French Aunt's Australian Lemon Yoghurt Cake

This is such an easy cake to make and definitely one of my favourites - though I would say that, wouldn't I? I wish I could take the credit for it but it's one that I saw first on Pinterest and I have adapted it to suit my own personal tastes. It's called French Grandmother's Lemon Yoghurt Cake and you can find it on Pinterest or you can click here for the Cafe Sucre Farine website to see the original recipe in full.

I don't have a French grandmother, but I do have a French Aunt. Although she's not really French - she's Scottish Australian but she lives in France and is more French than croissants these days. Anyway, I'm sure she'd like this as much as I do and next time I visit I'll be sure to make it for her.

You'll see that this recipe has a lot of 'half cup' measures in it. Half of this, half of that... That's because in France the yoghurt comes in these gorgeous little pots of glass or terracotta and the recipe is built upon emptying the yoghurt and using the empty pot to measure out the rest of the ingredients. What could be simpler? I LOVE those little pots, like absolutely adore them. I ate a ridiculous amount of yoghurt in France simply so I could smuggle the pots back home to Australia and use them for any purpose I choose. I can't even put them in a cupboard. They sit out on the bench top near the kettle and I look at them every day. They still make me smile.

Now I'm going to keep this really easy. Preheat your oven to moderate, that's about 180 degrees centigrade, and make sure your shelf is in the right spot. Prepare your baking tin in the way you prefer.

You simply want to take all the wet ingredients and the sugar, and whip them in the mixer for a good 4-5 minutes. It's a bit like creaming the butter and sugar of a regular cake recipe, but you're using oil and yoghurt instead of the butter.

So, that's 3 eggs, half a cup of sunflower oil, half a cup of natural yoghurt, a cup of sugar and some lemon zest and juice to taste. Whip away!

Once it's thoroughly blended turn off the mixer and gently add a cup and a half of self raising flour and a teaspoon of baking powder. Start with the mixer on slow and incorporate the dry ingredients into the better and mix again on medium speed for a couple of minutes.

The cake batter will be the consistency of thick honey - it's not an especially thick mixture - and it should pour slowly into the prepared tin. As always I've used a 20cm round heavy anodised aluminium tin - my favourite tins for conducting heat and even baking. In just 35minutes or so, this beautiful cake emerges from the oven. You'll know it's done when it's firm to the touch and light golden on top.

Doesn't it look delicious? This one has added fresh raspberries. They're a delicate berry and I added them at the very last moment, folding them through the batter just before pouring it into the tin.

Does it need a topping? Icing? Frosting? No... I don't think so. Fresh cream is all that's needed if you really need something, but this one is simply dusted with icing sugar and a touch of gold dust. So, so good.