The Imaginary world of Taxi: A is for April like April is to Lemons: Lemon Yogurt Cake

OK first things first- I am covered with sugar syrup, and by covered I mean imagine those girls at those lesbian mud wrestling contests, now dim down the sexiness and made the mud something sweet and edible and you have me at this very moment. It is DISGUSTING. My feet are sticking to the floor, my fingers are glued to each other- and I can feel it between my toes...

You may be wondering why I am covered in sugar syrup, and no its not some weird perverted sex kink, and to those who like being covered in sugar during sex, well hey thats your business.

ANYWAY I digress, I am covered in sugar syrup because I tried my hand at making Lemon Yogurt Cake for my first application into the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop and Lemon was the chosen ingredient for this fine month of April. I used so much sugar. So much. My teeth want to kill me as much as my tongue wants to kiss me (yea! try thinking that one through)

But anyway this is my (slightly stolen from Ina Garten) Lemon Yogurt Cake.

You need:

1 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plain full fat yogurt
2 1/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating the outside of the cake
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup lemon juice (preferably freshly squeezed, if not thats cool too)
1 lemon

The Harder Bit:

Preheat the oven to about 180C and prep a cake pan.

Sift together the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl.

In another bowl whisk together the yogurt, eggs, 1 cup of sugar and vanilla essence. Make sure that as soon as the sugar and eggs touch you mix them immediately, as one of the properties of sugar is that it can chemically cook the eggs :/

Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet, and using a spatula fold the vegetable oil into the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick slid into the middle comes out cleanly. If your cake starts to get burnt at the top, but isn't finished yet you can always put some aluminium over the top, like so:

Meanwhile, slice up your lemon into teeni tiny slices, wrench out the seeds and fit them into a frying pan and cover them with 2 1/2 cups of water. Bring to the boil then leave to simmer for about 35-40 minutes, if you have to refresh the water to keep them all below the surface do so.

MEANWHILE, combine 1/3 cup of sugar with 1/3 cup of lemon juice and bring to the boil over the stove, leave to simmer until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid is clear. Set aside for later.

45 minutes later: Take out your lemons and place them on some paper towel and pat them dry.

Pour in the final cup of sugar into the lemon water stuff in the pan and bring to the boil, re-add your lemons. Let those two simmer together for the next 10-15 minutes. (let them get all hot and sticky together ;D)

I digress: after the 15 minutes remove the lemons from their spa and place them on a wire rack over the sink. (Don't even think of putting them on paper towels to drip dry- they will STICK! and you will have to eat paper towel along with your candied lemons)

Your cake should be out of the oven by now, and if it isn't, my god, you better go check on it. Let it cool for about 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer it to a wire rack.

While its still warm, pour over the lemon juice and sugar combination and let the syrup sink into the cake (make sure you have a container underneath the wire rack!!) , I've also found using a brush and brushing down the sides of the cake with the syrup helps with the absorption. Let it cool completely.