Week 14: Strawberry Yogurt Cake!

Okay, so I cheated last week.  I made this cake the Saturday night before Easter.  So, technically, this wasn't made during the past "week", but ehhh I was on Spring Break.  I deserve a break, right?

We'll get to the cake later.

Let me tell you about my amazing past week spent with my family.

Monday, we went to the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum with my sister-in-law and her kids since she's home every Monday.  It wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be for Spring Break.  And now that Evan can sit up, it was definitely fun for both kids.  Evan got to spend some time in the "baby section" of the preschool room and of course, Sean was obsessed with the ambulance on the first floor.

Tuesday, we took a family trip to...brace yourself...Meijer, Home Depot, and Costco.  All in a 3 hour span.  Both kids shockingly behaved until they had to wait in the car while I ran in and got my mounted photo from Meijer.  Sorry Scott...

We picked out paint for the kids bathroom, stocked up on meat for the freezer, and got some free prints at Meijer.  I'd say it was a successful trip, including lunch at Costco.  Yum!

Wednesday, I met my friend Marla at Tiny Town in Northville (technically Plymouth) for a play date with the older boys, Jack and Sean.  I had never been to this place, but it was very similar to Detroit Kid City.  I loved it and so did Sean!  What's even better is that it's about 5 minutes from my house.  You can't beat that.

Wednesday night my mother-in-law took both boys to spend the night at her house to give us a break.  Scott and I tried out Jay's Stuffed Burgers in Plymouth that we'd been eyeing for a while.  Delicious milkshakes, homemade steak fries, and stuffed burgers.  Ummm my mouth is watering thinking about how scrumptious it all was.  I went shopping at HomeGoods and Buy Buy Baby after dinner while Scott watched some baseball.  Great night!

Thursday, we set to work on all the home repairs and projects we wanted to accomplish while Nana had the boys all day.  Scott painted the kids bathroom, the front door, and put everything back together.  I slaved over baby food, breakfast sandwiches for the freezer, and various odds and ends around the house.  It was a very productive day...pics to follow in another post!

Friday, we played at home in the morning and hit the road to Troy in the afternoon after Sean's nap.  We went out to The Alibi for dinner in Troy with my parents and spent the night at their house since we were heading to Frankenmuth in the morning.  Scott met up with a friend for some beers and I went to LaVida Massage to work out some knots in my left shoulder.  Thanks to the infant car seat...

And finally, Saturday morning, the much anticipated day of Spring Break, we headed to Frankenmuth to meet up with Scott's family for a weekend at Zehnder's Splash Village.  We got our wrist-bands to swim at noon on Saturday, skipped Sean's nap (dangerous...), and spent the rest of the day swimming, snacking, and hanging out with family.

Sean had the time of his life.  Seriously.  The kid did not stop the whole day.  You could tell he was exhausted and hungry, but he kept wanting to go down the huge water slides, the lazy river, and even the water tower.

We went to our room to get ready for a chicken dinner at Zehnder's.  All the kids stayed behind with Nana and Jackie.  The meat eaters were ready for the best. meal. ever.

After dinner, we took the shuttle back to the hotel, put the kids to bed, and crashed.  We knew we had a rough night ahead of us sleeping in a hotel full of rowdy kids and slamming doors.  Plus, Evan wakes up multiple times a night.  And we were right.  It was definitely an eventful night and morning since Evan graced us with a 5:30am wake up call.  We packed up the room, went to the breakfast buffet, and got ready for another morning/afternoon of swimming.  We checked out at 11am, but stayed until 12:15pm to swim.  It was a great weekend!

Sadly, our break ended after that.  We drove home with two sleeping kids, unpacked the car, started a mountain of laundry, and tried to get all the work-week essentials ready.  I have to say...this break was so much fun, that going back to work today seemed more difficult than usual.  I can't wait for summer vacation if spring break is any indication on how much fun it will be.

Anyway, on to the cake. So, I saw this recipe on Pinterest for a Strawberry Yogurt Cake and knew that it would be perfect for Easter morning brunch at our house.  It really wasn't much work to put together and I finally got to use my Bundt pan for the first time since I got it as a wedding registry gift.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 Tb. lemon juice, divided
Zest of 1 lemon
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
8 oz. plain or vanilla, Greek yogurt (I put just a tad less since I was worried about the consistency of the batter)
12 oz. fresh strawberries, diced
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan (10-15 cup pan.) Sift together the 2 ¼ cups of flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tb. lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.
3. Toss the strawberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.
4. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees F. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. Allow to cool at least 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

I ended up making this Saturday night at 8:30pm after a full day of Easter activities with my side of the family.  So, I didn't capture amazing shots with my camera, but was lucky enough to get this shot with my phone.  This is before I took it out of the pan and before it was glazed, but dang...this was soooo good!

We had some left over, so I plopped this in a freezer container to have another morning.  I will definitely be making this in the summer again when the berries are even tastier.  I imagine you could use this with mixed berries too, but I liked the strawberries and hint of lemon taste.  Yum!