Low-Fat Lemon Loaf Cake

I know I’m about a month too late at jumping on the healthy recipes bandwagon, but I’m cool with that. I’m going to hazard a guess that for most of you (myself included), one of your New Year’s resolutions involved healthier eating. Today I’m going to be that voice in your head reminding of you of that resolution. I’ll be your one month reminder to get back on that wagon. At the same time, I’m going to remind you that healthier eating doesn’t have to be boring and bland.

Today I’ve got a recipe that is packed full of lemony zing and tastes like it should be bad for you, but is really only a little bit bad for you – a Low-Fat Lemon Loaf Cake. I’ve found a lot of recipes that claim to be healthy or lightened up, but I feel that these are misnomers, as most recipes still contain a lot of sugar and carbohydrates, and have just substituted the fat out of the recipe. That’s why I’ve renamed this recipe as low-fat rather than healthy. I also love alliteration. You can definitely enjoy a piece or two without too much of a guilty conscience, but you probably shouldn’t gobble down the whole thing in one sitting. As much as you may want to. And you will want to, take my word for it. This stuff is good.

 

This loaf cake is bursting with zesty lemony-ness. It reminded me that lemon-based desserts are one of my favourites, I’m a sucker for a lemon tart. I might even go so far as to say that lemon-based desserts rank higher than chocolate-based ones on my list of all time favourites sweets. Crazy, I know. Ten years ago, probably even five years ago, chocolate would’ve dominated hands down every time, but I like to think my palate has developed and broadened since then, and chocolate has been pushed a bit further down my list to make room for my new bestie, lemon.

Serves 12-14

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

CAKE:

⅔ cup olive oil

1¼ cup caster sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

200g Greek yoghurt

½ cup lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla essence

Zest of 1 lemon

1½ cups plain flour

¾ tsp bicarb soda

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

ICING:

½ cup icing sugar

3-4 tsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Grease or line a 22cm x 11cm (2 lb) loaf pan. In a large bowl, mix olive oil, caster sugar, eggs, Greek yoghurt, lemon juice, vanilla essence and lemon zest. Set aside. In another large bowl, sift flour, bicarb soda, baking powder and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and whisk well to combine.
2. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for approx. 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan.
3. Meanwhile, make icing: sift icing sugar into a small bowl, and add lemon juice, one teaspoon at a time, mixing well after each addition. You want a fairly runny consistency, so that it drips down the sides of the loaf. Remove loaf from pan and drizzle icing over, spreading with a spatula or knife to cover. Allow icing to set fully before serving.

Recipe from Grandbaby Cakes, rewritten.

Tags: Cake, healthier, lemon, loaf, low-fat, Recipe