Recently I was surprised with this beautifully decorated cake. It was a birthday gift from my partner who rarely bakes so I couldn’t help but take a few photos (before I eagerly asked to try it right away). After tasting it, totally adoring it and finding out that he had followed a Donna Hay recipe however had made a few sneaky (and while risky well worth it) adjustments, I couldn’t not share the recipe. If you’re a fan of light yet super lemony lemon cakes I highly recommend trying it!

Adapted from Donna Hay’s beautiful lemon and yoghurt cake recipe, Andrew used a little less sugar, more lemon juice and rind and also olive oil instead of vegetable oil. The result – a lemony, light moist cake (which despite using less sugar was still beautifully sweet) with a zesty sweet lemon icing and bursts of fresh thyme. The thyme really makes it. If you’re a fan of lemon cakes I highly recommend it! It’s beautiful as it is but also nice served with dollops of Greek style yoghurt. And, I must admit decorations of berries and fresh fruit (this cake featured thinly sliced fegoa) does add not only prettiness but lovely flavour accents and a freshness.

If you don’t have a Bundt tin I’m sure this cake will work well in a similar size round tin (eg. a 23cm round tin).

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp. finely grated lemon rind
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup plain Greek style yoghurt
• 1 cup caster sugar (if you don’t have caster sugar you could use raw or white, or even coconut sugar)
• 2 cups self raising flour
• Fresh thyme (at least 2 Tbsp. worth of thyme leaves)

For the lemon drizzle:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp. finely grated lemon rind
• Tbsp. boiling water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160 Degrees Celcius and grease a 24cm Bundt tin.
2. Then place the olive oil, eggs, sugar, yoghurt, lemon rind and juice in a large bowl and using a whisk combine all.
3. Add flour and using a wooden spoon mix until all is combined.
4. Pour into your prepared tin and bake for 50mins or until a skewer when inserted comes out clean. Allow the cake to stand in the tin while you make the drizzle.
5. In a medium bowl combine the icing sugar, lemon juice and hot water.
6. Then remove cake from tin, I suggest placing it on a plate or wooden board, and carefully spoon the icing over the cake while the cake is warm. This way you catch extra icing (which is nice for scraping up and serving as extra icing). Add thyme leaves while the icing is still wet to allow them to stick. And there you have it. The lemon drizzle icing will harden quite quickly, if serving when the cake’s still warm it’s divine.

Gestational Diabetes –

This cake can be made to be suitable for ladies with GDM. But I would recommend enjoying this occasionally and having one piece only as a snack or dessert (2 hours or more after/before a meal). To make this cake more suitable I would suggest using coconut sugar and only 1/3 of a cup full. If baking this cake following the recipe and using 1/3 cup of sugar I would recommend dividing the cake into 20 or ideally 24 slices. One slice will be suitable to enjoy as mentioned in between meals or as a dessert (at least 2 hours after dinner if dinner contains some carbohydrate). If unsure of what’s best for you however, I would recommend speaking with your Dietitian or feel free to reach out to me via email or social media

Lara x