Citrus Greek Yoghurt Cake

Sundays can be so long and miserable in wintertime.  The weekend is almost over and you're either tired and emotional from the night before or have a fit of the Sunday blues fretting about the week ahead.  For me, Sunday is my baking day. Chances are that The Hubs is working so I have the house to myself and can clatter around knee deep in tins, scales and flour to my heart's content.

This cake brings a lovely hit of sunshine into a dark winter afternoon, using lots of fragrant lemon and lime zest and thick greek yoghurt to make the cake extra luscious.  This recipe uses a lot of raising agent to counteract the acidity that the yoghurt brings, so I would recommend that you only fill your cake tins half full as this cake rises, and rises, and rises...   The first version of this cake was called The Experiment and went into work for taste testing.  It passed the taste test but I knew that citrus would make such a difference, along with putting less mixture into the tins!  I used both a 10-inch ring tin and a 9 inch bundt cake tin, both liberally painted with Cake Release (both Dr. Oetker and Wilton make this and it's the holy grail of getting cakes out of tins unscathed).

If you want to be extra fancy, use some of the lemon and lime juice mixed with icing sugar to make a zingy glaze to pour over your cake


Citrus Greek Yoghurt Cake

225g Butter, softened
300g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
Zest of 2 unwaxed Lemons and 1 Lime
420g Plain Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 pinch Salt
300ml Greek Yoghurt

Preheat your oven to 180c/Gas Mark 4.  Grease and line two x 10 inch round loose bottomed cake tins.

Cream the butter and sugar together for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, (mixing between each one), the vanilla extract and the citrus zest

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda & salt together into a bowl. Decant the yoghurt into a bowl. Add half of the flour, mix well and then half of the yoghurt.  Repeat to make sure everything is very well mixed.

Ladle the mixture into the prepared cake tins and level out.

Place the cake tins onto a baking sheet and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.  Dust with icing sugar and serve with plenty of cream or creme fraiche.