Gâteau au Citron

If you haven't guessed by now I LOVE lemon and add in French-style I knew right away I had to try it. The recipe comes from the book Homemade Table. Again very simple ingredients and lots of lemon. The mix itself was very simple and quick to make, the only substitution I made was using whole wheat flour instead of regular unbleached version. I think that might be why the cake turned out darker than expected, but without any pictures to reference to I'm not sure what the outcome is suppose to be (only compliant about the book, NO photos). I'm a visual learner and without photos for reference I never know if I did it right or not. I'm guessing with my first try, NOT. It isn't that is doesn't taste good or light and fluffy, but the middle completely fell making it look more like it was trying to become a bundt cake with a hole in the middle, but instead just looks sad. And the icing isn't going to cover my mistake.


But at least it still tastes good. I think with using regular flour it was taste less , humm, healthy (and maybe wouldn't have fallen). The cake itself isn't as lemony as I expected, in the book she suggests putting on a syrup for more added lemon flavor, but even for me I thought that was too much, but might try it next time. So I just stuck with the glaze/royal frosting, which ended up tasting like a liquid lemon drop, almost too tart and sugary for me (I know I can almost hear all the gasps). On her blog comments, someone changed up the icing with a chocolate glaze which I think would be good too, especially if you added in the lemon syrup when the cake is fresh and hot.
Unfortunately my cake wasn't as pretty as I hoped (from the picture below you can see the ski jump it made in the middle) and I will have to cut it up into squares to take it to work to finish it off, as I can't eat it all myself as I'm almost already in a food coma from this weekend. But I would definitely try it again with regular flour and instead of vegetable oil using olive oil for a more robust flavor. Hopefully that one won't collapse on itself and turn out as pretty as a French cake should.



For the cake:
1 jar plain yogurt
2 jars granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 jars unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 jar 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 buttered 9-inch round cake pan (after buttering, I sometimes line the bottom with a round of wax or parchment paper, and then I butter that too).

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.
Serve.