Recipe Review: French Yogurt Cake

This cake is so French -- simple yet elegant. There, I said it.

I'd heard of French yogurt cake before and found a recipe for it in Dorie Greenspan's book Baking: From My Home to Yours that I had intended to try, but I ended up finding an even easier version on Recipezaar. Why I even bother buying cookbooks when I usually end up finding something online is a mystery that remains to be solved.

Anyway, even though we have been sweltering here in Georgia for the past week or so, I got bitten by the baking bug. Since the recipe looked easy enough and I had all the ingredients already, I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. I was also hoping that if it turned out okay then I could make it for this Bunco thing I'm going to this weekend.

I think this recipe and I are going to become good friends. It's so versatile. All you have to do is change the flavor of yogurt you use and put in whatever additions you want and you have a new cake! What makes it even better is that if you use a 4 oz. yogurt container then you don't need a measuring cup for this cake! C'est très facile! (It's so easy!) There are quite a few versions out there, this is the one I ended up using.



French Yogurt Cake (Gâteau au yaourt)

4 oz. yogurt - I used blueberry pomegranate flavored YoPlus yogurt
1 cup sugar - can use less if you use a sweetened yogurt
1.5 cups flour
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil - I used 1/2 stick of butter
2 tsp baking powder
flavorings/add-ins of your choice - I used 1/2 cup frozen unsweetened raspberries

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Take a 9-inch baking pan and spray with cooking spray or cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan like I did (I'm so fancy!).

Combine the yogurt and sugar in a bowl. Add the flour in 1/2 cup batches, combining after each batch. The batter will be stiff. Add the eggs, oil, and baking powder, and combine. Add any flavorings or add-ins you want. Carefully put batter in pan -- the batter is very thick so you may have to smooth it out towards the edges.

Bake for 50 minutes. Let cool and then slice.

Makes 8 servings.

I suck at cutting cake, but here is 1/2 of a slice:


I would say this cake tastes almost like a light pound cake. The next time I make this, if I use a sweetened, flavored yogurt I might cut back on the sugar a bit. I may even try subbing applesauce for the oil/butter to see if I can get this to not be so point-y. But I think this cake lends itself to tweaking quite well so have fun experimenting with it!