SHF#43: Lemon Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze

May 18, 2008 at 7:57 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, events, simple cakes, sweet things | 28 Comments

 

Do you ever find yourself with one or more of the following things in your refrigerator?:

1. An extra lemon that you bought a week ago, and is now just rolling back and forth every time you move something around it
2. A huge tub of plain yogurt (because the plain only comes in huge tubs, but that’s what you like to eat on your granola) that you don’t know if you’ll be able to finish before it turns icky
3. A jar of grapefruit marmalade that looked so beautiful, you had to buy it at the farmers’ market, but now it’s been open forever because it’s actually too thick-cut to be enjoyable on your toast or PB&J

Well, today I realized I had all three and I needed to do something about it.  That something was to bake a lemon yogurt cake with marmalade glaze.  Yogurt cake is a cousin to pound cake…the cousin you call on when you don’t quite need all those pounds, if ya know what I mean.  The yogurt keeps it tender and a little oil keeps it moist.  It has a light texture that’s a bit spongier than pound cake.

This is particular recpie is one that my friend P photocopied for me from Bon Appétit magazine a few years ago.  I only have the recipe itself, and not the article associated with it, but I noticed that it bears a striking similarity to a recipe I’ve seen in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.  After a little Internet research, I found that it is in fact a Dorie recipe– a slightly altered version of what’s in her book.  While I’ve made another lemon yogurt cake here before, I’ve actually baked this one a few times, too, with assorted maramalades on top, making my own small tweaks along the way.  I prefer to cut down a bit on the oil in the original version and ramp up the lemon. I’ve made those changes in the recipe below, but I link to the original as well.

This cake is happy and sunny; sweet but with a little pucker from the marmalade.  And loaf cakes are easy to make, giving you the sugar high you’re after with minimal effort.  Speaking of which, I’m sending this over to Tartelette who’s hosting a sweet-tart, citrusy version of Sugar High Friday (started by Jennifer The Domestic Goddess) this month!

Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze– makes one loaf pan
modified from a recipe in Bon Appétit by Dorie Greenspan, February 2005

For the cake:
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 c plain yogurt (whole-milk or low fat)
1 c sugar
3 large eggs
finely grated peel from 1 lemon
juice of half a lemon
1/3 c vegetable oil

For the glaze:
1/4 c lemon, orange, or grapefruit marmalade
1 t water

-Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F.  Generously butter 8 1/2×4 1/2×2 1/2-inch metal loaf pan.

-Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl.

-Combine yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon peel and lemon juice in large bowl; whisk until well blended. Gradually whisk in dry ingredients. Using rubber spatula, fold in oil.

-Transfer batter to prepared loaf pan.  Place cake on baking sheet in oven and bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

-Cool cake in pan on rack 5 minutes. Cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Turn cake out onto rack. Turn cake upright on rack and cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap and store at room temperature.)

-Stir marmalade and 1 teaspoon water in small saucepan over medium heat until marmalade melts. Brush hot mixture over top of cake. Let glaze cool and set before cutting.