Lemon Cake with Raspberry-Apricot Sauce

Once again no picture; camera's out of batteries. This is a very moist, flavorful cake adapted from the plain Yogurt Cake in Clotilde Dusoulier's Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook. It is just as good on its own as with the sauce (my own invention), but the sauce makes it a little fancier.

Lemon Cake with Raspberry Apricot Sauce

Cake:
1/3 cup vegetable oil, plus more to grease pan
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 tbsp pear brandy
Zest of 2-3 lemons (depending on how lemony you like your cake)
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
small pinch salt

Sauce:
15 oz frozen raspberries
About 15 dried apricots
1/4 to 1 cup sugar, depending on taste (1 cup was way too sweet for me)
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp pear brandy



Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10 inch round cake pan or a large loaf pan; line bottom with parchment paper or aluminum foil if not springform. (My loaf pan is silicone--this is the first time I've used it, and it was the best $4 I've ever spent--so easy to release the cake.)
In a large mixing bowl, beat together yogurt and sugar. Add the eggs one by one and beat after each addition. Add oil, brandy, and lemon zest, and beat again. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix very well (until very few lumps).
Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35-40 minutes, until the top is golden and a knife comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes; run a knife around the edges to loosen, then flip onto a plate. Serve warm or room temperature. Gets better the next day.

Sauce: Pour about 2 cups boiling water over apricots in a medium bowl. Let sit 15 minutes. Combine apricots, raspberries, apricot soaking water, sugar, ginger, and brandy in a saucepan and cook over high heat until boiling; turn the heat down and simmer about half an hour, until the raspberries are broken down and sauce is starting to thicken. Let cool, then puree in the blender or food processor--once the apricots are pureed it will be much thicker. Serve with cake.

Serves 10 or more, depending on how large the cake slices are.