I Tried Ina Garten’s Lemon Yogurt Cake, and It’s the Softest Loaf I’ve Ever Made

Loaf cakes are kind of like a good pair of joggers. Stick with me here: they’re comfortable, low-maintenance, and somehow still make you look like you have it together. With a rambunctious 3-year-old at home, it’s the kind of dessert I turn to often these days when I don’t have the bandwidth for multi-step baking projects but have an itch to make something from scratch.

Even before becoming a mom, I was a loaf cake stan. Banana bread, chocolate loaves, pound cake—all have made their way through my kitchen over the years. So I was surprised to find out that in all that time I’d never once made Ina Garten’s Lemon Yogurt Cake before. As far as the Barefoot Contessa canon goes, this is probably one of her most beloved recipes, right up there with Jeffrey’s roast chicken. It’s built on a French tradition (gâteau au yaourt, if you want to sound fancy at a dinner party) rather than the usual American butter-and-sugar approach. Instead of creaming butter, you whisk together yogurt and oil, then douse the whole cake in a warm lemon syrup once it’s baked. I was curious whether skipping the classic creaming method would cost the cake anything in flavor or texture, but I had faith in Ina. She’s yet to steer me wrong.

How to Make Lemon Yogurt Cake

You can skip the stand mixer entirely for this cake. Whisk the wet ingredients in one bowl, the dry in another, fold them together, and you’re most of the way there.

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a loaf pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan again.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt, half the sugar, the extra-large eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. (Ina calls for extra-large specifically here, not the standard ‘large’ eggs most cartons default to. If all you’ve got is large, the recipe will still work, but the batter will be very slightly less rich.)
3. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then fold in the vegetable oil with a silicone spatula until fully incorporated. (Much like a muffin batter, avoid the tendency to over mix.) 
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
5. While the cake is in the oven, combine the lemon juice and remaining sugar in a small saucepan and cook until the sugar dissolves and the mixture turns clear.
6. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a rack set over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon syrup over the top and let it soak in completely before the cake cools.
7. Once the cake is fully cooled, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice for the glaze, then pour it over the top.

Tips for Making Lemon Yogurt Cake

Luckily this cake is pretty forgiving, but there are a few things worth knowing before you get started.

• Use whole-milk yogurt, not low-fat or non-fat. The extra fat keeps the crumb moist and rich, which matters a lot in a cake this simple.
• This is not the moment for bottled lemon juice. Freshly squeezed makes a noticeable difference here, since lemon is doing most of the flavor work in this cake. It’s worth a trip to the store if you don’t have them on hand.
• Don’t skip greasing and flouring the pan even though it’s lined with parchment. Loaf cakes have a habit of sticking to the sides if you cut corners here.
• Pour the lemon syrup over the cake while it’s still warm, not after it’s cooled. Warm cake absorbs liquid much better, and this is the step that gives the cake its signature moistness.
• Resist the urge to glaze the cake right away. The cake needs to fully cool or it’ll melt right off instead of setting into a thin, sweet layer.
• Ina’s method has you turn the cake out onto a rack set over a sheet pan before pouring on the syrup, but one commenter online swears by an easier way: leave the cake right in its pan, poke holes all over the top with a skewer or toothpick, then pour the warm syrup directly over it. It soaks in just as well, and you won’t lose any down the sides (or dirty an extra rack).

The Verdict on Lemon Yogurt Cake

The next time I need a low-lift bake, this is the cake I’ll turn to. The process was as straightforward as cakes go, something I need a lot of right now with a toddler underfoot.

Skipping the classic creaming method didn’t cost this cake anything, as far as I could tell. Instead of the fluffy, aerated crumb you’d get from creamed butter, this one is a little denser and more tender, closer to what you’d expect from a French yogurt cake than an American pound cake, but every bit as moist thanks to all that syrup soaking in. The lemon zest and juice bring plenty of brightness, but the yogurt adds a little tang, too, that keeps the whole cake from turning cloyingly sweet.

I can think of no shortage of occasions for this one: wedding showers, baby showers, dinner parties. I might even make a batch of loaves to keep stocked in the freezer, ready to pull out for a friend in need of something sweet, or for myself on a random Tuesday night (when I’m hanging at home on the couch in my joggers, of course).

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