Whole Wheat Lemon Sponge Cake

My loved ones just left for three days in Madrid with Israel's family, leaving me home alone (yeahhh!), finally some real time to myself -and, hopefully- my cooking and blogging (can't make promises... life in the hectic lane...).
Right before they left I decided to pamper them with something sweet to snack on during the train ride, so I whipped together this cake with whatever was in the pantry.
I used a non-dairy yogurt to give it sponginess (regular yogurt works just as well), in this case it was an almond one, whose sweetness combines really well with the tangy lemon juice and zest.

Recipe follows:

Whole Wheat Lemon Sponge Cake
As in the recipe for 1,2,3 Sponge Cake, you can use the yogurt container for measuring the other ingredients. The olive oil I used was specially strong, at home we love the taste of it in everything but if you prefer a milder oil feel free to use sunflower.

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1 non-dairy almond (or other flavor, or dairy) yogurt
1 yogurt-cup sugar
2 yogurt-cups whole wheat flour
3/4 yogurt cups extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt

Preheat oven. Beat the eggs. Add the yogurt. Gradually add the sugar, then the flour, and finally the oil, stirring continuously but gently. Stir in rest of the ingredients. Pour into a greased pan. (This amount yields 1 loaf pan; if you want a larger cake, use 3 eggs, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 1 cup oil, 2 teaspoons baking powder.) Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out dry. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

1, 2, 3 Sponge Cake

I bake this cake at least once a week. Even though it has sugar in it, everything I use is whole and organic so it's a much healthier alternative to just about anything similar on the market, plus it's homemade! (I still cringe when I remember the twinkies and doughnuts from my youth. Mom and dad, how could you?)
The castle-shaped mold came back from a recent trip to New York: it weighs a ton (as a matter of fact we had to pay for the excess weight in our suitcase that time), but was well worth it, the kids absolutely love it.
The cake's title explained: not only is it as easy as 1, 2, 3, the empty yoghurt cup is used as a measuring cup for the rest of the ingredients in ones, twos and threes:

1,2,3 Cake
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 125ml natural yoghurt (the secret ingredient that makes the cake so moist)
2 yoghurt cups sugar
1 yoghurt cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 yoghurt cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the eggs. Add the yoghurt. Gradually stir in the rest of the ingredients, in the order they appear on the list. You can also optionally add 1 thinly sliced apple or pear, gives a great fruity touch and adds moisture. Bake in preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out dry.

When I first found out that people in Spain used olive oil for baking cakes, I was shocked (a cake with no butter?). You can also use sunflower oil, but trust me, this one works out perfect.
The one in the picture is sprinked with powdered sugar, to make the snow on the castle.
See, it's so easy that lately Bruno and Olivia help out whenever we make it, I'll measure out the ingredients and they'll pour them into the mixing bowl and do their version of stirring and beating. Only problem is, half the batter ends up either on the table or their hands and faces before it even reaches the oven.