Lemon Yogurt Loaf Cake – Lemon Yoghurt Loaf Cake

Yoghurt in a cake gives it a nice moist texture, so today I decided to make a Lemon Yoghurt(or Yogurt depending on where you live) Loaf Cake.

This is a simple recipe with just a handful of ingredients, but what ingredients they are.  Lemon is high on the list of my favourite flavours and this cake has it in abundance. Add the yoghurt in and you get the lovely moistness too.  Although the batter has only the zest of the lemon that is almost flavour enough since it has the strongest flavour of the whole fruit.  But when the cake is baked a lovely lemon syrup is poured over the cake to add to the flavour and give even more moistness.  Then to top it all off a nice, sweet and sharp icing is drizzled over the top.

What could be better than that?  Practically nothing I would venture to say.

Now in my recipe I used melted butter but it is perfectly OK to use oil instead.  However since the fat content of butter is less than with oil an adjustment would have to be made.  120g of oil could be used instead of the butter, but then you should also increase the amount of yoghurt by about 35ml.

 Lemon Yoghurt Loaf Cake – Video

Ingredients:

• 210g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2tsp salt
• 205ml plain whole milk yoghurt
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• zest of 2 lemons
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
• 160g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 80ml freshly squeezed lemon juice.
• 65g of additional caster sugar
• 125g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/350F.  Grease and flour a 2lb(900g) loaf tin(you can also line the bottom with parchment paper if you wish)
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl add the eggs, 200g sugar, yoghurt, vanilla extract and lemon zest and whisk until fully combined.
4. Pour the flour mixture over the top of the wet mixture and whisk, or stir, to combine.
5. Add the melted butter and stir in until fully combined.
6. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes, or until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.
7. Remove the loaf from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes before removing from the tin.
8. Place the 65g caster sugar and 80 ml of lemon juice into a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Allow to simmer for a couple of minutes and then remove from the heat.
9. With the loaf on a wire rack, over a tray, make some holes in the top with a skewer and pour the syrup slowly over it, allowing the syrup to soak in.
10. In a bowl place the icing sugar and the 2 tbsp of lemon juice and mix until you have an icing of a thick, dropping consistency.
11. Drip the icing over the top of the loaf cake allowing it to spread over the sides if you wish.
12. Allow the icing to set a little and then cut the cake and eat it.