Post #103: TWD French Yougurt Cake

From TWD Yogurt Cake

It is a lovely Spring Day here in Houston, Texas. We woke up to a overcast, misty day, but now are enjoying a wonderfully 75F, clear, and sunny day! The world is such a beautiful place on a day like today. To Norman Rockwell it more, my 8 year old son and his 5 year old friend, Audrey, held a sweet tea stand, Kool-Aid would just not do. You can really see the kindness in people, when they stop to buy from your children's lemonade, oops, I mean sweet tea stand. They did pretty well. Each made almost $7 apiece. They exclaimed that they were rich. Awww, remember those days?

Okay, so to make a perfect day even more perfect, I made this lovely French Yogurt cake for TWD's weekly baking challenge hosted by Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction. This was my kind of recipe; simple, sweet, and special. I love these recipes, because they are easy to do and finicky kids and adults will eat them, but they are lovely to present as well.

From TWD Yogurt Cake

The recipe calls for inexpensive ingredients and many you will have on hand or can run to the store and buy without feeling guilty for splurging. I made the cake this morning and my family alone devoured it! Not one crumb left.

For this cake, I premade my lemon-infused sugar the night before. I also added almonds to my batter, instead of opting for the extra flour. I just love nutty and sweet desserts. I baked the cake, but had to take it out after 45 minutes, because it had already browned quickly (my oven monster's fault). Next time, I will check after 30 minutes, and if it appears to be browning quickly, I will add a foil tent, as the Great One, Dorie, recommends doing for a regular pound cake or I will try N.O.E's from The Dogs Eat the Crumbs tip of making a parchment sling for loaf cakes.

From TWD Yogurt Cake

Since, I could not find or had the time to make any lemon marmalade, I used a flavor of preserves that I have been using ever since my hubby discovered it for me to use with the Buttery Jam cookies; Apricot Pineapple Preserve. I cut the overly browned crusts from my cake, layered it after it cooled, then filled with cool preserves and topped with a warm preserve glaze and extra ground almonds. I chose a bright and sunny presentation by using sliced lemons and tangelos to border my plated cake. I served the sliced cake with a dollop of plain fat free yogurt with a smidgen of jam in the center and a lemon twist.

From TWD Yogurt Cake

The result was a fresh, tangy, moist, slightly sweet cake that had all the flavors of a sunny perfect day!

Please make sure to go see what the other sunny cake baking TWD'ers created.

Lemon-Scented Granulated Sugar Recipe (I found in my Country Cakes Book by Lisa Yockelson)

Pour 2 pounds granulated sugar into a glass jar. Bury 12 to 16 strips of fresh lemon peel in the sugar and cover the jar tightly. Let sugar stand in a cool, dark place for 1 week, then remove and discard the lemon peel. Add 8 strips of lemon peel that have been air-dried for a day at room temperature (the peel will turn slightly leathery) and bury those in the sugar. Use the sugar, without the peel, for flavoring cake batters, ice cream, mousse mixtures, cookie dough, and drinks (I added this one in).