Easy Lemon Cake!

This French lemon cake ni mambo yote (is everything!). I came across it two weeks ago on the blog Dinner a Love Story. I tried it and have since baked it four times in two weeks.

Lemon-yoghurt-cake-unbaked

Some lemon oil cake recipes I made in the past for me hit the same notes as lemon mandazis (beignets).  And that’s alright, if that is what you are looking for in a cake.

Mixed-lemon-yoghurt-cake

Why

This French lemon cake ticks all the boxes:

  • all the ingredients are already in your kitchen
  • uses oil not butter (for broke days)
  • minimal time—it takes a distracted 10 minutes to combine by hand.
  • minimal dishes—although I did use the food processor once because I’d already made pie crust in it.
  • high in flavour
  • perfect after a meal
  • perfect with tea in the afternoon
  • cake for breakfast
  • easy to transport as a gift, a get-together, a picnic etc

lemon-yoghurt-cake 

French-yoghurt-cake

French Lemon Cake


Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon finely grated lemon rind/zest/skin
  • 3/4 cup yoghurt
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 160°C/350°F. Grease and dust a loaf tin with flour; tap out excess.

Grate the skin/rind of 1 lemon. In a large bowl, using your fingers, rub 3/4 cup sugar with the grated lemon zest/rind until sugar is moist.

The rest goes pretty fast. Into the bowl, pour in the 3/4 cup yoghurt, 1/2 cup oil, 2 beaten eggs and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Mix.

You could do this in a separate bowl, or the same bowl. If it is in a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together.

Or simply, into the wet ingredients, add the 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Use a spatula or a wooden spoon and lightly mix until combined. Even though it look lumpy it is fine.

Into the greased loaf tin, pour the cake batter and bake in the preheated oven. Halfway through the baking time, rotate the tin. It is done when a knife inserted comes out clean.

Cool and enjoy!

2 Comments Add yours

  1. Rita says:

    Looks and sounds yum, will try it with the rice flour.

    1. Yay! Gluten-free version coming soon 🙂

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