Photo: Allrecipes

Greek Lemon Cake: A Light Yoghurt Cake Made With 9 Ingredients

by · Greek City Times

Greek lemon cake is a light tube cake of yoghurt, lemon zest and whipped egg whites.

Photo: Allrecipes

What is Greek lemon cake?

Greek home bakers simply call a plain everyday cake like this keik, a word borrowed from English. When yoghurt goes into the batter, many cooks call it yiaourtokeik.

Unlike semolina ravani soaked in syrup, this Greek lemon cake has no syrup at all. Instead, it relies on butter, sugar and tangy yoghurt for a moist crumb.

It also sits apart from our olive oil loaf with a tangy icing. That loaf uses oil and a glaze, while this yiaourtokeik uses butter and whipped whites.

Read more: Baked Quince: An Easy Greek Dessert With Cinnamon, Cloves and Port

A home cook named Carol shared the recipe on Allrecipes in 1998. Since then, it has earned 4.4 out of 5 from 222 ratings and 182 reviews. Home cooks have also posted 31 photos of their own bakes.

Ingredients for one tube pan

The Greek lemon cake makes 12 serves in a 25 cm (10-inch) ring-shaped tube pan. You need just nine ingredients:

  • about 350 g (3 US cups) cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 6 eggs, separated, to give the yoghurt sponge its lift
  • 400 g (2 US cups) white sugar, divided
  • 225 g (1 US cup) butter, softened
  • 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
  • lemon juice, 2 tablespoons
  • 240 ml (1 US cup) plain whole-milk yoghurt, the key to a moist yiaourtokeik

Cake flour for a Greek lemon cake can be hard to find in Australia. However, one reviewer made her own by swapping 2 tablespoons of each cup of plain flour for cornflour.

Choose plain, unsweetened yoghurt, because the sugar in the batter already does the sweetening.

According to Allrecipes, each serve has about 443 calories and 7 g protein. It also carries 63 g carbs, 35 g sugars and 19 g fat.

How to bake Greek lemon cake

Greek lemon cake takes about 30 minutes to prepare and 50 to 60 minutes to bake. In total, allow around an hour and a half for this yoghurt sponge.

  1. First, heat the oven to 175°C (350°F) and grease the tube pan.
  2. Then sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl, and set it aside.
  3. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add 100 g of the sugar gradually, beating until stiff, glossy peaks form.
  4. Next, beat the butter with the remaining 300 g of sugar for 3 to 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
  5. Blend in the egg yolks, zest and juice.
  6. After that, add the flour mixture alternately with the yoghurt, mixing until the yiaourtokeik batter is just combined.
  7. Gently fold in the whipped whites, then pour the batter into the pan.
  8. Bake until a skewer in the centre comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes.
  9. Finally, cool the Greek lemon cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack.

Because the whites give the cake its lift, fold them in slowly to keep air in the batter.

Tips from home cooks

MSelvidio gave the Greek lemon cake five stars and called it “Very delicious and light.” She stressed that the bowl for the whites must be completely free of grease.

Her other tip is to stir a third of the whites into the stiff batter first. That loosens it, so the rest folds in more easily.

Several cooks, by comparison, wanted a stronger citrus hit in their Greek lemon cake. One used the zest of three lemons and 6 tablespoons of juice, while another doubled both.

Victoria’s yoghurt sponge finished baking at 50 minutes, so she plans to check it at 45. Since ovens vary, start testing early.

Another reviewer baked it in a 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13-inch) tin when she had no tube pan. Similarly, a gluten-free flour worked well for Arlene Chambers.

For a smaller batch, MSelvidio halved the recipe and baked 12 cupcakes. She also liked the result when she swapped the yoghurt for sour cream.

Serving a yoghurt sponge

Serve the Greek lemon cake at room temperature with a light dusting of icing sugar. For extra tang, two cooks poured warm lemon juice and sugar over the top.

It also pairs well with a bowl of yoghurt, ideally the thick, strained kind, and a drizzle of honey. Alternatively, enjoy a slice with a small cup of coffee in the afternoon.

For a celebration, Alicooksfor5 turned her yiaourtokeik into a layer cake. She filled it with lemon curd and topped it with cream cheese frosting.

If you love yoghurt, see our idea for topping it with extra virgin olive oil. For another easy family bake, try our easy apple pie for autumn.

The full Greek lemon cake recipe, with every review, is on the original Allrecipes page.

Source: Allrecipes

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