Name: Brown Sugar Peach French Yogurt Cake
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Ingredients: For the Yogurt Cake:; Non-stick cooking spray; 1 ½ cups 6.75 ounces by weight all purpose flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ½ teaspoon kosher salt; ½ cup peach yogurt; 1 cup brown sugar (packed); 3 large eggs; 1 lemon zested; ½ cup pure olive oil or another neutral oil; For the Glaze:; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; 1 tablespoon heavy syrup from a can of peaches (See notes); ¾ cup confectioner’s sugar; Optional for Serving:; A dusting of confectioner’s sugar; Fresh berries; Diced peaches (either canned or fresh); Additional yogurt

French Yogurt Cake is the world’s easiest cake, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive, and this Brown Sugar Peach Yogurt Cake is simple to make and simply divine! It’s surprisingly sophisticated for a cake made with such humble ingredients.

I don’t need a good reason to make a French yogurt cake, but I do have one today. It is my sweet, brilliant, and beautiful French daughter-in-law Anaïs’s birthday.

While I wish we were sitting together at a table enjoying a slice (or three!) of this classic French dessert, I’ll just have to settle for a virtual slice of cake together for now and wishing my only daughter a very joyeux anniversaire over facetime.

French Yogurt Cake

What is French yogurt cake? It is a tender, delicately-sweet, classic French dessert also known as Gâteaux de Mamie or Granny Cake and it is glorious.

Yogurt cake is one of the first desserts many young French people learn to bake, and oftentimes, they learn to make it at their grandmother’s side, hence the name.

This is no boring cake, though, folks. At it’s simplest, it is a perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack.

Dressed up with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream and plain yogurt, a handful of berries or peaches, and a dusting of powdered sugar, this is a dessert to serve with pride to company.

And when I say it’s simple, whoa. I mean it.

Yogurt Cake Recipe

If you want to go old school French – or vieille école, en français- measure one jar of yogurt, one jar of oil, two jars of sugar, three jars of flour, three eggs, and salt plus baking powder. This simple formula this makes yogurt cake recipe a great project to make with kids or grand-kids.

On the other hand, if you -like me- only buy big tubs of yogurt, you’ll use 1/2 cup of yogurt, 1/2 cup oil, 1 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cups flour, 3 eggs, and salt plus baking powder. Still simple and HEY! Frugal to boot!

The French yogurt cake is all mixed in one bowl and baked in one pan. When the cake is turned out of the pan and is still warm, it is brushed generously and repeatedly with syrup to help keep it moist and flavourful.

You may have seen our Lemon Yogurt Cake here on Foodie with Family. Today’s version uses widely available peach yogurt plus syrup and fruit from a jar of canned peaches.

If you have flush with fresh peaches, feel free to substitute a simple syrup for the peach syrup and serve with diced fresh peaches.

I mentioned that we use peach yogurt in the cake, and I’m happy to report that the cake turns out equally well when made with lowfat or whole milk peach “regular” yogurt or lowfat or whole milk peach Greek yogurt.

Another small change that makes a big difference in today’s yogurt cake is the substitution of brown sugar for the normal white or turbinado sugar. Since brown sugar has a little molasses left in it, it lends a deeper, caramel like hints to the finished cake.

Cake Pans for Gâteaux de Mamie

You don’t have to get fancy here. I prefer to use a loaf pan for my yogurt cakes.

I’m pretty partial to these USA Pans both because they release the cake so easily after baking and because I the little ridges the pan makes on the sides pretty. They’re also my favourite bread loaf pans, which makes this a double win since pans need to do double duty in my house!

Yogurt Cake

To Make the Cake

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Spray a loaf or cake pan with nonstick cooking spray and line the bottom of the pan with parchment. Alternately, spray a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Set the pan aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set this aside.

Add the yogurt, sugar, eggs, and zest of the lemon to a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth and even in colour. Switch to a spatula and stir in the flour until moistened.

Add the oil and stir until the mixture comes back together and is even. Scrape into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick or skewer inserted near the center comes out clean.

Let the cake rest in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn the yogurt cake gently out onto a cooling rack set over a sheet pan.

To Glaze the Cake

Whisk together the lemon juice, peach syrup, and confectioner’s sugar and brush the glaze all over the top and sides of the yogurt cake. Repeat this process until all of the glaze has been used.

Allow the yogurt cake to cool completely. The glaze will firm up slightly as it cools.

To Serve

Serve yogurt cake in slices alone, dusted with confectioner’s sugar, or served with additional yogurt, crème fraîche, and diced peaches or berries.

Notes

If you do not have canned peaches, you can substitute 1 tablespoon of simple syrup or 1 more tablespoon of lemon juice for the peach syrup.