Cake and tea are a natural combination. Pound cakes in particular always seem to make it to the tea tray, and date back to the 1700s. They were so named because of the quantity of ingredients:one pound of each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. It made quite a few loafs, but eventually the quantities were adjusted to make smaller cakes, but still butter is a big part off the ingredients. No wonder there have been many variations on the pound cake to make a lighter loaf. Try this light version which still has great taste, and delightful fresh texture, but has none of the fat.
It is a sturdy cake that won’t crumble so you can also cut into bite sized pieces and top with lemon curd or other sweet toppings to make your own lemon creations for your tea or garden party,
Lovely Light Lemon Yoghurt Loaf
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. kosher salt
- 1 cup plain non fat yoghurt
- 1 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)
- 1 large egg
- 3 large egg whites
- 2 tbsp. grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
- ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce to replace butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a loaf pan of your choice but adjust your time in the oven if you are using a smaller pan to allow the centre to bake.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl and whisk until combined. In a large bowl, mix together the yoghurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and applesauce.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients and mix in the wet ingredients until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 60 minutes or until a cake tester placed in the center comes out clean. Really make sure the loaf has finished baking or it may collapse when as it cools.
- Let cool on a wire rack, then remove from the pan and serve. You could make a sugary sweet lemon glaze as the higher fat versions do, but that would defeat the purpose of taking the guilt out of the pleasure.
- To really bring out the flavour of the lemon, slice, toast and top with your favorite preserves, like strawberry, or top with a nice low fat ice cream and drizzle with honey...yum.
