Yes yes yes, we need the rain, that doesn't mean I don't need to eat cake about it
As my friends know, one of the reasons I hate the colder months of the year is because I hate wearing tights and leggings. I almost always find them super uncomfortable and ill fitting, but as someone who prefers dresses to pants, they're necessary when it's chilly or rainy out (or worse, of course, but I live in California, that's as cold as it gets in the Bay Area). Often I choose to just be bare legged and cold while outside, and to stay outside as little as possible on those days. But a few months ago I had to take a last minute trip to a much colder climate than my own, so I sucked it up and bought these fleece lined leggings at Target, ready to sacrifice comfort for warmth. People! These are excellent! They are warm, they are cozy (they feel like wearing sweatpants, except skin tight sweatpants), the waistline is high enough to cover my butt, they stay up (unlike many many brands of leggings and tights I've tried in the past), they're just perfect. They're so comfortable I keep them on when I get home and wear them until bedtime! I need to buy two more pairs, because I've been wearing them constantly in this rainy week here. And soon it will no longer be fleece leggings season and Target might stop carrying them, so we all need to buy them asap before they're out of stores.
Earlier this week, I did a long-ish Twitter thread about how to look for an agent, or what to do when you have a manuscript that you think you want to traditionally publish, but you don't know what to do next. I learned all of this in dribs and drabs over the course of like, five years, and I hope my time agonizing over all of this stuff was helpful for some other people! (In the end, obviously, it was helpful for me, so it was worth it). If any of you have questions about any of this, feel free to reply to this newsletter and ask! I may not know the answer though, just a warning, because publishing is full of weird little rules for different genres and types of writers, but I'm happy to help if I do. (And as you may already know, the book that got me my agent, The Wedding Date, is available now! Purchase it from one of these fine retailers if you like!)
Before I get to this week's recipe, I have a note about a recipe from a few weeks ago! I've been making this sausage, kale, and garbanzo bean thing from this newsletter a bunch, and a few times I wondered if I could do it a lazy way and put everything on a big sheet pan in the oven with a bunch of olive oil, so this week (with my ankle still sore enough that I didn't want to stand at a stove for any amount of time) I tried it, and it worked great! I broke the sausage up into small-ish pieces with my fingers, tossed everything on the sheet pan (I like these, which are cheap and sturdy) and mixed it all up with my hands, and then stuck it in a 450 degree oven for 15 minutes. I think a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes might have been a little better (the kale was a little crunchier than I would have liked, the beans weren't as crunchy as I like), but it was still great and super easy.
Okay, on to the cake! Last weekend I made this lemon yogurt anything cake from Smitten Kitchen because I wanted to, and my favorite cocoa brownies for my family because my sister demanded them. This was my first time making this cake, and I was glad I was the only one who really wanted it, because I thought for a while it would be a failure: I discovered midway through cooking that I only had half the amount of sugar I needed; I subbed brown sugar for the remaining sugar but because of a few mistakes on my part, wasn't totally sure how much brown sugar I needed, so I guestimated; and when I tasted the batter while cleaning the bowl after scooping the cake into the loaf pan, it tasted way too tangy, and I was pretty sure the cake would be a failure. But it was not! It was a very tasty and easy to make cake (the tang is all because of the yogurt), and has been perfect with my coffee all week. I happened to have blueberries, so I made it almost exactly as per the recipe, but I'm excited to try out some of her variations. Also, I made the glaze, but I don't think this recipe needs it, so next time I make it I probably won't bother, and will just sift powdered sugar over it or use nothing at all.
Lemon Yogurt Blueberry Loaf Cake
1 1/2 cups (190 grams) (plus 1 tablespoon for the fruit, if using it) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (230 grams) plain whole milk yogurt
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon (215 grams) granulated sugar
3 eggs*
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (I used the zest of two lemons and it was just right)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1/3 cup (80 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
*the recipe calls for extra large eggs because it's originally an Ina Garten recipe and she always calls for extra large eggs, which is the only thing that irritates me about Ina. I always just use regular eggs and it's fine.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2 loaf pan very well (I didn't quite grease mine well enough and it stuck a little on the sides. Line the bottom with parchment paper.
Sift together 1 1/2 cups flour, the baking powder and salt into a small bowl. In a larger bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup of sugar, the eggs, the lemon zest, the vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. If you're using blueberries or other berries, toss them into the bowl that the dry ingredients were in with the remaining tablespoon of flour, and fold them into the batter. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester turns out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack for about ten minutes.
While the cake is cooling, cook the lemon juice and the remaining tablespoon of sugar together until the sugar dissolves, and let cool a little bit.
Flip the cake out onto a cooling rack set over something that can take the drippings, and brush the lemon syrup over the cake with a pastry brush. Cool and eat.
Have a great weekend!
Jasmine
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