I used to live dangerously close to a grocery store with an in-store bakery and they made the best yogurt cakes.
Dense, rich, sweet, moist, and everything I could wish for in a cake.
For better or worse depending on how you look at it, I live about 2763 miles from that grocery store and it’s been nearly a decade since I’ve had a slice of their yogurt cake, but I still think of it fondly. When I saw blueberries in my freezer and blueberry Greek yogurt in the refrigerator, I knew homemade yogurt cake had to happen.
Like the other cakes I’ve been making recently, this is a one-bowl, mix-by-hand special that comes together in about 73 seconds flat with just a whisk. Beat two eggs, sugar, yogurt, oil, and vanilla. Add the flour and baking powder, fold in the blueberries, and bake. Fast and easy cakes are what I live for.
I prefer modest-sized ones, too, and this one is just a 9-by-9-inch cake but you may double the recipe and bake it in a 9-by-13-inch pan if you’re feeding a bigger brood than I am or have a longer attention span for larger sized cakes.
The cake turned out perfectly moist from both the yogurt and the oil. I was tempted to use melted butter in this cake for added flavor because I love the flavor of butter. However, oil makes cakes softer and moister than using butter and oil won. A moist cake trumps all.
To give the yogurt cake lift and enable it to rise properly and not be too dense and weighed down from the cup of Greek yogurt, I used baking powder as the leavener. I generally avoid using baking powder and instead try to use baking soda whenever possible. Baking powder is comprised of baking soda, cornstarch, and acid salts, such as sodium aluminum sulfate or cream of tartar. I am very sensitive to the bitter taste of the acid salts and can usually taste mere traces of baking powder when it’s present. Plus, baking powder can cause the crumb to turn dry and coarse if used in excess.
However, through the magical moistening properties of oil, yogurt, and the juices from the blueberries that are released while baking, the cake rose perfectly, while remaining moist and some of the density I desire in a yogurt cake was retained.
Sometimes the simplest things taste the best and I made a simple glaze with the juice of half of a fresh lemon, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and whisked them together. The glaze made my mouth pucker from the intense pop of lemon but it wasn’t too tart because the confectioners’ sugar balanced the lemon juice. Plus lemon and blueberries pair together splendidly and incorporating a teaspoon or two of lemon zest into the cake batter is a way to bolster the lemon flavor even more if you like to pucker up.
I wasn’t sure if Scott and Skylar were going to like the lemon glaze and lemon is a flavor, like peppermint, that once it’s added, it’s unmistakeable and can’t be undone. But I had forgotten that Scott really loves lemon in things and Skylar kept smacking her little lips, too.
The cake reminded me so much of the storebought yogurt cakes I used to purchase, but the major difference between my cake and those is that I used a drizzle approach for the glaze whereas bakeries pour cup-fulls of glaze over the cake, let it dry; and repeat. However, feel free to send your cake into a lemon-vanilla submersion bath rather than just a drizzle. I’d love to drink the bathwater.
I couldn’t resist picking out the blueberries that were baked into the cake’s firm yet springy interior.
Blueberries are such nice little surprises bursting with sweet juice and definitely worth having a blue thumb and index finger from for a few days after all that blueberry picking.
Pin This Recipe
Enjoy AverieCooks.com Without Ads! 🆕
Go Ad Free
Blueberry Yogurt Cake with Lemon Vanilla Glaze
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup 8 ounces, I used Chobani Greek blueberry yogurt; other flavors such as strawberry, raspberry, or mixed berry may be substituted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon+ lemon zest, optional
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ¼ cups frozen blueberries, divided (fresh may be substituted)
For the Lemon Vanilla Glaze
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup+ confectioners' sugar, sifted
Instructions
- For the Cake - Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9-by-9-inch pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, yogurt, sugar, oil, lemon zest, vanilla, and whisk until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, and mix until just combined. Fold in 1 cup blueberries and gently stir to incorporate (frozen blueberries bleed and run less than fresh and if using frozen do not thaw them first; add them directly into the batter frozen; alternate berries or other seasonal fruit such as strawberries, peaches, pears, or plums may be substituted)
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Lightly sprinkle 1/4 cup remaining blueberries over the top. Bake for 37 to 40 minutes, or until top is domed and set or a toothpick comes out clean, and edges of cake are just browning and beginning to slightly pull away from sides of pan. Allow cake to cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a rack. While cake cools, make the glaze.
