Saffron, orange and yoghurt cake

I got some saffron for Christmas. I love grocery items as gifts - the sort of things that are useful but a little luxurious, that you might not include in your regular weekly shop. Saffron, which costs a lot for a little, falls squarely into this category. So when a friend had a birthday recently, I was ready with a cake. Saffron is a subtle flavour so know this recipe will still work really well without it. But what it does offer is an enhancement of colour - a warm glow that suffuses the cake. Its fine filaments are flecked through it too, little quivers of colour. Without saffron, what you get is a great everyday orange cake, easily made with ingredients you're likely to already have on hand. But saffron makes it just a little bit special, which is what birthdays - and Christmases - are all about after all. 

Saffron, orange and yoghurt cake
Recipe adapted from one by Julia Busuttil-Nishimura, as published on The Design Files

This recipe calls for a 20cm tin but if you only have a 23cm one, by all means use that. 

pinch of saffron threads
200g caster (superfine) sugar
zest and juice of an orange
200g unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (paste or extract)
150g plain yoghurt (I used Greek)
250g self-raising flour

Yoghurt drizzle icing
150g icing sugar, sifted
50g plain yoghurt
chopped pistachios, to serve
orange zest, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.

Place the saffron in a small bowl and pour over two tablespoons of boiling water and let steep for 5 minutes.

Place the sugar and orange zest into the bowl of a stand mixer. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers til it's lightly coloured and feels like damp sand. Add the butter and beat til pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Then add the vanilla, yoghurt, orange juice and saffron (including the water it steeped in) and continue to mix. Don't panic if the mixture splits as it will come together again once the dry ingredients are added.

Fold the flour in by hand until just combined. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and transfer to a wire rack.

While the cake cools fully make the icing: whisk the icing sugar and yoghurt together in a medium bowl til smooth. Add only a little of the yoghurt at a time, until it achieves your desired consistency. You may not need all of it. Pour over the cooled cake and strew with chopped pistachios and orange zest.