We were having guests over for dinner and I had these big plans to make spearmint ice cream, but then we couldn’t find any mint at the farmers market, and really, ice cream requires so much chilling time. Cake, on the other hand, can be thrown together in minutes, and this one in particular because it is made with yogurt and oil instead of butter. It also has a little bit of lemon zest, which we all know I adore.
I do have one friend who absolutely hates cake with citrus, but I just really disagree.
In short, easy to make, and tastes really good. Try it.
Yogurt Cake with Lemon (adapted from Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life)
makes a one-layer round cake
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
zest of one lemon
3 eggs
1/2 cup plain whole milk yogurt (we used a Greek style — extra tangy)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil (or another neutral oil)
a couple squeezes of lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a round cake pan and set aside. You can grease and flour, or use parchment, but I just used a liberal coating of coconut oil.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the zest. In a large bowl, beat the eggs a little and then add the sugar, yogurt, and oil. Slowly fold the dry mixture into the wet, stirring just until combined. Finish with a couple squeezes of lemon juice.
Put in the oven and bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached.* Let it cool for a while and serve with a dollop of whipped cream, a twist, or both.
*I happened to use my toaster oven for this, and though the cake browned excessively on the top, it cooked really fast and freed up the oven for a seriously successful batch of dry-rubbed oven ribs. Sadly, the ribs were devoured before they could be digitally immortalized, but we might take a picture of the rub and post about it anyway.
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