French Lemon Cake

 

  I finished reading a very sweet memoir the other day called A Home Made Life by Molly Wizenburg.   In it Molly writes about the memories she has of her father when she was growing up, how she met her husband, and about the twist and turns in her young life.  And all of it is tied to food.  And at the end of each chapter, she gives the recipes for whatever food might have been mentioned in that chapter. There are fifty recipes in all and I want to try almost all of them. 

 

The first recipe that I decided to try was her recipe for a French Style Yogurt Cake With Lemon.

French Style Yogurt Cake With Lemon

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

Pinch of salt

2 tsp. grated lemon zest

1/2 cup well-stirred plain whole –milk yogurt (not low fat or nonfat)

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil, such as canola

For the Syrup:

1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 cup lemon juice

For the Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

3 Tbsp.  lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 inch round cake pan with butter or cooking spray.  Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper, and grease it too. 

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

In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs and stir to mix well.  Add the flour mixture and stir to just combine.  Add the oil and stir well.  ( I used my Kitchen Aid Mixer but was careful not to over beat or over mix so that I wouldn’t get a tough cake.) The batter will become pale and yellow.  Pour into your prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes.  Do not over bake. 

Cool the cake on a wire rack for 15 minutes.  Run a thin knife around the edge of the pan and invert the cake and remove the piece of parchment paper. Place the cake back on the cake rack and set the cake rack on a baking sheet. This way any of the syrup that drips off of the cake will catch in the baking sheet. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the syrup ingredients.  Spoon the syrup slowly over the top of the warm cake and let it soak in.  Cool completely.

In a small bowl, combine the icing ingredients.  Make sure the sugar is well dissolved.  Spoon the icing over the cooled cake. 

Wonderful served warm.  Wonderful served cold later on.

This cake is just plain lovely.

So very lemony and delicious.  The book and this recipe are highly recommended .  Molly also writes the blog Orangette.  It’s just as lovely as this recipe.