In case you missed it, I am giving away a week’s worth of Brown Cow Cream Top Greek yogurt to two lucky readers this week! Click here to find out how to enter. [Giveaway opportunity has passed]
With all that delicious, creamy yogurt lying around, I knew immediately that I wanted to make a simple French cake called gâteau au yaourt, or yogurt cake.
You see, I’ve been reading Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting, and I’d just reached the section where the author talks about how French parents routinely bake with their children, from a very young age, as a lesson in patience. (For the child and, presumably, the parents!)
One of the first, very simple recipes that children learn to bake is the gâteau au yaourt; apparently, if you use two 4-ounce cups of yogurt, you can use the empty yogurt containers to measure the rest of the ingredients. Perfect for little hands!
So I decided to give this whole French parenting thing a go.
Well, not only did the cake turn out beautifully, but so did the whole experience! Baby D was very attentive and excited to be allowed to help dump ingredients into bowls and stir the batter.
She was also very excited to EAT the cake when it was time for her afternoon gôuter, or snack.
This is a very simple recipe that I adapted from the original on Chocolate and Zucchini. You can easily add fresh or frozen berries, nuts, lemon or orange zest, or substitute different extracts for the vanilla.
And I highly recommend letting the kids help. It was a wonderful first cooking experience for both of us.
A very simple French yogurt cake. Adapt this recipe to any situation by adding fresh or frozen fruit, chopped nuts, chocolate bits, citrus zest, liquor or by substituting another flavor extract.
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup whole milk plain, unsweetened yogurt (I used Brown Cow Cream Top Greek plain)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Line the bottom of a round, 8-inch cake pan with parchment paper and grease and flour the pan.
- In a large mixing-bowl, gently combine the yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and oil.
- In a second bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the flour mixture into the yogurt mixture in thirds. Mix as little as possible to just incorporate the dry ingredients to the wet.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Let stand for ten minutes, and transfer onto a rack to cool.
Notes
This worked perfectly for me at high altitude (5,000 feet) as-is.
Definitely something to try with the little ones!
Looks yummy!
I did this for a sunday school class I taught and the kids LOVED it! I am thinking about making this for my niece's smash cake (its her 1st birthday) do you think it would be okay?
Absolutely! You can probably even decrease the sugar slightly (maybe as low as 2/3 of a cup) if you're looking for a low sugar cake for little miss, but it's pretty low sugar as it is.
Rochelle Manzoni – this is that recipe I was talking about!