Right when my daughter said, the night before, “don’t make any more desserts cause then we will eat them” I thought, “I have some extra homemade Greek yogurt that I need to use up…hum, how about some olive oil and yogurt cake?”…lol. So here we are.
This is a flavorful and dense cake. You can use your homemade Greek yogurt in this recipe or just go buy some. This cake can be served as is or with a sprinkle of powdered sugar, a glaze or a fruit sauce. Today I made it with a lemon glaze and a cherry sauce infused with basil…but I was thinking that infusing the sauce with rosemary would be very flavorful too. I used fresh cherries that I pitted, but you can definitely used pitted frozen ones too.
You will need:
For the cake:
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
For the glaze:
- 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
For the cherry sauce:
- 1 cup cherries, pitted (fresh or frozen) & quartered
- 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 sprigs basil (about 6 leaves) or 1 sprig rosemary (optional)
Steps:
- Add all ingredients for the cake into a mixing bowl and mix well by hand or mixer. Do not over mix, its okay if there are some small lumps in it.
- Place cake mixture into a 9″ by 5″ inch loaf pan that has been oiled and floured.
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 minutes, until toothpick inserted into bread comes out clean. It’s okay if there are a few crumbs that come out with it…it is a moist cake 🙂 .
- Take out of the oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes then remove the cake to a wire rack over a sheet pan. You may have to loosen all edges before taking it out. Let cool on rack for 1 hour, or until cool to the touch.
- In the meantime, make the lemon glaze and cherry sauce. Mix lemon glaze ingredients in a bowl until smooth. If too thick, add a little more lemon juice, if too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. It should be a consistency that allows the glaze to stay on the cake, for the most part.
- For the cherry sauce, add all ingredients to a pot. Stir and bring to a boil. Break up the cherries further, if you like and let boil for 5 minutes, until liquid has reduced and mixture is more syrupy.
- Turn off heat and let cool. It will thicken a little more as it cools.
- Serve a piece of cake with additional lemon glaze and dollup with cherry sauce.
Kali Orexi!
