Now that the holidays are over, we’re thinking of eating lighter. I still, however, have a sweet tooth! So I found this Lemon Blueberry Yogurt Cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It’s a lightened-up version of Ina Garten’s Lemon Cake. The yogurt makes it extra moist while removing some of the guilt.

The girls got new pink piggy spatulas from their Auntie for Christmas so I knew we’d have to bake something!

Plus, my mom gave me all these Meyer lemons from her tree, so a lemon dessert was called for.

The girls are learning a little bit each time they help us cook. I’m trying to find a balance between letting them try things for themselves and trying to minimize frustration (on both our parts, admittedly!) and doing things halfway for them. So for example, I measured out some of the ingredients ahead of time into smaller containers so they could pour them straight in…

…while they sifted the flour themselves.

They love their new spatulas for mixing and transferring ingredients. And I love how they are learning to work together.

This was a really tough shot to get, by the way!!

Gently mixing in the blueberries. Of course when I said to be gentle, they shouted “LET’S SQUISH THEM!!! YEAAHHHH!”

Bake and you’re done.

This may or may not have been their dinner.

Lemon Yogurt Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, for mixing with fruit so it doesn’t sink to the bottom.
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (I used non-fat)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 extra-large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons)
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
  • 1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a loaf pan. Sift together the first three ingredients and set aside. In another bowl, mix together yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla extract and oil. Then add the dry ingredients slowly. Toss the blueberries in the 1 tablespoon of flour, and gently fold the blueberries into the batter. Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake for about 50 minutes, or when a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool.

You can also make a lemon syrup with 1/3 cup of lemon juice and one tablespoon of sugar. Poke holes from the top of the cake if you want the syrup to go into the cake, and brush on with a pastry brush.

Please visit the original recipe to check out a whole bunch (really, there are a lot!) of different variations on this cake, and substitutions you can make for different ingredients.

Happy New Year and Happy Cooking!