Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes

I baked these little cakes late at night, right after I came back from town and realised that I left a loaf of bread on the train. Reluctant to go to class the next day with an empty stomach, I decided to bake something for breakfast. As I only have chocolate and yogurt in the fridge, I searched for recipes online using these two keywords and I came across David Lebovitz's chocolate yogurt snack cakes which, coincidentally, is a recipe from one of his books that I read not too long ago. I tweaked the recipe slightly by reducing the amount of sugar and omitted almond extract from the batter and I also tried to make the cakes less chocolatey (or so I hope!) by adding some dried cranberries and toasted almonds.

Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes Recipe
Recipe adapted from The Sweet Life in Paris

Ingredients:
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 ounces almonds, chopped and toasted
2 ounces dried cranberries

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Line a 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners or lightly butter the pan.
2) Fit a heatproof bowl into a pan of gently simmering water, melt the chocolate with 1/4 cup of the oil. When the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth, remove from heat.
3) In a medium bowl, mix the remaining 1/4 cup of the oil with yogurt, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract.
4) Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
5) Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, add the yogurt mixture. Using a rubber spatula, stir the mixture lightly a few times. Add the chocolate mixture and then stir until smooth.
6) Divide the mixture among the muffin cups. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until they feel barely set in the middle.
7) Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.