- For the Lemon Vanilla Glaze - Combine lemon juice, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, and confectioners' sugar in a small bowl and whisk until smooth, playing with lemon juice and sugar ratios until desired glaze consistency and flavor has been reached. Drizzle glaze over cake and serve immediately. Store cake in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
Related Recipes:
Blueberry Muffins with Raspberry Jam Swirls – My favorite blueberry muffin recipe to date and with raspberry jam swirled throughout, there’s lots of beautiful berry flavors
Banana Zucchini Pudding Cake with Vanilla Browned Butter Glaze – Last week I made this pudding cake, this week it’s a yogurt cake. Both are rich, moist, fast, and easy
Spiced Apple and Banana Bundt Cake with Vanilla Carmela Glaze – Between the yogurt, apples, and banana in this fruit-oriented cake, it’s wonderfully moist and soft. It’s a fast cake to whisk together and bakes up tall and beautifully
Banana Bread Brownies with Vanilla Caramel Glaze – Made with bananas and yogurt, they’re incredibly moist and tender. Very rich and fudgy and chocolate is used three ways. More fudgy brownie than banana bread, but it’s a marriage for times you can’t decide between using the ripe bananas on your counter or your honoring your chocolate cravings
Microwave Blueberry Banana Oat Cakes (vegan, GF) – Ready in 3 minutes and although the recipe is older, I get so many reader emails about this being a go-to breakfast and portable snack, especially for anyone in a dorm room or who has limited kitchen access. All you need is a microwave for this little single-serving cake
Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars – If you like berries and easy desserts, this layered cake-bar is for you with a cake base, topped with coconut, sweet milk, and berries
Have you ever made a yogurt cake?
Do you bake with yogurt or sour cream?
Baking with yogurt or sour cream, and cream cheese is in it’s own league, keeps baked goods soft, tender, and moist. Nothing is worse than dried out desserts and I’d rather have none than have a piece of dry cake, which is why I always add at least a dollop, and usually much more, yogurt or sour cream to any muffins, cake, cupcakes, or bread I make.
Feel free to share your recipes for soft, moist, tender cakes, muffins, cupcakes and breads and what you do to get them that way.
Have a great weekend and stay tuned for a couple great giveaways this weekend!
Hey Averie: This cake is super delicious. Local blueberries are here. What a difference they make. I froze them since you recommended frozen in this recipe. The cake is so moist I decided not to make the glaze. We had a piece while the cake was still warm. What a treat. Thank you so much!
Hey Averie: This cake is super delicious. Local blueberries are here. What a difference they make. I froze them since you recommended frozen in this recipe. The cake is so moist I decided not to make the glaze. We had a piece while the cake was still warm. What a treat. Thank you so much!
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am glad that you have fresh blueberries and that this cake was a nice treat!
This cake was made as a birthday cake for a friend who cannot eat butter. I was a little skeptical about a cake using oil as the fat – but I worried for no reason – the cake was delicious and super moist.
I used 2% plain regular yogurt and added a little lemon extract to the batter. Since it was for a special celebration I made a Raspberry Coulis to serve along side.
The end result was beautiful and really delicious!
Hello, I would like to know if Natural yogurt could be used? Unfortunately do not have greek yogurt on hand. Also, will frozen blueberries change the color of the batter?
Many thanks from Quebec
I really recommend sticking with Greek yogurt or sour cream for this, regular yogurt is much thinner and runnier and not sure how that will effect the recipe. Same with frozen berries – possibly could alter the color of the batter, baking time, etc.
