Strawberry & Lemon Mini French Yogurt Cakes
Tsk-tsk another treat post, I KNOW two in one week, three if you include that french toast recipe! Sorry but I just couldn’t help myself, I do have other recipes I guess that maybe I could’ve shared with you all today but heck it’s Friday, and Friday needs to be celebrated.
First I need to ask, have you had the chance to browse May’s issue of bon appétit mag? Annnnd by chance did your eyes fall upon this lil’ditty on page 30? Yeahhhh buddy. Three words: French… yogurt… CAKE! Really it has the word FRENCH in the title, how could I resisit? Here’s what I did, I took this loaf recipe and made just a few modifications and threw in some fresh strawberries and turned this loaf into eight mini cakes.
Mini cakes, the name alone makes you feel less guilty for eating all of them two. Right?
As I skimmed the recipe I happened to notice that the recipe required NO mixer, NO butter and NO CALORIES… ha! just kidding on the calorie part, but it does call for Greek yogurt and I just love me some of THAT!
Well today’s weather has been weird, for lack of a better descriptive word. It would go from sunny to dark and cloudy in the matter of moments which made it difficult to shoot this post. But a little cloudy sky never stopped me before and neither did a yummy cake… wait yes it has. Stopped me from exercising!
Star by whisking the flour, baking powder and salt. Scoot it off to the side for a sec and get goin’ on the wet ingredients.
In a large bowl add in a cup of sugar along with the zest of a lemon, which should be about a tablespoon.
This is the fun part; with your fingers rub the sugar and the zest together until the sugar resembles wet sand.
Add in two eggs and 3/4 of a cup of whole milk Greek yogurt.
The original recipe calls for vegetable oil, but since I didn’t have any I substituted grapeseed oil instead.
Mix together.
Don’t be like me and almost forget the vanilla. Why does this always happen to me??
Measure a half a teaspoon and add that in too.
Pour in the dry ingredients…
…and gently stir or fold them into the wet ingredients.
Remove the leafy parts and the center “core” of a few strawberries.
Dice them up…
You need a cup, but if you go over I won’t be mad at ya.
Add the strawberries into the cake batter.
Gently fold the strawberries in until they are evenly throughout the batter.
I found these fancy-schmancy liners at a Home Goods store for 6 bucks. They are sturdy enough that you don’t need a muffin pan what-so-ever. You’ll need 8 of these babies, but jumbo muffin liners would work too, just set them up on a rimmed baking sheet and you’re good to go.
Fill the liners up half way full, smooth out the tops and pop them into a preheated 350 degree oven for 20-22 minutes, or until the tops are a light golden and when you insert a cake tester it comes back clean. When you’re using these kinds of liners you have to be careful not to over bake the cakes.
After they’ve bake; carefully remove them off of the sheet pan and over to a cooling rack, wait patiently for them to cool completely. IT’S SO HARD!
While I was waiting I “whipped” up some homemade whipped cream. {Get it whipped?!}
And there you have it. Your very own mini cake. Lemony cake studded with fresh strawberries topped with homemade whipped cream… does it get any better than this? I didn’t think so. Cake is what Fridays are made for, seriously… Google it.
Strawberry & Lemon Mini French Yogurt Cakes
Yield: makes 8
Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups of All Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
3/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon grated Lemon Zest
3/4 cup Whole Milk Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup Grapeseed Oil
2 large Eggs
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup diced Fresh Strawberries
Homemade Whipped Cream {optional}
cake batter adapted from bon appétit magazine, april 2012
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Set up eight large paper liners.
In a medium bowl measure and add in the flour, baking soda and kosher salt, whisk to combine and set aside.
In a large bowl add the sugar and lemon zest. Rub the lemon zest into the sugar until it resembles wet sand. Add in the two eggs, Greek yogurt, oil and vanilla, stir. Gently fold in the dry ingredients until incorporated and carefully stir in the diced strawberries.
Fill the liners half way full and pop the sheet pan into a preheated oven for 20-22 minutes or until the tops are lightly golden and when a cake tester is inserted it comes back clean.
Let cool completely before topping with whipped cream.
Over the past few years I’ve been on a mission to find and create recipes that I can make from scratch. I hope you enjoy the recipes on this blog as they are tried and true from my kitchen to yours! (
These are so pretty! I love your cupcake liners!
Oh, geez, I'm absolutely dying for one of these right now. ESPECIALLY with all that whipped cream!
Mmmm- I totally saw that recipe and have been thinking I'd like to do something w/ that batter too. These look lovely!
I flagged this recipe the minute I saw it and I am still brainstorming on how to photograph it the way they did. Absolutely stunning, Laurie!
How gorgeous are these?!?!?!
Laurie, these look so soooo good!
Thanks Melissa!
Wow – just gorgeous. I have everything I need…darn looks like I'm heading back into the kitchen for yogurt cakes!!
I've never seen those little cake molds before…they take personal-sized baked goods to a whole new level and I like it! This cake recipe looks zesty and delicious…definitely perfect for a Friday dessert!
I love how you've served these in little individual cakes with the whipped cream – what a perfect little dessert.
Those are so pretty!! I love little mini cakes!
i was just about to read my issue of bon appetit today…now i'm stoked!
I found your site on another blog and just wanted to let you know that I have subscribed to your feed and can't wait to see what your next creation will be!
These looks so moist Lauren! I can't wait to try them. Ya know, just run to South Bemd, Indiana and leave them by the door. Not THAT big of a favor, riiiight?
ahhh I have that recipe bookmarked to make something with it and you are just too fast girly! haha, this looks amazing and so good! i love that you made them into mini cakes
These look delicious and would be perfect at the end of a dinner party. Lovely end photos.
That sounds really yummy! Off I go to the market to buy strawberries and try this US version of our famous french yogurt cake!! I often use olive oil in cakes, but never thought of using grapeseed oil, thanks for the idea!
Thanks for sharing the recipe with us. I too had seen this but was a little wondering what the outcome would be.
My favorite sort of cakes, I love the texture
I'm loving the photo with the cup and muffin in the tray!! Looks so good.
Really beautiful recipe, and the photos are mouth watering.
I have the same muffin liners! It cost me an arm and a leg but they're gorgeous. And these mini cakes are to die for! I will have to make them for the next birthday coming up.