Orange French Yogurt Cake

Sometimes a traditional, old-fashioned, no-fuss, no-frills cake is just what we need. I'd just finished my first assignment for my final Open University module and was going to be heading out the door in a few hours to the National Theatre of Scotland 'Ignition' rehearsals (and costume fitting) and I thought I'd surprise my fellow cast and crew with a homemade cake. I'd picked up some succulent and delicious looking oranges with the leaves still attached at my village shop and was inspired a) by the oranges and b) by Karen from Lavender & Lovage's Tea Time Treats challenge (alternately hosted by Kate at What Kate Baked). This month Karen has tasked us with cooking something French. I confess that my French cooking is somewhat limited, but I do have a fail-safe and versatile French yogurt cake recipe I frequently make, especially when there's plain yogurt needing used up. I changed the recipe slightly in that I added the juice of an orange to the batter itself (more because I forgot to reserve it for the glaze - I had to juice another orange for this!) and I omitted the lemon and poppy seed from the original recipe. One of the many things I love about this cake is that it only uses 1/3 cup of oil. There's no butter involved and with such a small quantity of oil I don't feel it's a terribly unhealthy kind of cake, if you know what I mean, so a second slice is perfectly ok.

My theatre costume

The cake turned out very well, as usual - light and fluffy with the lovely moist texture yogurt imparts to a cake and with a perfect hint of orange throughout. There was only one slice left when rehearsals were finished it and I scoffed it while driving home, on a high because I'd been able to try on my costume (which has a real petticoat!)

I was hoping to be able to get a photograph of the cake at rehearsals, but alas, we were far too busy, so I've only got pictures of the cake cooling. You'll just have to make it yourself to find out what it looks like inside!

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Orange French Yogurt Cake

by Elizabeth 

A traditional, no fuss yogurt cake with a hint of orange.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup plain natural yogurt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• zest and juice of one small orange
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup sunflower oil
• 1/3 cup icing sugar, for the glaze
• juice of one orange, for the glaze

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Butter and line a 9-inch round cake pan.2. Whisk together yogurt, sugar and orange zest in a large bowl.3. Stir in the eggs and orange juice and combine well.4. Sift in the flour and baking powder.5. Spoon batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.6. Remove from oven and leave in the pan to cool for 15 minutes.7. Using a skewer, poke holes uniformly over the top of the cake.8. Prepare the glaze by whisking together the juice of one orange and the icing sugar. Whisk until the sugar dissolves and spoon over the top of the cake.9. When the glaze has been absorbed transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool completely.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 35 mins Total time: 50 mins Yield: Serves 8-12