when life gives you lemons...

...there's a heck of a lot more to make than lemonade!


Our neighbor has the most amazing lemon tree. All year round the tree is laden with the most succulent juicy lemons. Although my favorite variety is the Meyer for its kinder bite, when it comes to cooking with some extra zing the good ol' traditional lemon makes for the biggest impact.
One of my favorite cakes is a simple yogurt cake that my mum would make. She'd take it straight out of the oven and while it was still piping hot, cover it in heavy dosing of cinnamon and sugar. We'd sit with our cup of tea and call it a day! This lemon yogurt cake with a blueberry syrup (that will just blow your mind) is an homage to that time in the kitchen with my mum. 


Doughy Lemon Maple Yogurt Cake

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt 

sift into a bowl

in a separate bowl whisk together

3 jumbo eggs

3/4 cup of sugar

1 cup of your favorite whole yogurt (I recommend fage greek yogurt)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/4 cup of good maple syrup

2 teaspoons of lemon zest

gradually add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until thick and evenly combined

add 1/2 a cup of vegetable oil to mixture and carefully fold in until even.

place in greased loaf pan and put in the oven for around 50 minutes until center is doughy but cooked.

The next part in this process absolutely takes this simple cake to the next level..

Lemon Vanilla Glaze

Combine 1/3 of sugar and 1/3 cups of lemon juice into saucepan.

Add half a vanilla bean with seeds or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Once syrup mixture is brought to the boil and sugar is completely dissolved remove from heat.

Slowly strain hot syrup over warm cake and allow mixture to soak completely into loaf.

loaf will be shiny and inviting... I dare you to resist!

The best part is that it keeps getting better over the following days. The worst part is that it's yet to last more than an afternoon!