Cheever Sauce

It was dark by 5:30 last night and according to the new notification screen on my iPhone, (time to upgrade to iOS5 people) it’s going to snow tomorrow. Since it looks like we are getting dangerously close to winter, what better way to hold onto these fleeting fall days than to bake a light, delicious, and a little summery? cake. 

Apparently yogurt cakes are a French thing. And we allllll know the only other acceptable alternative to a girl from Connecticut pretending to be a New Yorker, is a CT girl pretending to be a New Yorker pretending to be a Parisian ;) . Yogurt cakes are my kind of thing because they’re one of those rare baking gems that don’t require complicated measuring. The math is based on the volume of your yogurt cups, to which you add an equal amount of sugar, a double amount of flour, a little less than one of oil, two eggs, and some leavener and flavors like a little vanilla, citrus zest, or rum (Thanks Smitten Kitchen for the fun fact). I decided to go the lemon route and top it off with the blueberries and raspberries I had in the fridge. 

The best thing about this cake is it’s flavorful and fluffy yet not too sweet. I also found that the more days that went by, the better it tasted. However it was gone sooner than I hoped since I gave half a way to a friend and the leftovers regrettably served as my breakfast for the next couple days. 

Onward for the recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Lime Yogurt Cake with Blackberry Sauce

Make the cake: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the sides of a 9-inch round cake pan with oil or butter.  
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 1 cup of yogurt, 1/3 cup olive oil, 1 cup of sugar, zest from one lemon, 1/4 cup of lemon juice. (I just used the same measuring cup to roughly measure out all of this).
3. Add 2 eggs one by one, whisking well after each addition. 
4. Sift 2 cups flour (I used a little less than 2), 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda and 2 pinches of salt together, right over your yogurt batter. CheeverSauce note: I don’t have measuring spoons since Jess moved out and took them with her so I just used a regular small spoon and flattened the ingredients with a knife, and took out half of the spoonful when needed…. the cake it still came out great). 
5. Stir with a spoon until just combined and pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. 
6. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let stand for 10 minutes. 
7. Run a knife around the pan to loosen. Flip the cake onto a plate and flip it back on the rack.
8.  Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Make sauce: 

1. Combine 1 small pack (6 oz.) of fresh blueberries and 1 small pack of fresh rasberries, 1/4 cup of water, 3 spoonfuls of sugar (3 tbs. if you want to be exact about it) and 1 tbs. of fresh lemon juice. 
2. Purée in blender until very smooth, then press through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds (I just left them).
3. Cover and refrigerate until cold.

Sprinkle the top of cake with powdered sugar,  drizzle with sauce, and enjoy!