French Yogurt Cake-Gateau au Yaourt

I first heard about French Yogurt cake from the "Tongue in Cheek" blog which, if you haven't read it, you must. It's chock full of the adventures of an American women who (25 years ago while living in a monastery) met a French man (who was traveling cross country in a $500 "beater with a heater" car) in a gay nightclub in San Francisco (no, he's not gay) and they got married (but they didn't squish cake in each others faces) and moved to France (she didn't speak French) and had babies (really, really cute babies) and built a lovely life together (they still live there) buying buildings (him) and antiques (her) when they aren't traveling the globe visiting friends (Hong Kong) or their daughter (China) or nursing sprained ankles (Thailand.) It's kind of a long story so I heartily suggest you hop on board, here's your billet:

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Back to le gateau, pre-heat the oven to 400

 

I've heard French Yogurt cake is the only thing French women bake at home.  Why bake when you have a Patisserie in every town, each steeped in the ancient tradition and art of Gallic gastronomy? I concur, leave it to the pros! This is a simple, quick, delicious cake, when one cannot make it to the Patisserie for professional stuff! You use the container as a measuring cup.

I got my container when I was in France. It's one of my dearest possessions, this simple glass yogurt container. It reminds me of a trip with my daughter and husband, of using healthy ingredients (not an "out of the box" mix,) of using what's on hand rather than specialty items, and last but not least of "family" baking. I have heard that French children learn how to make this cake when they are in kindergarten. It makes my kitchen smell divine. I feel like an especially good mom when I bake this cake. Love of family is folded into the pan along with the other ingredients.

Mix up the following: One (individual) container of yogurt, strict instructions say it MUST be FULL fat, sans gras est un non non!
2 containers of sugar, 3 containers of flour, 1/2 container of oil, 2 eggs, juice and zest of 1 lg lemon, 1.5 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp vanilla, pinch of salt. You can use fruit and ground almonds or almond flour too. This can be adapted in lots of ways so play around with it. I've found that even my mistakes taste great:) I usually put the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another, then combine the two.

Sometimes I put ground almonds in it, or use almond flour. This time I put frozen blueberries in the bottom of the cake pan and drizzled melted marmalade on top of them.





Into the oven...have some foil handy in case it gets too brown on top.

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Watch the clock, it takes 40-50 minutes.

 My kitchen clock was made by Daniel Hale-it's a lady swimmer doing the back stroke:)

ahhh...ca sent divine...

When you take the cake out of the oven dig right in...manger le gateau chaud.

 It's delicious warm with whipped cream...joie!