Lemon/Yogurt Cake

The female coworkers and myself try to make some time in the afternoons for a proper cup of tea in the office—right around 2 or 3 p.m. when the sleepies from lunch start to set in. Tea is perfect because you can get a little dose of caffeine—or not—and it's smoothes out wrinkles that have formed in your day and carries you to the evening.

The few minutes we spend making our teas together in the kitchen is perfect for a little chitchat. A lot of the time we think about making the tea experience more elaborate. Wouldn't it be nice to bring in cups and saucers? The girly mugs we use are nice and practical, but maybe this is the time of day that should be a diversion from practical. Oh and some of our homemade cookies would be nice. On nice plates.


Well, you know what's better than cookies... Cake! 

Cake's not difficult. Yes, it can be challenging, but many simpler cake recipes can be found online. I spent this Sunday morning making this recipe from the Bon Appetit archives. Why not? I had all the ingredients handy and access to a prolific lemon tree for fresh fruit. Out of the oven by 9 a.m. How's that for productive? I thought it would be nice to have later—at tea time—with my mother for Mother's Day. 

Empirical-modified Lemon-Yogurt Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
3/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
loaf pan


Preheat oven to 350°.


Whisk 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and kosher salt in a medium bowl.
Using your fingers, rub sugar with lemon zest in a large bowl until sugar is moist. Add yogurt, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract; whisk to blend. Fold in dry ingredients just to blend.
Pour batter into prepared pan; smooth top. Bake until top of cake is golden brown and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, 50–55 minutes.
Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Pull out onto rack; let cool completely.




I highly recommend you take a good look at Bon Appetit's original "French Yogurt Cake" and beautiful photography before giving this one a try. Let's see where did I stray...


I used sea salt, because that's all I had. The grains were too big though, so I ground a handful into still-large pieces and measured 3/4 teaspoons very carefully from it. I used a little more than a tablespoon of lemon zest, but next time I'd use even more! The cake batter and finished product have a terrific lemony aroma, but I'd ramp that up since there is no lemon juice in there. The cup of sugar is the perfect amount and I would not fuss with that. As per my usual, extra-large eggs instead of large.


Note on the yogurt. I used 2% Greek (Fage brand) and not whole milk/fat Greek yogurt. I'm not anti-fat, the store I shopped only had 0% and 2%. What's curious is that the 0% comes in a 6 ounce package and the 2% in 7 ounces; same price. I was trying to get as close to 3/4 cup by eyeballing. I figured more was better than too little. I didn't bother measuring it in the end and used the entire 7 ounces.


Two notes on equipment. First, I do not own a whisk! And this is the 2nd or third recipe I've written about that requires one. I've had to make do with either forks or even a blender attachment. Often overlooked in the store, I need to remember to invest in one. Second, cooking spray... I hate it. I never use it. The original recipe calls for it. OH WELL. I used pieces of parchment paper cut to size with a small bit of overhang. I used the smallest bit of butter to hold them in place while filling with batter. I recommend you do the same. The small sides on the ends were just squares, easily plucked out after the initial cooling time. I grasped the longer sides firmly to pull the cake out of the loaf pan neatly. I guarantee I wouldn't have had as much success had I tried to invert it as Bon Appetit suggests. I'm no pro. Peel away all that paper and do your final cool down on a wire rack. Do not try to cool it the entire time in the pan because condensation will form inside and make for a soggy cake. 

Gave a couple cups/saucers from my new collection some time to shine. Strawberries are the perfect pairing for a lemony non-poundcake. Just sweet and hearty enough for tea. Will definitely give this recipe another go for the gals at work.