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You do not need measuring cups to make this amazing cake. I'm Gemma Stafford, professional chef with over 20 years experience and this is definitely the easiest cake recipe I know. The secret? You use one yogurt pot to measure everything. It's quick, it's easy and it turns out soft and perfect every time. The French are known for their baking and rightly so, but this little cake is probably France's best-kept secret. Not everybody knows about it, but it is a classic. And the secret to this little cake is you use a yogurt tub to measure all of your ingredients.
Here's how to do it. So the first thing you want to do is get a pot of yogurt. Now, in France, it's very common to get a four ounce pot of yogurt. In America, you see something around 4.4 or 5.3. So you can use either. This is a 5.3 tub. You can use plain yogurt with no flavor or you can use vanilla. It is totally up to you. I like vanilla for that extra bit of flavor. So empty out your yogurt tub into your bowl. Let me tell you something. I have made probably thousands of cakes over my 20 year career. And when I see yogurt as one of the main ingredients in a cake, I know it's going to be good.
You can use just a neutral, flavorless oil. Fill up your tub all the way to the top with that. One tub of oil. Oil makes cakes really tender because it can inhibit the gluten formation. So you get a really nice soft crumb. To this, we're going to add in some vanilla extract, especially if you're using a plain yogurt, some lemon zest to really brighten the flavors. I got a Meyer lemon out of my neighbor's garden. They are so citrusy and almost like creamy in flavor. And then I'm going to crack in three eggs. With a hand whisk, you can just whisk this together in a bowl.
You do not need a stand mixer. Just whisk it together until it's nice and smooth. I will tell you, using full fat yogurt definitely makes a difference because fat equals flavor and more fat in a cake. You think like a pound cake, it just makes everything taste good. So those are our wet ingredients. Now, next thing we're going to do is take our little tub, wash it out, do the rest of our ingredients into our wet ingredients. We are going to add in two tubs of sugar, just regular caster sugar, granulated sugar, and then just whisk in the sugar until combined and it feels almost a bit dissolved.
This definitely has the vibes of like an Irish recipe, like a few ingredients, like super smart reusing the one tub to measure all of your ingredients and just ease. And definitely for easy entertaining. Our last few dry ingredients, all purpose flour, three tubs of all purpose flour. You might also know this cake as the one, two, three French yogurt pot cake, which is one tub of oil, two tubs of sugar, three tubs of flour. So it's also a really easy way to remember the recipe. This is just regular all purpose flour. Lastly, our raising agent, two tisps of baking powder and a quarter tisps of salt.
Now with a whisk and a light hand, just combine these ingredients until there's no more lumps of flour. With something like this, go around the bowl, a little bit like pancakes, you don't want to over mix. You can even use a spatula. Break down those lumps of flour, combine everything. But the best thing to do is not to over mix. So you end up with a really light cake. Look at that. Such a fast batter to come together. I keep everything in one place. These Gemma made bowls make it really simple. And that's it. Quick to measure, quick to mix. So a funny thing about it is I learned about this cake a few years ago
because I actually featured it in my second cookbook, Bigger Bolder Baking, every day, and I baked it in a cake pan. So if you want, you can bake this batter in a nine inch springform pan and get a round cake, cut it into layers or just leave it whole and put some jam or fruit on the top. Some cream on the top is really lovely. Or you can do a loaf and for easy serving, you can just slice it. Totally up to you. But the real classic way is in a loaf pan. Just before I put it into the oven, I'm going to take my knife and I'm going to run it down the center right down to the bottom of the pan. Because when you bake something in a loaf
pan, a bread or a cake, the steam needs to release out of somewhere. And if you create that line down the middle, it can hopefully escape out the middle, creating a lovely, uniform look rather than bursting out the side, which can also happen like any quick bread. Once the ingredients are mixed together, the raising agent starts to activate. Let's get it into our nice hot oven. So bake your yogurt cake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 108 degrees Celsius for around 60 to 80 minutes. You know, somewhere in the 70 minute mark, it's a big heavy cake and it does take some time. So while it's baking, we are going to answer some hotline questions. And I've got some really great ones in here specific to this cake.
One of them was can you use Greek yogurt instead of plain yogurt? And that's a great one because often I'll say if you use Greek yogurt or plain, you have to do some sort of substitution. But honestly, you can swap one for the other in this recipe. The Greek yogurt one is a bit heavier in fat, might be a bit denser, but not in a bad way. So feel free to use one or the other. Traditionally, the cake was made with plain yogurt over the years. And the way it changed, now people use Greek yogurt. So here's a question about the fat.
Can I use melted butter instead of oil? And that's a great question because some people don't like to consume that much oil. And one, you can do half and half butter and oil, or you can do 100 percent melted butter is just totally up to you. Butter will give you more fat, you know, good quality butter, a French butter and also some salt in there. So feel free with everyone you decide. You will get a firmer crumb with the butter than you will over the oil. Because if you remember, I said oil is tenderizing.
Lastly, Gemma, what happens if I don't have that exact yogurt tub? Here's the thing. Use any yogurt tub that is the size 4 to like 5.3 ounces somewhere around there, you are totally fine. You'll still get the same results. Use the rest of the same ingredients. You're all good to go. Do not be fooled by the simplicity of the cake. Usually it's the underdogs that pack the biggest punch. This is a fantastic recipe full of flavor and the ease just makes it so much better.
I love this recipe for kids because it's so simple for them to make or dress it up with a little bit of whipped cream and fruit and have it as an elegant dessert. Keep this recipe in your back pocket because you will use it over and over again. If you'd like more easy baking videos just like this one, then get comfy because I have hundreds for you to check out. Thanks so much for watching and I will see you back here again next week with a brand new recipe.
