Monday, September 5, 2011

Lemon Yoghurt Cake

Like a lot of people I've been watching Donna Hay's Fast, Fresh, Simple on Good Food on my trusty Sky+ recently and have been really enjoying watching her cook. Mind you, The Hubs has been very pass-remarkable, voicing his shock "at the state of the cheap oven she has in that lovely house".  To be fair, she does manage to create some fantastic meals from it, so who are we to comment?


This cake is lovely, light and lemony - make sure you buy unwaxed lemons - 2 lemons will give you enough zest and juice for this cake.  Using yoghurt and oil instead of butter makes the cake really light and spongy, and it rises beautifully in the tin.  By the way, I doubled up on quantities because I made two cakes at the same time, so don't be afraid by the giant bowl of cake mixture!

Lemon Yoghurt Cake

180ml Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
1 tbsp Lemon Zest, finely grated
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
280g Thick Natural Yoghurt
385g Caster Sugar
300g Self-Raising Flour

Lemon Icing
120g Granulated Sugar
60ml Lemon Juice


Preheat the oven to 180c/Gas Mark 4.  Grease your baking tin (I used a 9 inch springform ring tin, but any tin will work well for you)


Mix the oil, eggs, lemon zest, juice, yoghurt & sugar together.  Now fold in the flour, making sure everything is well combined and there's no pockets of flour hiding anywhere.


Pour into the cake tin & bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.


Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a plate.



Make the lemon icing by mixing the sugar & lemon juice together, stirring well, and then pour over the warm cake.  Allow to set and then eat!


 




9 comments:

  1. I've been watching Donna's show and have made a few of her dishes. Really love her food! This cake looks delicious and I'll definitely give it a try!

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  2. Looks like my kind of cake, Aoife. Now all I have to do is buy a bundt tin to add to my collection.

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  3. Ladies, it's lovely. You should have seen the beasts in work yesterday - they INHALED a 12 inch ring cake. Personally I think I'd make the icing with caster or icing sugar next time... granulated is too grainy for my personal liking.

    Colette, just make it in whatever tin you have - I have two bundt tins, so I was just playing around. But I'd make a traybake sized one normally to feed the savages. God love them, just two Mondays left before I leave!

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  4. It had to smell lovely in your house during baking! I will bake it on some gloomy day, it will be perfect :)

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  5. Looks luscious! I am new to your blog, and I like it. I am in the USA, so I will have to convert measurements to cups etc. :)

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  6. Aoife- this looks lovely. You've photographed the steps really well! I can't wait to try this.
    I never got a chance to try your chocolates biscuits from yesterday as my husband inhaled them when he got in from work (much to my daughters dismay) but thanks so much for the recipe my daughter and I will make them and report back! I'll be putting a link through to your blog later up on mine and would love it if you could do the same. Best, Lisa McGee aka Nenaghgal

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  7. Anonymous (sorry I didn't get your name) - here's a link to the original recipe with cup measurements http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/15185/lemon-yoghurt-cake

    Lisa - this is gorgeous & easy to make. I couldn't get over how quickly it was eaten... there was almost a riot in work!

    I'm so sad you never got to try the sables (bold husband) but they are very easy to make. If you just want to make vanilla ones, take out the cocoa, add 50g extra flour & 2 tsp vanilla extract.

    Oh, and consider the linkback done!

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  8. Oooh this looks so delicious and light and I love anything lemony! I have a ring tin that I've yet to use, so bookmarking this!

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  9. This looks great! And using yoghurt makes it less fattening. Might have to play around with sugar quantities but gives me an idea of how to make a cake for mum (who has diabetes). Cheers!

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