Lemon Yogurt Cake

My family knows how hard I've been trying to find a perfect (or near-perfect) recipe to replicate the wonderfully soft and lemony Starbucks lemon cake. I have had several failed attempts over the years as I made woefully naive baking mistakes - ingredients not at room temperature, over-beating the batter with zealous enthusiasm, not knowing which ingredients to overlook and which ones to not, etc. 

 

Anyway, without further rambling, I am pleased to say that I have finally found the magic recipe. It is none other than Ina Garten's, of course. Her lemon yogurt cake is the winner! It has simple ingredients, the right amount of lemon flavor, and is mildly sweet. And, I followed her recipe to the letter. All ingredients were at room temperature, and if she said whisk, I whisked, if she said stir, I stirred, and if she said fold, I folded. The only minor difference was that my cake took 60 minutes to bake, instead of the predicted 50 minutes. The cake is also not as buttery or rich as expected. It has 1/2 cup vegetable oil instead of butter, less sugar than most other cakes, and other simple ingredients found in the pantry. I might decide to add some more lemon zest in the future, though. Also, in the past I've underestimated the importance of soaking the cake with lemon-sugar syrup. Most of the lemon flavor and zing come from this. So, don't overlook it. The syrup also keeps the cake moist.

I tried several attempts of making an egg-less lemon cake (adding flax seeds or apple sauce or extra buttermilk, yogurt, etc), but I am sorry to say that none worked. The consistency was way off and the cake turned out to be tough with a curious texture. Only eggs seem to do the trick. Or maybe I still need to experiment with the measurements. But for now, Ina's recipe with eggs brings home the lovely lemon cake!