Mira, the protagonist in my chapter book Mira’s Baking Adventures: The Unicorn Cake, surprises her grandmother with a cake just like this one. Well, almost.
Mira’s is a classic vanilla birthday cake (with some rosewater added) and is shaped like a unicorn. This is a super simple, healthy-ish snacking cake adapted from The Mediterranean Dish. It has olive oil! And Greek yogurt! And it’s shaped like a square. It definitely has unicorn potential, though.
Both cakes have pomegranate icing studded with jewel-like pomegranate seeds.
My six year old twins helped me bake this from start to finish, measuring and mixing all by themselves, just like Mira. They’ve been more into video games than baking these days, but all the times we’ve read Mira’s Baking Adventures together inspired them to see this project through.
The whole Mira series will explore math, science, and world cultures through baking. Drop a comment below if there’s a dessert, bread, or pastry you’d like to see in a future book.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227g) Greek yogurt
- 1 cup (200g) brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (180g) all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate juice
- 1 cup powdered sugar (125g)
- Pomegranate seeds, for sprinkling
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a square baking pan (ideally 8 x 8 inches) with oil, then line with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk yogurt, oil, eggs, granulated sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add dry ingredients to yogurt mixture. Stir until just combined. Bake for around 30 minutes, until golden brown and a cake tester comes out mostly clean.
- Prepare the glaze: in a mixing bowl, whisk together powdered sugar and pomegranate juice until smooth.
- Frost: when the cake is cool, pour glaze on top and spread evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
My kids and I lightly adapted this snacking cake from https://www.themediterraneandish.com/yogurt-cake/
For a butterscotch flavor, we opted for brown sugar instead of granulated. Our only other change to the batter came about by mistake: one of my kids accidentally measured a tablespoon of vanilla instead of a teaspoon!
We also baked the cake in a square pan instead of a loaf pan.
The pomegranate frosting and “jewels” are Mira’s idea, of course.
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