earl grey yogurt cake

i go through phases with yogurt--sometimes i love it, sometimes it's nausea-inducing. i'm currently in the latter phase, and had a giant tub of vanilla yogurt left over from the former phase. rather than let it go to waste, i decided to turn it into something i could absolutely go for: a cake!

i based my recipe on this one. this earl grey yogurt cake is full of spices, and is perfect on a sunday afternoon with tea and a good book. make it and impress your boyfriends parents, or your own parents. i really am a functional adult, mom!

to make one loaf, you'll need:

• 1 1/2 cups of flour, plus extra for dusting your baking dish
• knob of butter
• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 packets of earl grey tea, tea dumped out of the bag and ground up finely
• 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt (or whatever you have--up the sugar to 1 cup if you're using plain yogurt)
• 1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

preheat your oven to 350 F (180 C).

grab your loaf pan (8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2 in or 21 x 11 x 6 cm) and rub the inside down with butter, then put a few tablespoons of flour in there. tap it around so the whole inside is covered in a light dusting of flour, and then dump out the excess.

in a largeish bowl, combine your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, spices, etc.). whisk them together so they're well combined. by the way, to grind up your tea you can put it in a mortar and pestle and go to town, or pop it in whatever weird little magic bullet you own. or, using your thumb and the palm of your hand, smash up the tea leaves a bit. you need to release the oils in the tea or you can't taste a god damn thing in this cake.

in a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients. add the wet ingredients to the dry, and fold them together with a wooden spoon or spatula thing.

pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan, and pop it in the oven for 50-55 min.

let cool, then cut it into a few pieces and binge in front of the next four episodes of Scandal in your pajamas. wrap the loaf in tin foil to keep it fresh ta death for just under a week.

honestly, this recipe is super easy and pretty much foolproof, which is why i love it. you could omit the spices and make a vanilla cake, or zest an orange or a lemon in there and make a quick glaze for the top. here are a few more combinations that would be great:

lemon and lavender
orange and cardamom
thyme and lavender

you can also make a super simple glaze which will give it more flavor and keep it even moister. (moist. i had to say it.)

just mix up some powdered sugar with milk until it's pretty thin with no lumps, and add orange zest, lemon zest, whatevs. OR if you want to get really fancy, steep a bag of earl grey tea or some lavender in some milk and warm it up on the stove til it's almost boiling, then let it cool. then mix it with your powdered sugar. oh, and make sure to strain the lavender out if you use it. gross.

for now, here's what this cake is looking like:

i'd like the whole thing, please.