Since making it for the first time in the summer of 2009, this cake has become my go-to recipe when I need (or want) to bake for something important. It's simple, dependable, and it tastes wonderful every time. I know I can make it when I'm short on time, or in an unfamiliar kitchen, or when I really, really don't want to mess up. So when I went to Columbus to meet my boyfriend's parents for the first time, I knew this would be the perfect thing to make for them. They loved it! They even asked me to make them another one before I left. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to do that. But I did give Matt's mom a copy of Molly Wizenburg's book, A Homemade Life. Next time I visit, I hope we can make it together. I usually make it in a round baking pan, but it's such an adaptable recipe that a square one works just as well. It would probably make good cupcakes, too! I'll be posting a recipe for a different lemon cake (it's my mom's' favorite kind of cake, so I'm constantly trying different variations) that has a lemonade buttercream frosting. That would go well with this, too . . . Hmm . . . Recipe for French-Style Lemon Yogurt Cake From A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenburg Makes one 9-inch round cake. Ingredients For the Cake: 1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder A pinch of salt Zest of one lemon 1/2 cup well-stirred plain whole-milk yogurt 1 cup granulated sugar 3 large eggs 1/2 cup vegetable oil For the Lemon Syrup: Juice of one lemon 1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted For the Lemon Icing: 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted 3 tbsp lemon juice Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, sugar and eggs and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and lemon zest. Add the flour mixture in with the yogurt mixture and blend. Mix in the oil and stir until well combined. The batter should be very smooth. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 20 minutes and then turn out onto a cake rack or serving plate to cool. While cake is still warm, mix together lemon syrup ingredients and spoon over cake. Let cake cool completely. For the lemon icing, whisk together ingredients and spoon over cooled cake. Wait until icing has set, about one hour. Serve. (If you can't wait, don't. Who cares.)
I'm back from China, and that means I'm back in the kitchen . . . Baking. I'm trying not to go crazy and make every cookie, brownie, and cake recipe I've pinned on Pinterest, but it's tough knowing that come August, I won't have my own kitchen (much less oven). Life in Libo, China will be decidedly less sweet, but on the bright side, I will get to eat as many sea cucumbers and chicken feet as my little heart desires. Oh, no. Sad face. So I've been back for a few weeks now, and I've only baked two things! (I think that means I get to bake more things soon! Maybe even today!) We had six over-ripe bananas in our kitchen when I returned from China, and I know my mom was leaving them out (and not throwing them in the compost) as a hint for me to make something. Even if she denies it . . . We also had half a bag of Ghiradelli mini chocolate chips in the pantry, and to prevent my younger brother from consuming the rest of the bag before I got to use them, I threw them in the muffins. I doubled this recipe since we had six bananas, and it made a TON of batter--probably enough for 30 muffins. I only have two muffin trays, so I filled the cups up high and put the remaining batter in a ramekin, resulting in 24 regular muffins and one GIANT muffin.Recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip MuffinsFrom Keep Your Diet RealMakes 12 regular sized muffins.Ingredients:1 cup whole wheat flour1 cup all-purpose flour1/2 cup packed brown sugar1 tbsp baking powder (I know, it seems like a lot!) 1 tsp baking soda1/2 tsp salt1 cup mini chocolate chips3 mashed ripe bananas1/3 cup canola oil2 eggs1 tbsp vanilla extractInstructions:Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and place liners in a muffin pan. In a large bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or fork. Add the sugar, oil, milk, eggs, and vanilla; mix well. In a medium bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir with a spatula just until combined. Do not overmix, or the muffins will be tough. Fold in the chocolate chips. Fill the muffin cups with batter and bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops of the muffins spring back (and do not sink) when pressed with a finger and a toothpick comes out clean.
I made this cake for my family as a treat after they came home from Florida. It was such a big hit (with my mother especially, who as you might recall is a citrus-dessert-fiend) that I will be making it again for Easter brunch.
This photograph is slightly misleading. I took it before I added the final glaze, so you can see the toothpick holes from where the lemon syrup went in--those get covered up with powdered sugar glaze. But it was dark by the time I got around to making the glaze, and in the morning, there wasn't enough left to photograph . . .
