It’s Jill. I’m back. Again.  I hope you aren’t sick of me yet. Matt  has tasked me with keeping his site alive while he drowns himself in work. Although, I am told he may have a new post for you later this weekend. Something about chicken that is better than sex. We’ll see.

Today I bring you a Lemon Yogurt Cake with Mascarpone Cream. Like most of my recipes, this one is a hybrid. The cake part comes from Ina Garten, otherwise known to all you Food Network junkies as The Barefoot Contessa. I love her. She is one of the only good reasons to still watch the Food Network. But I digress. The mascarpone cream I just made up to make the dessert sound more fancy (I was serving it at Christmas dinner the first time I made it). Ina puts a glaze on her cake. I didn’t want to, so I did the cream instead.  That is one of the fun parts of cooking and baking.  You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to as long as you find a viable substitution.

Oh, if you wondering what “mascarpone” is, think of it as an Italian cream cheese.  Another note for the cake - The recipe calls for whole milk yogurt. If you are looking to cut out some fat you can use non-fat or low-fat yogurt, but know that it will change the texture of the cake.  It still tastes great, but it’s just more spongy and less, um, cakey.  Here is the recipe:

CAKE
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 extra- large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 good sized lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 50 minutes.

Mascarpone Cream
1 8oz container of mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Ingredients to make Lemon Yogurt Cake

Here is basically everything you will need. Notice, there are no electric beaters. Your main mixing tool for this cake will be a whisk. You want to use electric beaters, fine, but you will have a brick and not a cake.

standard loaf pan to make Lemon Yogurt Cake

Grease, line the bottom with parchment paper and flour a standard loaf pan. As I mentioned with the chocolate espresso cake, if you don’t do this your cake will not come out of the pan. Promise.

Dry and wet ingredients seperated for cake

In bowl number one sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In bowl number two, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup of sugar, the eggs, lemon zest and vanilla. Then, SLOWLY whisk bowl number one into bowl number two until well incorporated.

Mixing the ingredients for Lemon Yogurt Cake

Once bowls one and two have been introduced to each other and are good and combined, FOLD the vegetable oil into the batter using a rubber spatula until it’s all incorporated and the oil no longer looks separate from the batter.

Put the Lemon Yogurt Cake in the oven

Okay, now carefully pour the batter into the prepared pan and stick it in the oven for 50 minutes.  Stick a toothpick in the middle of the cake to test for doneness. Now, while the cake is baking away…

freshly squeezed lemon juice in a small saucepan

It is time to make the syrup that you will pour over the cake. More on that later. For now, combine 1/3 cup of sugar with 1/3 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook on medium heat until the sugar is melted and the liquid is clear. Set aside. DO NOT use that lemon juice crap in a bottle. Freshly squeezed only. No substitutions here, it tastes gross.

letting your lemon yogurt cake cool

Once the cake is done let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then carefully turn it out onto a cooling rack that has been placed over tin foil or a baking sheet.

pouring lemon mixture onto the cake

WHILE THE CAKE IS STILL WARM, pour the lemon sugar mixture all over it so the cake completely absorbs it. The let the cake cool completely.

shiny lemon yogurt cake cooling

After you have poured the syrup onto the cake it will look all shiny. While this cools, it is time to make the mascarpone cream.

ingredients to make mascarpone cream

Here is all you will need for the cream. You even get to use electric beaters. Lucky you.

Mascarpone Cream finished

Combine the mascarpone cheese, heavy whipping cream, confectioners sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat until it’s a nice thick consistency. Don’t over-beat or you will something that more resembles butter than cream.

Lemon Yogurt Cake with Mascarpone Cream

And there you have it! Once the cake is cooled, slice and serve alongside the cream and enjoy!

Thanks everyone for reading! I will be back again next week…cookies are on the agenda.

**update**

freshly baked lemon yogurt cake delivered to our office - delicious!