French-Style Lemon Yogurt Cake

I love lemon desserts.  Our wedding cake was a lemon cake with a lemon mousse filling.  It was the most amazing cake ever.  At our wedding, we actually only had the bite we fed each other.  But the morning we left for our honeymoon, we dug into the top layer and ate that before we left for the airport.  The bakery we got our cake from gives a complimentary cake on your first anniversary so we didn't need to save the top.  We got another whole new fresh one on our anniversary.  It was so good.  It also made an excellent breakfast at 4am.

So when I came across a recipe for a lemon yogurt cake, I wanted to make it immediately.  I had almost all of the ingredients except for the plain yogurt.  So I held off making it until I got some plain yogurt.  The first time around I overbaked it slightly so it was a little dry.  But the flavor was amazing.  I brought a couple slices in for some girls at work and they all thought it was delicious.  I tried again recently and made sure not to overbake.  My friends, it was way better than the first time.  I made it for dessert when I had my parents and grandmother over for dinner.  They all agreed that it was excellent.  With the warm weather coming, a lemon dessert is so refreshing, light, and tasty.

French-Style Lemon Yogurt Cake
Adapted from A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

Cake
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt, about 1/4 tsp
zest of two small lemons
1/2 cup well stirred plain yogurt - do not use low or non fat!
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Syrup
1/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, about 1 and 1/2 small lemons

Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
juice of half a large lemon or juice of a whole small lemon

Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease a 9in round cake pan with butter or cooking spray.  Line the bottom of the pan with parchment or wax paper and grease that too.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add the lemon zest and whisk thoroughly to combine.

In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs.  Mix well.  Add about half of the flour mixture and stir to combine.  Add the rest of the flour and mix well.  Add the vegetable oil and stir well.  It will look like a complete mess when you add the oil.  But keep stirring and it will all come together.  Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Decrease or increase time depending on your oven but do not overbake.

Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for about 15 minutes.  Run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert the cake onto a flat plate.  Remove the parchment paper and invert the cake back onto the wire rack.  Set the rack over a baking sheet.

Pierce all over the top of the cake with a toothpick or skewer.  In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar and lemon juice to make the syrup.  Spoon the syrup all over the top of the cake.  The small holes you made while piercing will allow the syrup to get down into the cake.  Some of the syrup will run over the edges but that is okay.  That's why you put the rack over a baking sheet.  Cool the cake completely.

In another small bowl, combine the icing ingredients.  Stir or whisk well to dissolve the sugar.  Make this icing as thick or thin as you like by adjusting the amount of lemon juice.  Spoon the icing over the cooled cake.

You can serve immediately while the syrup is still soft and juicy.  In the photo above, you can see the icing is still all gooey after it was cut.  Or you can wait until the icing is firmer.  Just let it dry for about an hour or so.  The second time around I let the icing get firmer and it was just as delicious.