Recipe for Lemon Blueberry Yogurt CakeFrom Sweet Pea's KitchenMakes 1 9 x 5 inch loaf.For the Loaf:1-1/2 cups + 1 tbsp flour, divided2 tsp baking powder1/2 tsp kosher aslt1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt1 cup sugar3 large eggs2 tsp grated lemon zest (about 2 small lemons)1 tsp vanilla extract1/2 cup vegetable oil1-1/2 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed For the lemon syrup:1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 small lemons) 1/3 cup sugar For the lemon glze:1 cup powdered sugar2-3 tbsp lemon juiceInstructions:Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.In a medium bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt.In a large bowl, whisk together yogurt, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla, and oil. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet. In another bowl, gently toss the blueberries in the remaining 1 tbsp flour and fold them very gently into the batter. P:our batter into prepared loaf pan and bake 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove.While the loaf is cooling, make the lemon syrup. In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar has completely dissolved. Continue to cook for 3-5 more minutes or until mixture thickens slightly. Using a toothpick, poke holes in the tops and sides of the warm loaf. Brush with lemon syrup. Let the syrup soak in and then brush again. Cool cake completely.For the lemon glaze, whisk the powdered sugar and lemon juice together in a small bowl. The mixture should be thick but pourable. Pour the glaze over the cake and let it drip down the sides. Allow glaze to harden, about 15 minutes, before serving.
Sometimes, I read a recipe and it is love at first sight. It might be that the recipe has rave reviews, or a beautiful picture accompanying it, or that it contains ingredients or combinations of ingredients that I haven't seen before. In the case of the mango cake, it was all three. As soon as I saw Biren's cake on Pinterest, I knew I had to make it. First of all, it's a quick bread (read: it's easy to make), but the addition of the cream cheese frosting dresses it up into a cake fancy enough for a dinner party. Which is exactly what I needed a few weeks ago. If I make this cake again, I think I'll add some shredded coconut to the batter. Mango and coconut go so well together, and the mango flavor in the cake was quite subtle. Coconut might help bring it out, and would give it an even more tropical flare. Recipe for Mango Cake with Cream Cheese FrostingFrom Roti n RiceMakes 1 9 x 5 inch loaf. Ingredients For the cake: 1-3/4 cups flour 1 tsp powder1/2 tsp baking soda1/2 cup (one stick) butter 2/3 cup sugar2 large eggs1/2 cup milk3/4 cup mango puree*For the frosting:8 oz (225 grams) cream cheese2 tbsp butter, softened1 tsp vanilla3/4 cup powdered sugarDried sweetened mango, for decoratingInstructions:Grease and lightly flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and baking powder. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in eggs. Add in flour mixture, mango puree, and milk. Stir with a spatula until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely before frosting.In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth and creamy, another 2 minutes. Frost cake and top with dried mango slivers.*Mango puree is an unusual ingredient. I found it unsweetened in the frozen section at Global Foods Market. There was also a canned version, but it had a lot of added sugar.
Folks, this is a sad day. I am sorry to report that I had my first epic culinary fail since beginning the Paleo Diet. There was flinging of batter and gnashing of teeth. And ultimately, I ended up with this:
Gross.
And this isn't even one of those situations where I can say, "Yeah, they looked pretty nasty, but man they tasted great!" They didn't. The only way to salvage these babies would have been to douse them in maple syrup. But my fourteen year old brother tried that, and it didn't even help. The sweet potato pancakes were mushy, tasteless, and boy were they ugly.
I made an apple topping to go with them, which turned out to be my breakfast instead of their heartier counterparts. I put some of the pancakes that didn't fall apart on the plate (but they still tasted bad, so they joined their brothers and sisters in the trash. I hate wasting food, but this was beyond repair.).
Maybe you have your own Paleo (or normal) pancake recipe and you'd like to make the topping to go with it. Or maybe you are a pancake wizard (named Leeny?) and can get this recipe to work. I suspect my error was that I used too much sweet potato, because my batter was way too thick. I tried to thin it out with coconut milk, which was starting to work, but they just didn't taste very good. So I gave up, threw the rest of the batter in the fridge, and may come up with some kind of sweet potato-berry-walnut muffin tomorrow. Anyway, the Cinnamon Apples were delicious and very simple to make. Here's how to do it: Peel and slice 2 granny smith apples into small chunks. Heat enough ghee (clarified butter) to coat a pan. Place the apples in the pan, sprinkle heartily with cinnamon, and sautee until apples are soft (5-10 minutes). Have you ever had any mishaps in the kitchen like this?
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