Pink Grapefruit Yogurt Cake Recipe
Updated March 26, 2019
Last week we had our good friend over to celebrate his birthday. Josh cooked the creamy lemon chicken dinner by himself, so I offered to make dessert. I baked a cake to keep things traditional.
We love citrus fruits-especially when they come in dessert form:) We usually do lemon or lime cakes, but we had an abundance of pink grapefruit in the refrigerator (it was on sale 8 for $1-score) so this time I created a pink grapefruit cake. I wanted the cake to have a strong grapefruit “punch” so I added a good amount of grapefruit zest into the cake. For the best results, rub the zest with the granulated sugar before adding it to the rest of the ingredients. The grapefruit scent really comes alive when you do this.
I wanted the cake to be really moist-I hate dry cake, so I used homemade Greek yogurt and canola oil. I didn’t even need a mixer for this cake, it was so easy to put together. I poured the batter into a 9 inch round cake pan and baked it for 25 minutes. I am not a big frosting person, but wanted to top the cake off with something special, so I made a grapefruit syrup and glaze to intensify the flavors. The syrup seeped into the cake, locking in the grapefuity goodness! The glaze made the cake shine like the sun on a hot summer day.
I was a little worried this cake would be too “girly” for the guys, but they loved it! The grapefruit flavor wasn’t too tart, it was just right. This grapefruit cake is perfect for any celebration.I think it would be perfect for a baby or bridal shower. I plan on making this cake again and again!
Thanks for all of your concern about my neck. I am feeling much better, not 100%, but better. I was able to run on Saturday, it felt great to be up and moving. Have a great Monday!
Pink Grapefruit Yogurt Cake
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- Zest of 1 ½ pink grapefruits
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- Grapefruit Syrup
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
- 2 T granulated sugar
- Grapefruit Glaze
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 2-3 T freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray. Dust lightly with flour too. Set pan aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, add the grapefruit zest to the sugar. Rub together with your fingers until fragrant. In a large bowl, mix together the yogurt, sugar, and zest with large spoon or spatula. Whisk in the eggs-you can do all three at once. Mix until smooth and then add in the vanilla and stir again.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Mix just until flour is incorporated.
- Add the oil and mix well. It might take a minute to get the oil mixed in, but it will.
- Pour the batter into your prepared cake pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until your cake tester comes out clean and the cake springs back when lightly touched in the center.
- Cool on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes and then remove from the pan. While the cake is cooling make the syrup and glaze.
- For the syrup, in a small sauce pan add the grapefruit juice and sugar. Whisk over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
- For the glaze, in a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and grapefruit juice. If it is too thick, add more juice, if it is too runny, add more sugar.
- Poke little holes into the cake with a toothpick. Spoon the grapefruit syrup over the cake and let it soak in. Let the cake cool to room temperature and then add the glaze. Drizzle over the top of the cake.
Have you tried this recipe?
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If you like this cake, you might also enjoy:
Blueberry Lemon Loaf Cake from Two Peas and Their Pod
Coconut Lime Cake from Two Peas and Their Pod
Three Citrus Bundt Cake from Becks & Posh
Gluten Free Orange Cake from Elana’s Pantry
Lemon Drenched Lemon Cake from Joy the Baker
I love adding the zest to the sugar called for in a recipe. I think that really makes the dessert! Your cake looks like a tart and tangy winner! You definitely have me wanting grapefruit now.
~ingrid
Btw, glad to hear that you feeling some what better!
This looks and sounds so good!! And absolutely perfect for a nice summery treat, which I’m totally feeling lately 🙂
I am a citrus girl, so I’m sure I’d love this!
This does look very good maria! I bet I would love it!
This sounds great! I love experimenting with different citrus fruits.
You did a really great job with this. It looks beautiful, the cake and the pictures!!!! Very nice!
Girl, you speak my language! I love citrus, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE grapefruit! I love how quick and easy this is. Sounds like we’ll be having some pink grapefruit yogurt cake for dessert next week!
I have a lemon yoghurt cake that is a great everyday cake too – this one looks like an interesting change, thanks!
I’m making this Saturday for a baby shower. I was going to do mini-cupcakes, do you think they will work? Thanks, I love your blog!
Heidi-I haven’t tried cupcakes with this recipe, but I am sure they will work. Drizzle the syrup and glaze over them to make sure they stay moist. Let me know how they turn out. I am sure they will be super cute!
Just wanted to let you know that they worked great! I cooked them for 15 minutes and they turned out perfect. Thanks for the great recipes, I just found your blog and I love it!
Very good Yogurt Ckae. The above pic Combination of Orrange is awesome. I like this. Superb recipe.
OMG!! This cake is gorgeous & so creative. I am so excited to see it in my Stonyfield recipe Battle 🙂 xo
This looks amazing! I’ve made a similar cake with Meyer lemons and it’s awesome. I love the idea of using pink grapefruit!
I love grapefruit and when I found this recipe I decided to have it for my birthday cake next month. But I have a few questions. 11/2-is that five and a half grapefruits? Also, I’ve never zested before but I have a vague idea of how its done. If you could give me any tips on the subject I would greatly appreciate it
It is one grapefruit and a half of a grapefruit. I use my microplane to zest citrus fruits. It is the best tool ever! Don’t go too deep because the white part tends to be bitter. Enjoy!
lovely!
Yummy yummy cake! Thanks for the recipe! I added some cream cheese to the glaze. So good. My husband and I just loved it!! thanks again!
You’ve saved me! We have this vanilla flavored greek style yogurt we love. The company that makes it also makes this large tub of vanilla flavored greek yogurt that we’d thought we’d try since we were going through the smaller containers so quickly. It turned out to be horrible compared to the yogurt we loved. It was grittier, and the vanilla tasted artificial. Now you might tell me to just toss this stuff in the garbage, but I’m much too thrifty for that. I looked up recipes for French yogurt cake, but then I ran into another issue, an abundance of pink grapefruit that only i would eat, and I wasn’t. It just popped into my head that I could make a grapefruit glaze, so I Googled, and found you lovely recipe. Thank you so much. I’m not a frequent baker, much to my honey’s chagrin, hopefully I won’t have eat this all by myself.
Made this cake and the flavor is fantastic! However, my cake turned out tough. I’m am a seasoned Baker so not sure if it was due to over mixing/over baking or if just the recipe.
this is a perfect cake. i loved it.