I had an extra tub of Fage 5% Greek yogurt on hand and decided to use it in a "Yogurt Pot Cake" recipe from Nigella Lawson. Nigella recommends baking this cake in a ciambella pan, but the closest thing I had was a springform pan with a second fluted base with a hollow center.
To make the cake batter, you whisk egg yolks with yogurt and sugar until light; slowly add oil; mix in vanilla extract and lemon zest; incorporate flour and cornstarch; and fold in egg whites that have been beaten to firm peaks. I poured the batter into the greased pan to bake.
My cake did not rise much in the oven; there is no leavening agent, except for the egg whites. The top surface of the cake was domed and the slices ended up in the very odd shape you see above (the slices in the photo are oriented the same way they were in the pan, except that they're tilted a bit to the right since they couldn't balance on their curved bottoms that resulted from the fluted pan shape). The cake was fine. I wouldn't call this a lemon cake, even though the zest did impart some lemon flavor. But I thought that the cake's flavor was lacking overall and wonder if a little salt might have helped. The cake had a dense, soft, pound cake-like texture (although there were also some unsightly air holes throughout) and it would have made an excellent base for a fruit compote. But on its own, I thought the cake was underwhelming.
Recipe: "Yogurt Pot Cake" from Nigellissima by Nigella Lawson, recipe available here.
To make the cake batter, you whisk egg yolks with yogurt and sugar until light; slowly add oil; mix in vanilla extract and lemon zest; incorporate flour and cornstarch; and fold in egg whites that have been beaten to firm peaks. I poured the batter into the greased pan to bake.
Recipe: "Yogurt Pot Cake" from Nigellissima by Nigella Lawson, recipe available here.
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