Is it safe to claim the title of Queen of Lemon Cakes yet? I think my love of lemony cakes has been well established and I hope I’ve turned a few of you onto to the magic that is citrus-y baked goods in the process.
I saw this recipe in the May issue of Bon Appétit as I was flying back from Michigan one sleepy morning. Of course I knew I’d have to make it. There have been cakes with butter, cakes with cream, but not yet a lemon cake made with thick Greek yoghurt and oil. I had to try it and happily it didn’t disappoint. In fact, it’s a gorgeous cake, specked with lemon zest and packed full of flavour.
French Yoghurt Cake
from Bon Appétit, May, 2012
Ingredients
- Oil, to grease pan
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp kosher/coarse salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
- 3/4 cup Greek yoghurt
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease pan with vegetable oil. Dust with flour; tap out excess.
- Whisk 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
- Using your fingers, rub the lemon zest into the sugar in a large bowl until sugar is moist and fragrant. Add yoghurt, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract; whisk to blend. Fold in dry ingredients with a rubber spatula just to blend. Don’t over mix.
- Pour the batter into your prepared pan and smooth the 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 15 minutes. Invert onto rack and let it cool completely. Best bit: Can be made 3 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.
There’s a story behind that photograph. It was taken by my friend Tiffany who was filming me for a class project she had. So that person there sifting in the stripes? That’s me. We spent an entire afternoon in my little kitchen as she made a film, interviewing me and taking some gorgeous, gorgeous shots of my food. Never have any of my creations looked so pretty. She’s one talented lady. She also geeked out with me about shallow depth of field and a plate of asparagus which I think pretty much makes us (nerdy) friends for life.
This cake got to be a bit of a star for the day, since I’d made it that morning. It’s a beauty of a cake – chocolatey with a lovely touch of Earl Grey and that oh-so necessary hint of salt to bring out the flavours.
It’s light and perfect any time of day but the most important thing for you to know is that it gets better after a couple of days. I always freak out a little that my baked goods are going to go stale overnight but this is not so! This cake, stored properly, becomes a little more dense – creamy even – after a day or too, and so chocolatey and wonderful. I ate half of the thing myself. And that is no exaggeration.
Earl Grey Chocolate Cake
from Real Simple via Shutterbean
Ingredients
- 6 Earl Grey tea bags or 2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea
- 1 cup water
- 113g/ 4oz/ 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 113g/ 4oz bittersweet chocolate, melted in a double-broiler and cooled
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher/coarse salt
- 1/4 cup plain yoghurt
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- powdered/ confectioners’ sugar, to dust
Directions
- Heat oven to 350F. Grease an 8-cup bundt tube pan with neutral oil.
- Brew the tea in hot water 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags or strain the leaves and set the brewed tea aside.
- Beat the butter, eggs, and granulated sugar until fluffy. Stir in the melted chocolate. Beat in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, yoghurt, sour cream, and brewed tea. Pour into bundt pan.
- Bake 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes.
- Turn out of pan and cool on a wire rack. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve. Keeps, stored in an airtight container at room temperature, for several days.
This is a rich, decadent and super simple dessert. I made it for my book club girls last week and it took all of 10 minutes to prep and 25 minutes to bake – you can’t get anymore low key than that. Perfect for a weeknight or when you’re really pushed for time.
I think everyone should experience being in a book club. We’re lucky that our book club consists of such a stellar group of women with a great dynamic. There’s always a good mix of book chat, cheese-feasting, wine drinking, and general lady-chat. I love it. I also love feeding people cake and one of us can’t eat the gluten so this worked out well. I’ll definitely be busting it out again.
Of note – there really aren’t that many different recipes out there for flourless chocolate cake since it just comprises chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, and cocoa powder (I’d love to hear your version if you have one). What makes this special is choosing really top-notch ingredients; with something so simple, the quality of the ingredients is important. I’ve listed those below – I really think you’ll taste the difference.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
adapted from Gourmet
Ingredients
Directions
- Preheat oven to 190C/375°F and butter an 8-inch round baking pan. Line bottom with a round of wax paper and butter the paper.
- Chop chocolate into small pieces. In a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate with butter, stirring, until smooth. Remove bowl from heat and whisk sugar into chocolate mixture. Add the eggs and whisk well. Sift cocoa powder over chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Pour batter into pan and bake in middle of oven 25 minutes, or until top has formed a thin crust. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes and invert onto a serving plate.
- Dust cake with powdered sugar and serve with vanilla ice cream and strawberries or raspberries. (After being cooled completely, the cake will keep in an airtight container, 1 week.)
