkles and carefully mix them in, then pour the batter into the prepped cake pan.

Place the pan in the hot oven and bake at 180°C / 350F for about 50 minutes if you use a commercial, thin pan. If you use a cast iron, it takes a bit longer, my cake was in the oven for 65 minutes. Poke a wooden skewer into the cake, and when it comes out clean, it’s done! If the top is in danger of getting too dark, you can place a piece of tinfoil on top for the last 15 minutes or so.

Let the cake cool for 10-15 minutes in the pan before you attempt to get it out. Use thick gloves handling the cast iron, it stores the heat for a good, long while!

Once the cake is out, let it cool some more while you melt about 200g chocolate for decoration. I melt it in a small bowl in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each round. If you use a small milk jug, you can easily pour the chocolate over your cake.

And now enjoy a slice with a huge cup of coffee 🙂

There’s no music playlist today, I watched some old episodes of Death in Paradise to fight the winter blues.