Strawberry Yoghurt Cake with strawberry jelly topping

It's again The time of the year, when whole World starts humming, " ingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle all the way". Christians allover the World celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a spiritual leader whose teachings formed the basis of their religion. Popular customs include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. Kids start making their list of wishes few months back and whole-heartedly wait for Santa to fulfill their wish on the Christmas Day. Surprisingly, This beautiful spirit of this festival has compelled the whole world to celebrate this awesome festival in the mid of the Winter season.

Some history about Christmas : Centuries before the arrival of the man called Jesus, early Europeans celebrated light and birth in the darkest days of winter. Many peoples rejoiced during the winter solstice, when the worst of the winter was behind them and they could look forward to longer days and extended hours of sunlight. The end of December was a perfect time for celebration in most areas of Europe. At that time of year, most cattle were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter. For many, it was the only time of year when they had a supply of fresh meat. In addition, most wine and beer made during the year was finally fermented and ready for drinking. In the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. In the fourth century, church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention date for his birth (a fact Puritans later pointed out in order to deny the legitimacy of the celebration). Although some evidence suggests that his birth may have occurred in the spring. Pope Julius I chose December 25. It is commonly believed that the church chose this date in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival.
(Info. Source : http://www.history.com/topics/christmas)

For non-christians, it's also a day of celebration of lights, meeting family and friends and enjoy good food with them. When it comes to Christmas food, what comes first in your mind? Christmas Fruit Cake and all other baking goodies that's associated with the festival like Cinnamon roll, Yule Log, etc.
Last year, I made Dry fruit and nut cake, but this time I thought to try out something not directly but associated very much with the season and also with Christmas. This time, I made Strawberry Yoghurt Cake with strawberry jelly layer on top. I never made strawberry cake before, but who can ignore those plump & juicy red strawberries available plenty in the market? So decided to try this cake, after long discussion with my own self. You can make this cake for any kind of celebrations. It's a super moist cake, yoghurt makes this cake super moist.

You Need :
Strawberry : 10-12 pieces, chopped
All purpose flour : 2 1/2 cups
Sugar : 1 cup, powdered
Eggs : 3
Butter/margarine : 1/2 cup(~60 gm.)
Milk : 1/2 cup, in room temperature
Greek Yoghurt : 1 cup(hang your yoghurt in a muslin cloth for 1 hour)
Baking Soda : 1/2 tsp.
Salt : 1/2 tsp.
Vanilla essence : 1 tsp.
Lemon Zest : 1 tsp.

For Jelly topping ::
Store-bought Jelly(strawberry/raspberry flavour) : 1 pkt.
Fresh Strawberries for decoration

How To :

Pre-heat our oven to 180 degree C or 375 degree F. Grease your baking mould with butter and dust with little flour, revert and shake well to dust off the excess flour.
Prepare the dry ingredients mixing four, baking soda, salt and lemon zest. Keep aside.
In a bowl, beat butter and sugar together until creamy, add eggs one at a time and beat until creamy. Add vanilla essence and fold the batter again. Your wet ingredients is ready.
Now keep your yoghurt and flour mixture by your side. Alternately add flour and yoghurt into the butter-sugar mixture, starting and ending with flour. If needed, add milk slowly to combine the batter and beat until you have a creamy batter.
Add 1/2 cup of chopped strawberry slices in there and just flod in the batter, no need to beat.
Pour this batter into your prepared baking mould and bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake, comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. Cake should be cooled down before you add your jelly.
For jelly topping : prepare jelly according to the package direction. let it set.What I did, when the jelly was half set and cake is almost cooled, drop your half set jelly on top of the cake. Arrange neatly allover the cake. Now decorate with some fresh strawberry slices.
Keep the decorated cake in refrigerator to set fully.