Lemon Loaf Cake

Lemon Loaf with Blueberries

I seem to have been doing a lot of lemon baking lately. That is probably because I love citrus flavored desserts and partly because both the hubs and I purchased a bag of lemons and I hate letting things go to waste. Since I still have a pint of blueberries frozen in the fridge (from little B’s infamous blueberry strike) I figured I would give a lemon blueberry cake a shot.

I love Barefoot Contessa and this delicious recipe is a slight adaptation of her original which is spectacular as well just a bit too sweet for me. The thing I like about this cake is that it uses yogurt which I always have on hand. It does call for plain but I have found that a flavored one of choice works well too.

1 ½ C All purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 C whole milk yogurt (I used maple flavored yogurt)
1/1/3 C sugar, divided
3 extra large eggs
2 tsp lemon zest (zest of two lemons)
½ tsp Vanilla
½ C vegetable oil
⅓ C plus 1 tbs FRESH lemon juice (it really does make a difference)
2 C frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. In another bowl, whisk yogurt, 1 C of sugar, eggs, lemon zest, 1 tbs lemon juice and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet and then use a spatula to fold oil into the batter to make sure it is incorporated. Layer the bottom of the pan with the frozen blueberries and pour the batter into the greased pan. Bake for 1 hour or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

While the cake is baking cook the remaining lemon juice and sugar in a small sauce pan until all the sugar is dissolved. Set the mixture aside and wait for the cake to finish baking. Pull the cake out of the oven and immediately poke holes all around the cake and pour the lemon syrup mixture over allowing it to seep into the cake. Allow the cake to cool and serve.