Yogurt cake!

Another Joy the Baker recipe - thank you Joy! I especially love how many savory recipes she's been writing up as of late.

The reason I wanted to bake (well, ok, other than that I always want to bake) was the horrible mood I found myself in most of Wednesday and Thursday. You know that bratty, petulant feeling you get? And then, recognizing that you have no reason and no right to be so agitated, you just get angrier, consumed with guilt and bitterness that just grow on each other like a virus in a putrid petri dish? No? Well anyway, it was a bad mood. Cake makes me feel better, 100 % of the time. I particularly liked how I had to handle the ingredients - zesting a grapefruit, rubbing the zest into a bowl of sugar, stirring it all together with a spatula. It could be that I'm the worst case of reverse-feminine mystique in the history of ever - longing to get out of the office so I can just get back in the kitchen and do what I'm good at. And if the review of this cake around the office are any indication, I'm decently good at baking.

Yeesh, I should work on my baking documentation skills - this does not look so good!

Grapefruit Yogurt Cake (via Joy the Baker)

2 cups flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup yogurt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup grapefruit juice

zest of one grapefruit 

vanilla extract

3 Tablespoons powdered sugar

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour a 9- or 10-inch cake pan. 

Zest one grapefruit and collect the zest in a large mixing bowl bowl. Add the sugar and pinch the zest into it until it is thoroughly incorporated and fragrant. Juice the grapefruit until you have 1/2 cup of grapefruit juice. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. In another medium bowl mix together the yogurt, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and one tablespoon of the grapefruit juice. 

Crack the eggs into the large mixing bowl with the zesty sugar and mix the two on high until it is pale and creamy. Add the yogurt/veggie oil mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and mix on medium until just combined. Pour into the cake pan and smooth the top with the spatula. Place in the oven to bake for about 30-40 minutes (35 was good for mine, 33 would have been perfect). When the top is golden and cake pulls away from the sides of the pan it's done. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove and cool on a rack.

The glaze:

Mix the remaining grapefruit juice and 3 Tablespoons of powdered sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil while stirring, then turn the stove down until the liquid is simmering, still stirring, for ten minutes. Puncture the top of the cake in several places (I used a thin paring knife, a skewer would work as well) and pour the glaze over the top of the cake. Joy recommended using a pastry brush to spread the glaze and I agree - I also used it to spread the glaze on the sides of the cake, which looked really pretty. 

The last step is to serve it to your coworkers with a big smile and a "Happy Friday!" I promise it'll erase that angry-shrew feeling you've had the whole rest of the week.