This week, on Tuesdays With Dorie--follow Lisa as she goes hunting to 4 stores for lemon marmalade....and a small container of 'plain' yogurt that is not 'Greek'...
OK, so the official name of the recipe this week was French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze ....but I fell short both the 'yogurt' and 'marmalade' ingredients..but thankfully I still came up with a great tasting cake!!
I made this a few weekends ago when we found ourselves with a cold rainy day here in the Northeast...
I decided it was an opportune afternoon for a cozy treat. I trekked out and basically hit any epicure/grocery store I could find and sought out the 'lemon marmalade'....guess what folks, it's just not in these here 'parts.' I found lemon curd, orange marmalade-but never marmalade of the lemon persuasion. If that wasn't bad enough, the only plain yogurt I could find was in those huge tubs...no store had just 'plain' yogurt in the handy single-serving portions...there was every other flavor you can think of (and some I would rather not think of)....I saw Greek yogurt in those smaller size containers, but knowing that Dorie ALSO has a version of this that uses Greek yogurt made me think it is not the same flavor as 'plain.' I did not want to buy the big tub o' plain, because I knew I'd have little use for the majority of it as the recipe did not call for all that much (and I do have a habit of buying a special ingredient for a recipe that I only use a small amount of, leaving me with a lot of waste/leftover that I tell myself I will use, but never do...) So after about 4 stores I made 2 executive decisions:
1- use a lemon juice+confectioners sugar glaze recipe Dorie mentions in the 'Bundt Cake' section of the book (I think it was under the Banana Bundt Cake recipe, just fyi)
2- don't go buying the huge container of plain yogurt--go with my favorite Stonyfield Organic Vanilla yogurt....vanilla -vs- plain isn't all that 'off'
The cake came together rather easily....QUESTION: I had some slivered almonds that I ground in the processor as the recipe calls for, but the almonds still had the 'brown' outer to it--was that right? I'm thinking I should have used the almonds that have all that outer layer off of it...because my batter looked rather freckled due to that...but hey, if you ask anyone (except Jan Brady) freckles aren't all THAT bad....they add character.
So the cake came TOGETHER easily...but did not want to lift out of the bread pan easily....I was so disappointed....I think I may have tried to get it out of the pan too soon....guess I was too excited. So some chunks from it were left over in the bottom...I tried to scrape it out and 'patch' it back to the underside of the cake....thankfully this was not going to be served to any guests!
BUT it did mean I was able to 'test' the cake sooner than I thought...I grabbed some from the remnants in the pan and was DELIGHTED at the taste!!
I whipped up the lemon juice-confectioners sugar glaze for the top and it settled in nicely to the texture of the cake...
This will MOST DEFINITELY be a go-to recipe for me (I will make at Easter no doubt!) I can't say I taste 'vanilla' all that much, so don't think my substitution of vanilla yogurt for plain made a bad influence....
The recipe this week was chosen by Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction (one of my favorite blog names in our Tuesdays With Dorie community!) Visit her blog for fantastic creations, and for this recipe!!
Once again, thanks to the organizers of the this blog--and Dorie of course--I whipped up something I probably would not have found if it was not for this cookbook, and it has fast become a favorite recipe....funny, this and French Pear Tart stand out in my mind lately for my favorites...what is it with the "French" named recipes?? Je nais se quoi! (did I spell that right?)
Hope everyone enjoyed this cake as much as we did...I can't wait to make it again!!
PS: Happy St. Patrick's Day! I made the best Irish Soda Bread this weekend!! I will post photos/recipe later this week!
20 comments:
I used vanilla yogurt too! Sorry yours stuck to the pan, mine popped right out. At least it still tasted fabulous! I LOVED this cake, it smelled so good while cooking and tasted wonderful :) I paired it with simple lemon curd. YUM!
