Raspberry Yogurt Cake with Meyer Lemon Frosting

This cake was a good way to use Meyer lemons. They go well with raspberries, and in this case the frosting was a wonderful vehicle for their taste. You could even add some Meyer lemon zest in the cake, if you wanted. I’ve changed the frosting recipe a bit, though, because it originally called for “the juice of 2 Meyer lemons”. I hope you realize how arbitrary that is! The amount of juice in one Meyer lemon could be anything between 1 tablespoon and 4 tablespoons, and the amount of liquid in frosting is particularly important! Therefore, I recommend starting with 2 tablespoons and going from there.

For the cake
8 Tbsp. unsalted butter or margarine, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, separated
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
1 cup plain lactose-free Greek yogurt
1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen

For the frosting
8 oz. lactose-free cream cheese, room temperature
8 Tbsp. unsalted butter or margarine, room temperature
zest and juice of 2 Meyer lemons (see note above)
1 pinch of salt
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Preheat the oven to 320 °F. Grease and line four 6" round cake pans or two 8" or 9" round cake pans with parchment paper and set aside (I used two 9” pans).

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing after each addition.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until mostly combined. Add the yogurt and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to medium peaks, then fold them into the cake batter. Fold the raspberries into it as well.

Divide the batter evenly between the pans and bake 25-30 minutes (this worked well for 9” cakes, but it would be less for 6" cakes), or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, mix the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add the lemon zest and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice and mix until combined. Slowly add powdered sugar and mix until combined. You can adjust the consistency as you wish (more lemon juice to make it runnier, more powdered sugar to make it stiffer). Frost the cake and store it in the fridge.