Want to know how to make it? Hopefully you’ll do better than I did. Here goes:
YOGURT CAKE, from Lunch in Paris, by Elizabeth Bard.
What you need:
1 cup plain yogurt (whole milk, please – which, as an interjection, is weirdly difficult to find in my local Food Emporium)
1 cup sugar
Large pinch sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 2/3 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
Zest of 1 lemon
1 16-oz can apricots, drained and quartered
What you do:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly oil a 10-inch round cake pan and line it with parchment paper.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, salt and vanilla, whisking until smooth. Add the oil in a stead stream, whisking to combine. Add the eggs one by one, whisking to incorporate after each addition.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda; add to the yogurt mixture; whisky lightly to combine. Stir in the lemon zest.
4. Transfer the batter to your cake pan; top with the chopped apricots. Bake on the center rack of the oven for 45 minutes, until golden brown and slightly risen. A toothpick in the center should come out clean.
5. Lift the cake by the parchment paper onto a wire rack to cool. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. This cake actually gets moister with age, so it tastes great the next day. Simply cover the fully cooled cake with aluminum foil; an airtight container or plastic will make it soggy.
Tip: Feel free to experiment with with raspberries, chopped pears and brown sugar, or a streusel topping.
What I did wrong and how I fixed it:
– I used an 8-inch round pan instead of a 10-inch (see video). Whoopsie. I fixed this by…well…having the batter that didn’t fit overflow onto the bottom of my oven.
– I couldn’t find parchment paper, and ended up just lightly oiling and flouring the pan instead. There was some minor stick-to-age, but nothing too horrific.
