Gâteau au Yaourt (French Yogurt Cake)

Having a little fun here with a cross-blog two-part post.  See here for Part 1 (how my 7- and 2-year-olds made this cake by themselves.)

And now, I give you....Le Gâteau au Yaourt:

This cake is so awesome!  Totally easy, famously hard to mess up, moist, deliciously vanilla-y, and I LOVE the high rise!

It was late afternoon by the time it came out of the oven, and we were all hungry.  My husband and middle daughter were out of town, so with half the family gone, it seemed pointless to even pretend to cook dinner.  Instead, we sliced this cake into thick wedges and ate it for dinner with tall glasses of milk.  I.  Love.  Summer.

 We froze the remainder and I am even now chomping on a hunk of it as I write.  It's so good I crave it, and how often does that happen with an unfrosted cake?  Amazing.  And just because a child can make it, does not mean it is a juvenile dessert - I would proudly serve this to company, after dinner with tea or along with fruit at a brunch, any day.  My new favorite.

Not only is yogurt an ingredient, but most of the ingredients are also measured in the 6-ounce yogurt containers, how cool is that?  Hazel was as tickled as I at the fun of measuring in non-measuring cups.  I had a hard time finding whole milk yogurt - it's all lowfat these days!  So I compromised by using part lowfat, part fancy European whole milk yogurts.  I highly recommend the combo.

Gâteau au Yaourt
(French Yogurt Cake) print recipe
2 six-ounce containers plain (or vanilla) whole-milk yogurt (use the empty containers to measure the other ingredients)
2 eggs
2 containers sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Just under 1 container vegetable oil
4 containers flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Crème fraîche, for serving (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 375.  Grease a 9-inch round cake pan or a loaf pan.

2.  Gently combine the yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil.  In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet; mix gently until ingredients are just combined (don't overmix.)  You can add 2 containers frozen berries, a container of chocolate chips, or any flavoring you like.  Bake for 35 minutes, then five minutes more if the cake doesn't pass the knife test.  It should be almost crispy on the outside, but springy on the inside.  Let it cool.  Serve with tea or hot chocolate and a dollop of crème fraîche.

Recipe from Bringing up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman