A soft, lemony loaf made with yogurt, oil and eggs, mixed in one bowl. The first cake most French children bake, measured with a yogurt pot, adapted here for the big tubs Canadian yogurt comes in.
Gâteau au yaourt is the first cake I ever baked, with my mom. It's the cake French kids start with: you tip the yogurt into the bowl, then use the empty pot to measure the sugar, the flour and the oil, and it's very hard to get wrong.
In Canada, the oil is no problem. Canola is a Canadian rapeseed, the same family as the colza oil French recipes call for, and in a lemon loaf you can't taste the difference. What's missing here is the little 125 g pot itself.
Gâteau au yaourt is a plain, moist loaf made with yogurt and a little oil instead of butter, usually flavoured with lemon. It's eaten at breakfast or at goûter, with nothing on it.
Measuring without a 125 g pot
In France, plain yogurt comes in 125 g pots, and the empty pot measures everything else. Canadian plain yogurt mostly comes in big tubs of 650 or 750 g, so the recipe below is in grams. A ½ cup (125 mL) measure stands in for the pot if you'd rather do it the French way.
Oil is why it stays soft
There's no butter in it, only 60 mL of oil, and that's why it's still moist on day three, when a butter cake has gone firm. Use a neutral oil: olive oil takes over a cake this plain.
Making it in Canada
The 3 French ingredients, and what to buy for them in Canada.
Yaourt nature (pot de 125 g)→Plain yogurt, 2–3.25% M.F. (not Greek)
A French yaourt nature is set in its pot and loose once stirred. Any plain Canadian yogurt at 2–3.25% M.F., stirred or set, behaves the same in this cake. Greek yogurt is much thicker and makes a heavy crumb; if it's all you have, thin 100 g of it with 25 mL milk.
🛒 Astro Original 3% Balkan Style Plain (750 g) and Liberté Classique 2% Plain (650 g) are both listed at Voilà (Sobeys). Whatever the brand, the label should say plain, with no added sugar: a vanilla tub makes the cake too sweet.
Huile de tournesol ou de colza→Canola oil
Colza is rapeseed, and canola is a rapeseed bred in Canada, so it's the natural swap. Any neutral oil, sunflower included, works the same.
Sachet de levure chimique (11 g)→2 level tsp baking powder
French recipes use one 11 g sachet for a cake this size. Two level teaspoons of Canadian baking powder is enough for 200 g of flour. Level them off: a heaped spoon makes the loaf dome and crack hard, and too much leaves a bitter, soapy edge.
🛒 Magic Baking Powder, 225 g tin, at Metro, IGA, Walmart and Sobeys.
Good to know: To measure the French way with a ½ cup (125 mL) measure: 1 of yogurt, 2 of sugar, 3 of flour, ½ of oil, plus 3 eggs and 2 tsp baking powder. It gives a slightly sweeter cake than the grams below.
Ready to cook?
French Yogurt Cake
Gâteau au yaourt
A soft, lemony loaf made with yogurt, oil and eggs, mixed in one bowl. The first cake most French children bake, measured with a yogurt pot, adapted here for the big tubs Canadian yogurt comes in.
Prep time
10 min
Cook time
45 min
Resting time
10 min
Total time
1 hr 5 min
Servings
8
Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then continue cooling on a rack; the listed total is a minimum and rack cooling is additional.
Ingredients
Original recipe: 8 servings.
Instructions
Prepare the pan. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Butter a 23 × 13 cm (9 × 5 in) loaf pan and line it with a strip of parchment.
Mix the wet ingredients. Whisk the yogurt, eggs, sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl until smooth.
Add the dry ingredients. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the bowl and stir until just combined. A few small lumps are fine.
Add the oil. Stir in the oil until the batter is smooth and glossy.
Bake. Pour into the pan and bake 40–50 minutes, until golden, risen and a skewer in the centre comes out clean. If the top browns too fast, cover it loosely with foil after 30 minutes.
Cool. Let it cool in the pan 10 minutes, then lift it out and cool on a rack.
Notes
Keeps 3 days wrapped at room temperature, and freezes well in slices.
For a round cake, use a 23 cm (9 in) pan and bake 30–35 minutes.
If the loaf sinks in the middle, it came out too early or the baking powder was heaped. Next time, bake until the skewer comes out clean from the very centre, not just near it.
Course: Baking · Cuisine: French · Adapted for Canadian kitchens
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