Could almond flour be substituted?
This would be good for passover
Thank you
No it will not work is my strong hunch.
I noticed no salt is this correct. Thanks
Yes but you can add a pinch or two if you prefer.
I always love all of your recipes! Just wondering if I should change anything to this recipe to bake in a loaf pan. Thanks!!
I have not tried baking this in a loaf pan so I can’t give too many specifics or details. Good luck and enjoy.
I have made this cake several times and just love it! Tonight I didn’t have blueberries so I used canned peaches. OMG, if possible, it’s even better with peaches. I use plain Greek yogurt and lower the oil to 3/8 cup, adding some milk to make up the difference. I have also substituted half or all of the sugar with granulated Splenda and it worked out great. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful cake recipe!
This is great to know that it’s almost better with peaches! And that you could even get away with using granulated Splenda! Great to hear!
Gorgeous recipe thankyou sooo much ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ P.S i used mulberries which were in season ?
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you with the mulberries!
If it’s possible, I think I just gained 3 pounds looking through your recipes. Not only will I follow you, but whither goest your recipes, so goest I. These are some great looking recipes, and the next time I can get my precious half to go grocery shopping I’m sure you know what’s going to be on my list. Thanks so much for putting all that effort into creating these recipes and sharing them. Keep up the delicious work.
Thanks for the compliments and hope you can start baking some recipes!
That does sound yummy, so does your raspberry peach crisp. I do prefer the yogurt cake with blueberries, or maybe a combo of blueberries and peaches now that I have established it works with peaches and the juice from the peaches doesn’t add too much liquid (at least this once it didn’t – I may have just been very lucky). One reason I don’t bake much with peaches is due to the juiciness as they ripen, but your cobbler sounds awesome. I’ll have to give that a try, maybe with some frozen vanilla yogurt instead of ice cream. I make my own Greek yogurt, a gallon of milk at a time which yields a little over 2 quarts of strained yogurt, so I use it a lot in baking and on baked potatoes, etc. and definitely froyo of all flavors ?
Homemade yogurt is the best!
The cake is delicious! I love everything about it. The last time I made it, I didn’t realize I had used all my blueberries (I could have sworn I had another half gallon of them in the freezer!) and was forced to use the fresh peaches I did have (it was either that or just bake it as a plain yogurt cake) It was wonderful! I did add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkled the top lightly with a cinnamon sugar combo prior to putting it in the oven, instead of the lemon glaze. So good! Amazing how a missing ingredient forces you to get creative ?
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you with the peaches! Cinnamon sugar and peaches are a heavenly combo! If you still have extra peaches https://www.averiecooks.com/2016/07/cinnamon-sugar-saucy-peach-cobbler.html sounds really close to what you made and the flavors are great! Pics don’t do it justice!
Oh no..? I followed the recipe as written and my cake didn’t become nice and crumbly/fluffy but is very dense and wet.. Baked for 45 min but still too wet /dense. Any idea what I did wrong? It was supposed to be served as a coffee cake. Well too bad, nice taste though ?
Could have been the yogurt you used. If it was watery, it would make the batter too wet/loose. Could have been your baking powder wasn’t perfectly fresh and that can effect the lightness of cakes, or the flour itself. I recommend King Arthur All-Purpose flour. Not sure what happened exactly but thanks for trying the recipe.
hi! could i use plain greek yogurt for this recipe instead? thank you!
Yes but you may want to taste the batter to make sure it’s sweet enough since plain yogurt has no sugar and if not, add a bit more sugar to your batter.
I made this cake yesterday, it is so moist and just the right amount of tartness with the glaze. I have a nephew that loves blueberries, so the next time I see him I will definitely make it again! My husband is a blueberry lover – he is in the process of eating the other half of the cake that was left from yesterday. Thanks Averie!!
Glad that your blueberry loving husband is in his glory with the cake and that it came out great for you! Sounds like between this cake and the cookies you also commented on, that you’ve been a baking machine! Love it!