Blueberry almond yogurt cake

I just scanned through this nine-year-old blog, which includes a lot of recipes of all kinds, and I didn't find a single recipe for a gâteau au yaourt, or yogurt cake. I'm surprised, because I make such cakes frequently. The gâteau au yaourt is one of the very few French dessert recipes in which all the ingredients are measured out by volume and not by weight.

Making this yogurt cake is child's play, and in France a lot of children learn to make yogurt cakes at a young age. They are taught that they can use the yogurt pot as a measuring cup — the standard pot of plain yogurt here contains half a cup. Since we Americans use measuring cups in our kitchens (rather than kitchen scales), I've translated the yogurt pot measures into 8 fl. oz. cups and 4 fl. oz. half-cups. Use the half-cup pot your yogurt comes in if you prefer.

Gâteau au yaourt
with blueberries and almond powder

½ cup plain yogurt

½ cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1½ cups flour

½ cup almond powder

3 eggs

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). In a big mixing bowl, cream together the yogurt, sugar, flour, almond powder, and vegetable oil. Add the eggs, baking powder, and vanilla and mix well to make a smooth batter. Fold in the blueberries.

Pour the batter into a buttered cake, loaf, or pie pan. Put the pan in the oven for 30 minutes. Test the cake for doneness starting after about 25 minutes by poking it with the point of a knife or skewer. When the point comes out clean and dry, the cake is done.

This bowl that CHM gave us makes a great cake cover.

You can make this cake without the blueberries, or you can substitute other fruit. You can also make it using two cups of flour and omitting the almond powder (but it won't be quite as tender or delicious). I haven't tried it, but I bet the batter would make good blueberry muffins or cupcakes.