lemon yoghurt and olive oil cake

lemon yoghurt and olive oil cake

• 1 Mar 2022

Last weekend I had a date with my friend's 2 year old twins. The girls are both cake connoisseurs so I knew I needed to bring along something that was quick to make, not too sugary and would stand up to their scrutiny. 

 

 

Aran Goyoaga is the Queen of Gluten Free baking but I didn't want to make a gluten free cake. I find rice flour a bit chalky so I decided to adapt her glazed lemon yoghurt and olive oil pound cake recipe by putting the gluten back in. I changed the technique a little and also changed the proportions as I wanted to make a smaller cake. As expected the cake turned out perfectly and the girls loved the cake though I suspect it was the icing they were really keen on.

 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a small loaf cake. If you'd like to make a gluten free version please refer to Aran's original recipe or just swap the plain flour with a gluten free flour blend. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60 g eggs. My oven is a conventional oven so if you have a fan-forced oven you may need to reduce the temperature by 20°C.
 

Lemon yoghurt and olive oil cake – adapted from an Aran Goyaga recipe
Ingredients 

Cake
100g (⅔ cup) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch table salt
65g (⅔ cup) almond meal, any lumps broken up
135g (scant ⅔ cup) caster sugar
3 tsp finely grated lemon rind
2 eggs
80g extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp vanilla extract
75g whole-milk yoghurt

Icing 

10g melted butter
120g (⅔ cup) sifted icing sugar
2 to 3 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
20g finely chopped pistachios, for topping

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line the base and sides of a small loaf pan with baking paper.

Sift the flour, the baking powder and salt into a small bowl. Stir through the almond meal and set to one side. In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon rind until fragrant. Add the eggs to the bowl and stir to combine. Drizzle in the oil and the vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. Add the flour in batches alternating with the yoghurt and stir until a smooth batter has formed. 

 

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then using the baking paper remove the cake from the tin and place onto a wire rack. Let the cake cool completely before icing. 

 

Icing
In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, icing sugar and lemon juice until smooth and lump-free. The icing should be pourable but not runny. Pour the icing over the top of the cake, letting it run over the edges. Wait a few minutes for the icing to set before sprinkling with the pistachios. The cake will keep at room temperature for 3 days.

 

 

 

I've already made this cake twice now and I took the second loaf into work. It was moist and delicious with a perfect crumb and no-one knew just how little effort was involved in its making. 

 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen. 

 

Bye for now,

 

Jillian