I found this yogurt pound cake recipe in a food magazine, but as with most recipes – I have to put my own stamp on it. I always think I can improve it. Sometimes I make it better, sometimes not. In this case, there were a couple of things I should have left alone and not changed and there was one thing I changed which I think improved the taste a bunch.
The original recipe advised using plain whole-milk yogurt and baking the cake in a metal loaf pan. Since I prefer Greek style yogurt and had some on hand, I used that instead. I also didn’t have a metal loaf pan of the requisite size, so I used Pyrex. Both of these changes resulted in a need to cook the cake about 10 minutes longer, which gave it a little more crisp on the crust than I would like. So, next time – I will go get regular plain yogurt and use a metal loaf pan.
The one customization that I made that really worked was the glaze that goes on top after the cake is baked. I used apricot preserves, thinned with a small amount of orange liqueur. Killer.
We loved this for breakfast with a cuppa joe. We felt less guilty knowing it wasn’t full of butter fat. Let us know how yours turns out!
Ingredients
For the glaze
1 tsp Cointreau or other orange flavored liqueur
¼ cup apricot preserves
For the cake
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp grated lemon peel
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
½ tsp kosher salt
2 tsp baking powder – if yours is more than 6 months old, throw it out and buy new
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Procedure
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½ inch metal baking pan with butter flavored cooking spray. If you don’t have the correct size metal baking pan, use one of the tin foil throw-away kind you can buy in the grocery store.
Put the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and whisk together. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then add yogurt, sugar, lemon peel, and vanilla. Whisk these ingredients until smooth. Add the flour mixture a little at a time while stirring. Finally, stir in the oil until the mixture is consistent. Pour the mixture into the loaf pan and bake on a cookie sheet for 50 minutes. Test with a toothpick in the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. If not, back in the oven for 5 minutes at a time until its cooked.
While the pound cake is cooling, make the glaze. In a small saucepan combine the orange liqueur with the apricot preserves and warm over medium heat while stirring. When the glaze is warm, remove the cake from the pan and brush the glaze over the top. Allow the glaze to cool before serving.
Your Daily Bread
Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found;
call to Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked one abandon his way
and the sinful one his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD,
so He may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for He will freely forgive.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not My ways.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
9 “For as heaven is higher than earth,,
so My ways are higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For just as rain and snow fall from heaven
and do not return there
without saturating the earth
and making it germinate and sprout,
and providing seed to sow
and food to eat,
11 so My word that comes from My mouth
will not return to Me empty,
but it will accomplish what I please
and will prosper in what I send it to do.”
