To be honest, I can be quite a lazy person sometimes. I’d find any excuse to procrastinate, cause that is just who I am – a person needy for “no-quality me time”, which requires doing absolutely nothing. Last Sunday, I was feeling super meh as I was desperate for that “me time” and had no intentions to prepare for this week’s post. I reckoned that since my father was visiting from Malaysia, it was an excuse for me to skip doing my “homework”. I then entered into a dilemma because I realised that I already bought all the ingredients of a lemon yogurt cake, and if I didn’t bake anything then they would expire. So I did what I had to do: I got off my lazy couch ass and baked anyway. In the end, it was so worth it – not only the cake turned out to be unexpectedly beautiful, I shook myself out of my idle state and felt more energized and inspired. The moral of the story is, humans are just like Sims with emotions that can be manipulated, so don’t procrastinate (yes, I still play Sims cause it will never NOT be a part of me).

Lemon Yogurt Cake! Not as complicated as it sounds. It’s basically a lemon drizzle cake, only without the icing drizzle and using yogurt as an ingredient. It isn’t obvious from the pictures, but I used lemon syrup for the drizzle instead of icing. The cake turned out to be incredibly moist due to the lemon syrup and yogurt added, yet it still maintains its airy and fluffiness. The recipe is also super easy as well, only requires a whisk and a couple of bowls! (Talk about dirty dishes, amirite?)

This cake is deliciously perfect for afternoon tea time or breakfast, especially for all you lemon cake lovers out there. You will thank me later.

Yogurt, yoghurt, yoghourt

Essentially a super healthy food produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. It is a great ingredient to bake with to make moist and tender baked goods. Because of its acidity, yogurt gives that nice tanginess and also encourages leavening when a recipe also calls for baking soda, hence a great substitute for buttermilk.

The important thing about baking with yogurt is to pay attention to the type of yogurt the recipe calls for. Plain (regular) yogurt is thinner than Greek yogurt as it has a higher liquid content. Greek yogurt is basically strained yogurt, containing less whey, more protein and fat. The extra fat and protein in Greek yogurt creates more structure to baked goods, which MAY result in slightly tougher texture comparing to when plain yogurt is used. If a recipe calls for plain yogurt and you only have Greek available, best to thin it out by substituting one cup of plain yogurt with ¾ cup of Greek yogurt and ¼ cup of water.

Lastly, just like milk, the best bake always uses full-fat and non-flavoured dairy products. I really suggest not to go “economical” when it comes to baking ingredients. If you want to reduce on carbs or fat content, don’t do it on baking ingredients and cut your dinner instead. It ain’t worth it to spend 2 hours baking a cake that feels half great.

If you’re gonna do it, do it right! (right)

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5 from 1 vote

Lemon Yogurt Cake

Not as complicated as it sounds. Basically a lemon drizzle cake, with yogurt and sugar syrup as drizzle. Super soft, airy and fluffy. Tik tok, time for tea!

Course Breakfast, Tea Time

Cuisine International

Keyword Cake, Lemon

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 50

Total Time 1

Servings 1 loaf

Calories 2414kcal

Author SforB

Ingredients

180 g All-purpose flour
2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
Zest of 1 Lemon
160 g Caster sugar
50 g Vegetable oil
65 g Unsalted butter
2 Eggs , large
150 g Greek yogurt

Lemon sugar syrup

Juice of 1 Lemon
4 tbsp Icing sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius fan-assisted. Grease and line / flour a loaf tin – I used a 8.5×4.5 inch tin.
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl with a fork. In another bowl, mix the lemon zest and caster sugar together. Leave both bowls aside.
Heat the butter in a microwave for 20 seconds (800W), just to softened / briefly melt. Add the butter, vegetable oil, sugar and zest into a mixing bowl. Whisk to fully incorporate, around 2-3 minutes.
Add the eggs in one at a time, as you whisk to incorporate before adding the next. Add the Greek Yogurt in and whisk gently until the batter is smooth.
Sift all the remaining dry ingredients into the mixing bowl. Gently fold with a spatula to incorporate, do not over-mix the batter. It is fine that the batter may look just a little lumpy from the yogurt.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth out the top of the batter with the spatula. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until a clean toothpick comes out when you insert it in the center of the cake. *
Gently remove cake from the baking pan onto a wire rack. Immediately drizzle the lemon syrup or apply with brush all over the warm cake. Leave to cook completely.

Notes

* the cake will rise quite a bit, so leave around one inch of the baking pan unfilled. The whole batter fit nicely into my baking pan (8.5 x 4.5 inch).

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