TWD: French Yogurt Cake

I think that if you have small kids in the house, chances are you are going spend a lot of time pretending. On any given day, I might be a jedi knight, a Disney princess of some persuasion (I try to be one of the less helpless ones), a scurvy pirate, an evil queen, a nice queen, grand duke, prince, fire breathing dragon, ballerina, all of your major zoo animals, and a house pet or two. I feed cheerios to pink and purple stuffed animals:


And get breakfast for three children and the occasional baby doll:


Sometimes my four year old will assign me my favorite role of all, "sleeping big sister." I can pull off Sleeping Big Sister like Meryl Streep herself. The role has lost some of its appeal to me, though, now that the game usually involves said four year old getting into Sleeping Big Sister's ear and yelling "TIME TO WAKE UP BIG SISTER!!!!"

Given that I am in pretend mode a lot these days, I guess it is only natural that sometimes when I bake, I get lost in the process and find myself daydreaming; pretending that I am a French pastry chef, effortlessly whipping together brilliant creations that wow everyone who has the pleasure and good fortune of tasting one. Unfortunately, my little daydream is often cruelly interrupted right around the time I find myself cutting the burned edges off of my dessert:


Or serving my cake with a perky, "now, you might want to stick with the ends, because it could be a tad raw in the center."


Yes, once again I had some issues with a dessert that is supposed to be so easy that even the non-baking French (non-baking, according to Dorie, only because there are fabulous pâtisseries on every street corner) bake this regularly. However, I think my troubles (burnt edges and undercooked in the upper center portion of the cake) can be traced to the fact that I used a pyrex pan and did not make any adjustments to cook time or oven temperature. Next time I'll use a different pan and see if I can eliminate these problems. But I think that it's a testament to the fabulousness of this cake that we adored it even despite these minor issues. In fact, I'm usually downright cranky for at least thirty minutes after I experience any kind of burning/overcooking/undercooking/not rising/cratering/dry texture/physical injury/fire alarm/broken equipment issues with my baking. But this time around, I snuck a piece of my crust while trimming off the burnt edges, and knew immediately that this was a special cake. No need to get into a funk -- we'll just eat around the bad parts and savor the rest!


The cake was wonderfully easy to make. Flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt get whisked together in one bowl; sugar and lemon zest, plain yogurt (I used 2% Greek yogurt), eggs, and vanilla get whisked in another. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture, and then fold in some canola oil. That's it! The oil and the yogurt combine to make this a fantastically moist cake. The zest of an entire lemon infuses the cake with a dreamy lemon flavor -- I felt like one bite of this cake was far more reliable indicator than Punxsutawney Phil that spring is right around the corner.

The cake was supposed to get topped off with a glaze made of lemon marmalade. Lemon marmalade? Not in this town. I ended up making a simple glaze out of lemon juice and confectioner's sugar, and it worked great on the cake. It added a little extra lemon zing right where you needed it the most (in my case, on that somewhat burned top portion).

We all LOVED this cake. My one year old in particular could not get enough of it. Since crossing the 1.5 year old mark, she has gone from your average, run of the mill one year old menace, who did things like become one with my oregano


into a bona fide Super Menace. Her favorite games are (1) run down the concrete driveway laughing while my mother chases me and visualizes my wipeout; (2) reach up on the counter for knives or scalding hot pans; (3) climb up on the sofa that floats in the middle of the family room and try to flip over the back. Anyway, Super Menace managed to make her way outside when my yogurt cake photo session was in progress.

Here she is, going in for the steal:



And running off with my cake:



{David, while I'm thinking of it, we should see about getting that deck a good pressure washing}

This cake is perfect for so many occasions. As I was savoring every last bite, I was thinking "I'm making this to bring along if we travel for Easter." "I'm making this if we stay home for Easter." "I am totally making this for my sister's baby shower." "I'm making this because it's Thursday and I want it." I think it is the perfect spring cake. It has a definite lightness to it, even though it is not particularly light (although it's not bad, as far as this cake-baking thing goes). It's a happy cake. I was happy making it. We were all happy eating it. I'll be happy to serve it, again and again.

Thank you, Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction for this great pick! Be sure to check out Liliana's blog for this recipe. And go ahead and buy Dorie's book


for this and a couple hundred other mindblowing recipes. You know you want to.