The birthday cake that wasn't

Time is a luxury. So sometimes when I'm craving a particular cake but cannot be bothered to go through the whole hog of waiting for butter to soften, creaming, folding, blah blah blah, I love a super-quick-fix cake that takes all of 10 minutes to put together and another twenty or so to bake. In no time, I'll have nice, warm cake on the table to cut slices from every time I pop into the kitchen for something or other (or just for cake!).

I was feeling like this recently and decided to try out a new recipe for one of those marvellous one-bowl-snap-your-fingers-together-and-its-done oil and yoghurt cakes. An Italian version this time (because it uses Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead of vegetable oil) with lots of fragrant freshly grated lemon zest for extra deliciousness using the glass French yoghurt pots I saved from a time when Carrefour was alive and thriving in this country. 

It was also somebody's birthday. Said somebody who lives halfway across the world. I thought it would be nice to bake and eat birthday cake on somebody's behalf. Oh well, why not? I'll take any excuse to eat cake. 

So on the pretext of former and latter, this cake got baked and eaten. I must say I liked this better than the French Yoghurt Cake from last year. This one was all silky, melt-y, moist crumb that I apparently couldn't get quite enough of. 

CIAMBELLONE AL LIMONE

Adapted from Rachel Eats

3 pots Plain Flour

1 pot Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 1/2 pots Caster Sugar

1 pot Greek Yoghurt

3 Eggs

1 heaping teaspoon Baking Powder

The zest of 2 Lemons

Preheat the oven at 140 Celsius. Butter and flour a 6-cup Bundt tin really well.

In a large bowl, whisk together the Plain Flour, Olive Oil, Sugar, Yoghurt, Eggs and Baking Powder. Add in the Lemon zest and whisk vigorously. 

Pour batter into the prepared tin and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes until the cake is golden or a skewer poked through comes out clean. 

Allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to complete cooling.