French Yogurt Cake

Over the years I have seen recipes for French yogurt cake that sounded very appealing and easy to prepare. When yet another recipe appeared on Epicurious.com this month and won rave reviews, I decided to give it a try. I loved this simple cake.  It is similar to pound cake but much less dense-kind of airy. It is perfect served with fruit-sliced strawberries from the farmer's market worked beautifully.

Vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup sugar
1 tbl. finely grated lemon zest
3/4 cup whole milk Greek yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a standard (8 1/2x4 1/4 inches) loaf pan with non-stick vegetable oil spray.  Dust with flour, tap out excess.  Whisk 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 tsps. baking powder and 3/4 tsp. kosher salt in a medium bowl.  In a large bowl, using your fingers, rub 1 cup sugar with 1 tbl. finely grated lemon zest until the sugar is moist.  Add 3/4 cup whole milk Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 large eggs and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. Blend ingredients.  Fold in dry ingredients, just to blend.

Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top.  Bake until top of cake is golden brown and a tester inserted into center comes out clean (50-55 minutes).  Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert onto rack and let cool completely.

Can be made 3 days ahead and stored airtight at room temperature.

NOTES: I used butter instead of oil spray and  used the zest of a whole lemon and. to me, that was the perfect amount.  I used non-fat Greek yogurt since that was the only kind I had.  The cake was very good. It would probably be fabulous with the richer yogurt.