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:

1. 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.
2. Place cake mixture into a 9″ by 5″ inch loaf pan that has been oiled and floured.
3. 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 🙂 .
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Turn off heat and let cool. It will thicken a little more as it cools.
8. Serve a piece of cake with additional lemon glaze and dollup with cherry sauce.

Kali Orexi!