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Gâteau au Yaourt Pour le Dîner (Dinner Party-Worthy Yogurt Cake)

A french style yogurt based loaf cake topped with grand marnier glaze sliced on a serving tray.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne

A few small changes, including a Grand Marnier soaking syrup and a rum glaze, turn a childhood favorite yogurt cake into a dinner party classic. If you like candied orange peel, chop up a handful and add it.

This recipe was excerpted from ‘Gateau’ by Aleksandra Crapanzano. Buy the full book on Amazon. Click here for more French desserts

Ingredients

Makes 1 cake

For the cake

1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
Grated zest of 1 orange
½ cup (125g) whole plain yogurt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ cups (180g) all-purpose or cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. fine sea salt
½ cup neutral oil, such as canola or grapeseed

For the soaking syrup

2 Tbsp. Grand Marnier
2 Tbsp. orange juice
¼ cup (50g) superfine sugar

For the glaze

¾ cup apricot jam or marmalade
2 tsp. rum or water

Preparation

  1. Make the cake

    Step 1

    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour an 8½ x 4½-inch loaf pan.

    Step 2

    Combine the sugar and orange zest in a bowl and, using your fingertips, rub them together to distribute the citrus oils.

    Step 3

    Whisk the yogurt and eggs together. Add the zesty sugar and vanilla and whisk to thoroughly combine. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk just to combine.

    Step 4

    Add the oil and whisk just until homogenous.

    Step 5

    Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35–45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

  2. Make the soaking syrup

    Step 6

    Prepare the syrup by heating the Grand Marnier and orange juice in a microwave until warm, but not hot. Stir in the sugar to dissolve. Drizzle this over the cake while still warm.

  3. Make the glaze

    Step 7

    To make the glaze, warm the jam with the rum over low heat. Strain. Brush onto the cake once it has cooled to room temperature.

Cook’s note:

This yogurt cake recipe can also be made in an 8-inch springform or 9-inch round cake pan. A 9-inch cake will only take around 30–35 minutes to bake, whereas an 8-inch round will take closer to 40 and a medium loaf between 35 and 45.

Image may contain: Food, Dessert, Menu, Text, Confectionery, Sweets, and Plant
Images and text from Gateau by Aleksandra Crapanzano. Buy the full book from Scribner or Amazon.
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How would you rate Gâteau au Yaourt Pour le Dîner (Dinner Party-Worthy Yogurt Cake)?

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  • It's super delicious, however I put in the oil with the wet ingredients in order to avoid overmixing, used less sugar, no sugar in the soak and no glaze. Brought it in for a birthday party at work and everyone raved. Love the orange flavor! Plan to make it again with lemon zest and juice. Highly recommend!

    • Gesa

    • Germany

    • 1/31/2024

  • I wouldn’t serve this alone for a dinner party: maybe with some sort of poached fruit. It’s a perfect cake for tea time though. I followed the recipe except that I cut the sugar to 150 grams. It’s still a bit sweet for me. I used Triple Sec instead of Grand Marnier for the soak. It took the full 45 minutes to bake, becoming golden brown in the last 5. The cake is beautifully light and moist and has a nice crumb. I’m glad it’s too sweet because otherwise I would keep eating it.

    • Moosegirl

    • 9/15/2023

  • The order of ingredients definitely needs to be changed. Mix all the wet ingredients first including the oil then add the flour mixture. Otherwise it takes too mixing at the end and it doesn’t rise enough. It becomes a dense tasty giant cookie. Lol. If I make it again I would definitely do it the traditional way of the wet together and the dry together.

    • Anonymous

    • Waterloo, ON

    • 3/10/2023

  • I made this cake yesterday and it was easy. I used sour cream that I had on hand instead of yogurt. I substituted lemon juice and sweet vermouth for the Grand Marnier and orange juice. Then for the icing I used raspberry jelly.

    • Anonymous

    • Detroit

    • 2/25/2023

  • Made this last night and I think I would make a few changes. I used 3/4 cup of sugar and only did the apricot glaze and no soak. Cake was still sweet with just that. I would mix in the oil with the wet batter first and then add flour. I would increase yogurt quantity to 3/4 cup and use just 2 eggs instead of 3 (I used regular American large sized eggs, so maybe French eggs are smaller?). I had followed the recipe as directed, but I was afraid of overmixing the final batter once the oil was poured in. While the cake came out as it looks in the photo, I felt like there were moments where I got just a bit too much of an "eggy" taste in certain bites.

    • JG

    • New York, NY

    • 2/23/2023

  • I recently had a Decadent Coffee Crisp Cake Recipe Coffee Crisp Cake and it was delicious! It was so moist with a great coffee-chocolate flavor. The cake was frosted with a thick layer of creamy coffee icing that made it so indulgent. I loved the way the flavors blended together and it was a perfect dessert to finish off my meal. I would highly recommend this cake to anyone looking for a tasty treat!

    • Mento

    • NY

    • 1/1/2023

  • Delicious and moist! I used Kefir instead of yoghurt and added 50 grams of home made candied orange. Used a bit less sugar because of that. I also did not add the glaze - it was plenty sweet. I would cut down on the sugar significantly if I would add a glaze. It took about an hour to bake through. Brought it to a dinner party and indeed, it was a sucess. Will make again!

    • Cornelia

    • South Orange, NJ

    • 10/16/2022

  • Fantastic results! I made the recipe as written but used a holiday Bundt pan. It was delicious & I got so many compliments!!

    • Lindy

    • Brewster, NY

    • 12/25/2022

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