Plain Cake
(The Best Plain Cake, Better)
(French Yogurt/Almond Cake)
Adapted from Baking by Dorie Greenspan by Blue Heron Kitchen
“The Best Plain Cake” (July, 2010, Blue Heron Kitchen) got better this year.
The tweaks: coconut
oil (you can buy it at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods or Fairway). Coconut oil
isn’t liquid (at least my ‘organic coconut oil” isn’t). It looks to me more like coconut
fat or coconut grease. That's why they call it 'oil'. To bring it to liquid, place the small amount you're adding atop your stove when your oven is preheating or just warm it ever so slightly. Here's a coconut oil truc: a tiny bit
of coconut oil will stand up to high heat and add a subtle flavor to your popcorn kernels .. huzza. Lemon oil: Boyajian oils are invaluable when it comes to infusing your pastry with flavor. You can buy them through King Arthur Flour or online through Amazon. Increased vanilla (I have used Baldwin's vanilla extract for about 30 years. Once you open a bottle and take a whiff, you'll be astonished. Once you start using it in your baking, you'll never use another vanilla extract. Then I hope you'll write to me and thank me. Here's the link. Read about Baldwin's. Then order some) oh .. and I added a little more salt. If you restrict your salt intake, then decrease the amount. I love salt and sweet together.
Wrapped well, these
cakes will keep for several days, out in a cool room, up to a week in the
fridge, and for a month or two in the freezer. You can make a simple jam glaze
by heating up marmalade (lemon or try ginger!) and a little sugar, until
liquid, straining it and then glazing the loaves when they’re cooled. Adorn or
n’adorn, this is the greatest plain cake; and you can make it by hand.
Berries are a natural
complement. Sorbet, sherbet, ice cream, frozen yogurt, crème fraiche, whipped cream. Toast it!
Bob’s Red Mill’s almond
meal/flour is my brand of choice. French almond flour is gorgeous and much more
refined, and it’s easy to find in the supermarkets in France, but not ici. Another place to find almond flour is Patel
Brothers (a great chain of Indian supermarkets in the New York metropolitan
area).
Play around with this
and use other nut flours/oils/extracts; and if you’re adverse to nuts, substitute flour (try some whole wheat flour instead of the nut flour.)
You’re
going to love this cake and you'll bake it all year.
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup ground almonds
(or, whole wheat flour or just more all-purpose flour)
2 tsp. baking powder (I
use Rumford – no aluminum)
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
Grated zest of a lemon
(use organic if you can)
½ cup 2% Total Fage
Greek Yogurt
3 eggs, size large, room
temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla
extract (I use Baldwin’s)
1/8 tsp. lemon oil (Boyajian’s)
1Tbsp. coconut oil
¼ c. + 3 Tbsp.
flavorless vegetable oil (If you omit coconut oil: ½ cup flavorless oil)
Procedure:
Center rack in oven and
preheat to 350º F. Butter and flour, or
spray release and flour medium sized loaf pan (8 ½-x-4 ½ inch) or smaller loaf
molds. (If using paper molds, which are great for ‘giving’, freezing, and
looking like you know what you’re doing, you don’t have to grease them.) You
can also bake this in a round cake pan and then turn it into a filled layer
cake!
In a medium bowl measure
the sugar. Using your Microplane Zester,
being careful to not include the bitter pith (the white stuff) of the lemon,
zest the rind and with your fingers or a fork or a small whisk, incorporate the
rind into the sugar. Set aside and the
oils of the zest will get into the sugar and make it smell really great.
In another bowl, whisk
together the flour/almond meal, baking powder and salt.
Begin with the whisk
attachment of your Kitchen Aid, or by hand, a human whisk. Start with the
sugar, add the yogurt, eggs, vanilla extract and lemon oil and whisk vigorously
until well blended. If mixing by hand, still
whisking, add the dry ingredients, making sure to whisk until the batter is no
longer lumpy. If using a Kitchen Aid, switch to the flat beater of Beater Blade
and add the dry ingredients, making sure to mix until batter is no longer
lumpy. Stop the machine and remove the bowl, or if doing this manually, switch
to a rubber spatula. Fold in the
oil. The batter should be smooth, shiny
and thick.
Fill prepared pan(s) and
bake, depending upon size of pan, anywhere from 30-50 minutes. Cake is done when top is golden, it springs
to the touch and a tester (or sharp knife) inserted in the middle comes out
clean.
Transfer to a rack and
cool for 5-10 minutes. If the cake
doesn’t easily release, run a knife between the cake and sides of pan. Unmold and cool to room temperature before
wrapping.
