Yogurt Cake

Yogurt Cake with Rhubarb Sauce

I bought a rhubarb plant a few years ago. It felt like it would take forever before it was large enough to harvest much rhubarb but now it's huge! I made a pie on Saturday (watch for the recipe!) and will make this cake for friends tomorrow. It's simple yet elegant, moist, just right for a warm summer evening, maybe with a glass of Proseco. Hope you make it soon; enjoy!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a nine-inch spring form pan. Cut out a circle of parchment to fit the bottom of the pan and grease it, too. Set aside.

Cake
1 cup plain, whole-milk yogurt
1/3 cup vegetable oil of your choice. I use canola or olive oil
1 cup  sugar  (don't cut this back. This is not an overly-sweet cake)
zest of half an orange
1/4 cup of orange juice *
2 large eggs, lightly beaten*
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 2/3 cups gluten-free flour. You may use sorghum or America's Test Kitchen* mix, or a GF flour mix you like. One of my favorite flours is Anson Mills Carolina Gold Rice Flour.
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum or two tsp psyllium seed husk powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Yogurt Cake

Whisk the wet ingredients together. Sift or whisk together the dry ingredients. Combine the two in the bowl of a stand mixer, a regular bowl if using a hand-held mixer, or a bowl and whisk by hand until nicely combined. Pour this batter into your prepared cake pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick or skewer comes out of the middle of the cake clean. Cool on a wire rack for ten minutes, then run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan. Loosen the side of the pan and lift it away. When completely cooled, you may transfer to a cake plate.

Rhubarb Sauce 
2 cups rhubarb cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1/3 cup sugar, more or less to your taste
2 teaspoons corn starch
1/4 cup water
Combine dry ingredients in a sauce pan, stirring to evenly distribute sugar and corn starch. Pour in the water. Turn heat on to medium-low and cook until rhubarb is soft and sauce has thickened. Serve next to or over the cake.
If you run out of time, the cake is perfectly delicious plain.

NOTES!
*You may substitute lime or lemon zest and juice for the orange for a delicious twist.
*OR separate the eggs and beat the whites to just stiff-peak stage. once wet and dry have been combined, fold the beaten egg whites into the batter. The cake will be lighter and hold the "rise" a bit better. If short on time, the quicker method yields a wonderful, moist cake.

** ATK flour blend:
24 ounces (4 1/2 cups plus 1/3 cup white rice flour
7 1/2 ounces (1 2/3 cups) brown rice flour
7 ounces (3/4 cup) potato starch
3/4 ounce (3 TB) nonfat milk powder
If you want to understand the science behind why this works, please buy the ATK cookbook. Having said that, I use only Anson Mills Carolina Gold Rice Flour for both types of rice in this formula. This is a wonderful company and deserves supporting and this flour makes the absolutely best baked good.