Light Lemon Cake

I am a huge fan of lemon cake. It is Spring time and Meyer lemons are in season, so a lot of bakeries typically have lemon goods, around this time. I am the first one to go grab lemon cup cakes from this local, farmer co-op run grocery store in the neighborhood. But recently, they stopped selling these, to focus on more quarantine goods, which makes sense. Now, it is super hard to find the right kind of lemon cake. Too tart, nah. Too sugary, nah. I still miss the lemon cakes so decided to try baking some. The outcome was a super light, lemon cake, that's golden brown on the outside and lemony on the inside.

Tips

1. This one is egg-free but doesn't have to be.

2. The combination of tangy yogurt, vinegar, oil makes it moist, light and fluffy.

3. If you like yours to be less golden brown on the outside, and more like the bakery style lemon cake, reduce the baking time by 5 minutes.

4. For topping, I used some powdered sugar and berries. For the berries to stick I spread a mild peach jam in the center. Pick a jam is low in sweetness and mild in tartness, to pair well with this cake.

5. Use Meyer lemons, juice and zest. For zest, can use 1.5x of recipe for extra zing

6. Use tangier yogurt to enhance the lemon flavors. However, if you prefer higher protein, use Greek yogurt instead.

7. Can be basked in conventional oven or air fryer. I've used a 6 inch round pan.

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups APF (all purpose flour / maida)

• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 1/2 cup tangy yogurt

• 1/2 cup oil

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 Tbsp white vinegar

• 2 Tsp baking powder

• lemon zest from 1.5 med lemon

• 1/2 Tsp salt

Zest should look like this (no white layer):

Recipe

1. Preheat conventional oven to 350 F (or a couple of mins in Air Fryer)

2. Prepare cake pan, by greasing/spraying. Set aside.

3. Whisk the yogurt and powdered sugar in a bowl.

4. Add oil, continue to mix

5. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, vinegar and whisk again

6. Sieve the remaining ingredients and fold them all in, until the batter is smooth

7. Smooth batter, pour into the prepared cake pan.

8. Bake for 30 mins, check for clean toothpick in the center.

9. Cool cake completely (10-15 mins) and then work on toppings.

10. Sieve powdered sugar, spread a light layer of jam in the center, add berries