Hi Sharon -

We haven't tested this, but would recommend trying it with a gluten-free flour blend.

Best,
The Milk Street Team

David - another citrus zest will work nicely here, if that works for your household member. I'd turn to lemon as a first option, as it will echo the subtle citrusy notes in the coriander, though grapefruit or lime would also be nice options.

Best,
The Milk Street Team

Hi Alex -

For this recipe we are toasting the ground coriander to freshen it up since, once ground, spices tend to lose a bit of their potency. While I would normally say it's fine to use freshly ground coriander in all of our recipes - in fact, we prefer it - for this one, I'd stick with pre-ground. The goal for this cake is a more subtle coriander flavor and I fear the freshly-ground spice would be too overwhelming here. Hope that helps!

Best,
The Milk Street Team

Hi Joan -

I checked in with the recipe developer, Diane Unger, and she said that Greek-style yogurt would be too thick and would not work well in this recipe.

Best,
The Milk Street Team

Hi Shane -

We aren't 100% sure why it may have taken longer to bake, but we always recommend following the visual clue in a recipe (in this case, "Bake until a toothpick inserted at the center of the cake comes out with few crumbs attached") rather than following the times. Ovens cycle through temperatures to "maintain" the temperature you set on the dial. So, at any given time the temperature inside the oven can run hotter or colder depending on what temperature the oven is identifying as the overall temperature at the time. When checking the oven temperature using an oven thermometer, make sure to place the thermometer in the center of the oven - where the food would sit - and check the temperature a minute or two after the oven has preheated. This will give you the most accurate reading.

Best,
The Milk Street Team

Ran thru first attempt with this cake today and I experienced the same problem Shane has described. Was meticulous with ingredients. Did not deviate from any base recipe ingredients (yogurt, flours, etc.), equipment, or oven setup. This cake was not remotely finished at 45 mins under 350 degrees F. My oven temp is known to me as I have a secondary oven thermometer; I baked this cake at prescribed temp zone. I bake all sorts of breads and dessert goods weekly, and have not had a problem like I did with this recipe. This is my first Milk Street recipe to not complete correctly. Mine was satisfactory at 60 minutes.

In the end, this is a first-class cake. Excellent flavors, well balanced. Family devoured it all in a less than two days.

Just wondering if it would be helpful to give an ideal internal temperature for the recipe instead of cooking times? You always see it with meat but not with baked goods?

Wondering if the bake time deviation could be due to flour and varying levels of moisture and humidity?

Hi Mick -

Did you possibly use Greek-style plain yogurt? Greek-style is thicker than regular plain yogurt and could cause gummy spots that would appear uncooked while the remainder of the cake would otherwise be fully baked.

Best,
The Milk Street Team

Thanks. No we used whole milk, non-Greek yogurt. I just went to the fridge to double check. We did use metal cake tester that came out clean. Maybe should have used a wooden toothpick. We baked for over 45 minutes. Probably just needed more time in our oven.

Hi Abdul -

A 6-cup loaf pan is usually a 9x5 loaf pan, which is too large for this recipe. This recipe calls for an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 pan, which generally has a 4-cup yield. So, if you try to make it in the larger loaf pan the cake will be very squat and dense.

Best,
The Milk Street Team

Hi Jo Ann -

I'm not sure where you read that, but we definitely don't agree with it. We don't know any baker worth their salt (or sugar!) who would make a blanket statement on how much sugar every dessert recipe needs given the variation in recipes. Baking recipes rely on a pretty delicate balance of ingredients to succeed. Sugar in baked goods not only adds sweetness, but performs many other essential functions. It keeps baked goods soft and moist, adds tenderness, leavens, and provides stability, such as in a meringue. But it's not just its presence that matters. Its presence as it relates to and in proportion to the other ingredients in the recipe that makes the difference. Baked goods get their shape and structure from proteins and starches, which firm up during baking and transform soupy batters and soft doughs into lofty muffins and well-formed cookies. But because they build structure, proteins and starches can potentially make baked goods tough, too. The sugar in a batter or dough snatches water away from proteins and starches, which helps control the amount of structure-building they can do. The result? A more tender treat.

It is here that tinkering with a recipe’s sugar can have a dramatic effect. When, for example, a loaf of pound cake has a nice shape and an appealing texture, the sugar, proteins, and starches are in balance. But if you tip that balance by using more or less sugar than the recipe calls for, the result could be so tender that it lacks the structure to hold its shape, or it could be shapely but too tough.

Lucky for you, our recipe developers have done the work to determine the exact proportion of flour to sugar to eggs to fat that is necessary to get that perfect moist, tender and lofty cake.

Hope that helps!
The Milk Street Team

Hi Carla -

Though we haven't tested it as muffins, this cake has more of a pound cake texture than a traditional loaf cake so we wouldn't recommend converting it to muffins.

Best,
The Milk Street Team

I made them as "cupcakes" for my daughter's second birthday and they turned out wonderfully. Unfortunately I cannot remember what timing I used, but I definitely cooked them much less.