I used Greek yogurt (I didn't see Dorie's side note!) but I did not strain it -- I just plopped it in there, and the cake seemed to work great. But I bet that vanilla was great in this! Lemon marmalade is not available in these parts either, but I loved the lemon juice/confectioner's sugar glaze so much that I probably won't knock myself out looking for it. Re: almonds, you can find them blanched, in which case they will look less speckled when ground. But I think the speckles/freckles add character! Poor Jan. Your cake looks fab, Lis! And happy St. Paddy's to you! What is the saying again, "May there always be a pot of gold at the end of your rainbow, and a pint of beer at the end of your table?" Or something like that?
I, too, live in the midwest and was unable to find lemon marmalade. I ended up using raspberry preserves. It was quite tasty.
Oh, and I have a freckle-faced daughter, and she, too, hates her freckles!
I'm more freckled than I'd like to be, but it's not as noticeable under make up and with time (they sure bugged me when I was younger!) I left the skins on my almonds, too. Maybe next time I'll try without but everyone liked it anyways. Your glaze looks great and I bet the vanilla yogurt was awesome, too!
I love your glaze.
Beautiful.
Your cake looks fabulous!
Love the way your cake looks with that simple glaze on top! This recipe is at the top of the Dorie list for me too, along with the pear tart, the prune cake, the dimply plum cake, and the world peace cookies. But don't make me pick just one!
I think the almond skin thing is strictly cosmetic. I didn't even bother to look for lemon marmalade, but if you have a Whole Foods, sometimes it's in the England section. And lime marmalade too, yum!
My mother taught me to always put a piece of parchment or wax paper on the bottom of a pan after greasing it. Then you can run a spatula around the edges to loosen and the bottom takes care of itself. You just peel the paper off the cake bottom and you've got a perfect release. I've expanded on that and often make my parchment go down one of the long sides of a loaf pan, across the bottom and back up the other side. Then you can loosen the edges and pull on the paper like a sling to help the loaf release. I get so paranoid when I make a bundt or specialty shape because I can't line it with paper, ha ha.
Great substitutions! I lucked out finding lemon marmalade - I thought I might end up just skipping that part. Great job!
Great choice in using yogurt. Your cake looks so good!
Hahah! So glad you got to test the cake earlier too!!! And I love that you used the vanilla yogurt! That sounds like it would be delicious!
I went to 5 stores looking for lemon marmalade. The closest I found was lemon-pear. I used Greek yogurt.
I loved this cake, it was so deliciously easy. Almond specks are cool--my cake has them too.
Lisa, I just had to come back with an update: After I left you that long sanctimonious comment about how to prevent your loaf from sticking, I proceeded to put a loaf of yeast bread in the oven. Without parchment. I've never needed it before and I don't know if it's "done" in yeast baking. Well, thanks to poetic justice, my bread stuck to that pan like it was bonded to the sides and bottom! I finally pried it loose (thinking of you and your loaf the whole time!) Anyway, I didn't mean to sound preachy earlier!! And now I'm off to eat some humble pie...
Nancy
Nothing wrong with freckles! Glad your cake turned out well
I do not like bananas much, but enjoy cooking especially food cake. Meetings not very good that this will taste like
I will write again on his blog about this subject when completed
Thanks
That lemon glaze looks really good!
I agree about Dorie's "French" recipes. The pear tart and this cake were both fantastic!
Your cake looks delicious, especially with the glaze! Vanilla yogurt sounds like a fine substitution. I bet lemon yogurt would also work if you have it available. I think either option is fine for the almonds. Of course, I sidestepped the question entirely and used all flour. =)
Lemon yogurt would have worked, too. But the cake looks yummy with all the almond 'freckles'. Great job.
I tastetested after mine stuck too :) And I find nothing wrong with freckly - it still tastes wonderful, I'm sure. Beautiful job!
Your cake turned out great! I am sure it was delicious with the lemon glaze (one of my favorite glazes for cakes). I know, these recipe names with the word French in them, do have a 'je ne sais quoi'! I just love your blog header photo of Lucy and Ethel - I think I remember seeing that episode (I was young then, very, very young). Thanks for stopping by.
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