While I was baking Wacky cakes as a child, French children were learning to bake this elegant cake! According to Clothilde, from Chocolate & Zucchini, this is the first cake a French child learns to bake. Most of the measuring uses the handy yogurt tub (which is approximately a ½ cup), and you can see a rendition of this cake with this type of measuring on Clothilde's blog.
"It's particularity is to call for a pot de yaourt (a tub of yogurt), and to use the empty pot to measure out the rest of the ingredients." —Chocolate & Zucchini
Look! I Can Bake!
The first cookbook I owned was called Look! I Can Cook!
I still have it on my shelf. The binding is coming apart and there are some scribbles on the Lemon Meringue Pie page, but the most memorable thing I remember from this book is this quote:
"Remember that all good cooks clean up after themselves."
I don't know why this stuck in my head, but I've even heard myself telling my children the same thing. I think it's a desperate plea not to be the one left to clean up all the flour and sugar spills that are inevitable after baking with children, and now that I'm a mom I'm glad Angela Burdick included this sage piece of advice.
I decided it was time my children learned to make French Yogurt Cake to complement their Wacky Cake and Chocolate Chip Cookie repertoire. So they each took a turn preparing a part of this recipe. And we tried using the one-yogurt-tub form of measurement too.
1. Yogurt
2. Eggs
3. Vanilla
4. Whisk
Helper #2:
1. Sugar
2. Lemon zest
3. Blend with fingers
Helper #3:
1. Flour
2. Ground Almonds
3. Pinch of salt
4. Baking Powder
Helper #3 again:
1. Blend everything
2. Oil
3. Blend again
Yogurt
Yogurt is more abundant in France. David Lebovitz did a post in 2005 about the yogurt at his local grocery store. Heck, leave the yogurt out of it…I want one of those beautiful containers. Carol Gillott from Paris Breakfasts painted the yogurt container and uses them to hold water for her watercolors.
Oil
This cake relies on the flavor of the oil. In fact, you should taste the oil before using it in this cake (if only to make sure it hasn't gone rancid).
I tried using both Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (EVO) and vegetable oil. Although the olive oil is fruity and nice to use in cooking, we didn't like it in this cake. Its flavor was too prominent and overshadowed the delicate lemon flavor. We loved the vegetable oil version much better. However, don't let me stop you from trying it yourself. Here's a link to Dorie's version on Serious Eats that uses EVO.
Marmalade
As for the marmalade drizzle, you can read all about my Seville Orange Marmalade in my previous post.
Posters
After a bit of digging, I found some adorable posters that help French children make this cake.
Recipe
Makes 8 servings (8½ x 4½ inch loaf pan)
½ cup ground almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
½ cup plain yogurt
3 large eggs
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup flavorless oil, such as canola or safflower
For the Glaze:
½ cup lemon marmalade, strained
1 teaspoon water
You can find the recipe for French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or here. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to Liliana from My Cookbook Addiction who chose the recipe for this week.
Tasting Notes
The light lemon flavor in this tender and moist cake was delicious on its own, but drizzled with the marmalade made it that much more tasty. Two of my kids liked it on its own, but the third ate a chocolate chip cookie instead. Two out of three isn't bad.
Recipe for Next Week (March 24)
Blueberry Crumb Cake on pages 224-225 chosen by Sihan of Befuddlement.
My Bucket List
Links to other French Yogurt Cakes
• Andrea from Rookie Cookery: French Yogurt Cake
• Joy from Joy the Baker: Yogurt Grapefruit Cake
• Molly from Orangette: French-Style Yogurt Cake with Lemon
• Yummyaourt: How I fell in love with food: my first yogurt cake
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