One beloved French cake is so easy that it is often the first recipe children are taught. Gâteau au yaourt, or yogurt cake, took hold when yogurt began to be sold in tiny jars in the early 20th century. The jar itself doubled as the measuring unit for the cake’s other ingredients.
Simply spoon the yogurt into the mixing bowl, then use the empty jar to measure one container of oil, two of sugar and three of flour. Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately then combine. Pour the loose batter into a pan and bake.
The result is a moist, tender cake with a fine crumb similar to pound cake, but it’s surprisingly light from using oil instead of butter.
In this recipe from our book “Cook What You Have,” we sadly couldn’t use the container to measure our ingredients since yogurt cups in the U.S. come in numerous sizes. But after standardizing the measurements, we boosted the flavor by adding grated citrus zest and cinnamon to the batter.