Blackberry Lemon Yogurt Cake

As I write this post, I'm putting off starting my second to last take home exam before I graduate (it's due at noon tomorrow..it's 1am). It's funny to think that in two days I will be completely done with school for the rest of my life. No grad school for me. My bf is in law school, and I honestly feel like I've experienced the misery of it through him. I would write a longer post dedicated to nostalgia and things of that sort, but I currently have food on the brain. More specifically, this amazing cake. I think it's my favorite new recipe.

This is the kind of cake you finish a piece of and feel like you will have to be physically restrained to resist grabbing another piece. Maybe it's the lemon. Maybe it's the addition of Greek yogurt (brilliant!). Maybe it's that I find blackberries terribly addicting. But, I made it with strawberries too and it was just as good, maybe even better. Ah, the dilemmas of a bake-a-holic. The bigger problem is no one wants to eat around exam time because they're all jacked up on caffeine, stress and meds. So, it's just me chowing down on my cake. Graduation gowns are one size fits all, right?

But seriously, make this cake. You won't regret it. Blackberries, strawberries, raspberries -- use whatever is on sale or whatever you have on hand! I'm in lurve.


Fresh Blackberry Yogurt Cake
Recipe from A Spicy Perspective

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tb. lemon juice, divided
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 8 oz. plain or vanilla, Greek yogurt (I used Oikos)
• 12 oz. fresh blackberries *
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325*. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan (10-15 cup pan.) Sift together the 2 ¼ cups of flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tb. lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.
3. Toss the blackberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. I rinsed them with water and didn't dry them off so the flour would stick. Gently mix them into the batter.
4. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. Allow to cool at least 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Drizzle over the top of the cake.
   
   *The original version of this cake is made with strawberries. Blackberries were on sale, so I used those instead the first time I made this. The second time I used strawberries. I'm honestly too blown away by both of them to pick one variation. You can't go wrong.

This is the strawberry version.

Sorry the photos aren't great -- it was a rainy morning before work!