Gateau au Citron

On my Facebook group Bakealicious! I've implemented a monthly baking challenge to try to get everyone into their kitchens and trying new and yummy recipes. For March I chose a French-style yogurt cake from Orangette, which I made finally last night, and it turned out delicious! I'll definitely be making it again and again and with different citrus fruits.

It was super moist and tasty and had a tart lemon glaze, I highly recommend it. I made it all in the one bowl of my stand mixer, very little mess! I altered the original recipe slightly, adding a little more lemon zest than it called for because I LOVE lemon!

For the cake:
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups AP flour
2 tsp. baking powder
Grated lemon zest of two lemons
1/2 cup canola oil

For the glaze:
Juice from 2 lemons
1/2 jar powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs, stirring until well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, and zest, mixing to just combine. Add the oil and stir to incorporate. At first, it will look like a horrible, oily mess, but keep stirring, and it will come together into a smooth batter. Pour and scrape the batter into a parchment-lined 9-inch round cake pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cake feels springy to the touch and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.

Cool cake on a rack for about 20 minutes; then turn it out of the pan to cool completely.

When the cake is thoroughly cooled, combine the lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl and spoon it gently over the cake. The glaze will be thin and will soak in like a syrup.

Lazy Sunday

Chocolate cake in a pinch. Sounds too good to be true, but this one is straight-up the simplest chocolate cake recipe ever! I guarantee you already have most of the ingredients in your kitchen, and the mess is minimal, as you mix everything together in the pan that you bake it in.

The idea for this recipe came from Everyday Food. I altered it slightly, adding more cocoa, less salt, and omitting the cold water, instead adding a cup of cold coffee, because coffee adds more depth and flavor to chocolate cake. Plus, it gave me another opportunity to use my favorite new kitchen helper, Starbucks VIA. I plan to revisit this again, and try to improve it even more.

It popped out of the pan very nicely, without leaving anything behind, which was a plus, however, it lacked that deep fudgy chocolatey flavor that I love. It was great for the amount of time and effort it took, still, miles better than a box cake, but stay tuned, I'll be working on it.

Here's how I did it:

Lazy Sunday Chocolate Cake

by Dulce Doll

1 1/2 cups AP flour

1 cup sugar

4 tbsp. best quality cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 tbsp. white vinegar

1 packet Starbucks VIA dissolved in 1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a 9-inch square baking dish, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and add the wet ingredients. Whisk together until well combined, making sure to check right to the bottom of the pan for dry ingredients stuck in corners.

Bake 35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely before removing from pan.

Frost with your choice of icing, or just eat it right out of the pan! I used some leftover Coffee Buttercream that I had in the freezer. Enjoy!

Makes about 8 (or 1) servings.

* To follow up, I was too quick to judge this cake! It was totally fudgy and moist the next day.