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.
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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.
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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!
Blueberries and lemon in one. I love small plate recipes. Looks incredibly delicious Averie!
Because of the yogurt and the blueberries this is health food right? Like, it’d be wrong of me NOT to eat it!
Health food…my thoughts exactly as I was typing up the ingredient list! :)
Blueberries and lemon are a match made in flavor heaven. This cake looks gorgeous and insanely delicious, Averie! So springy and moist, and filled with those plump and beautiful blueberries… I can almost taste it! I need to make this this weekend; it looks SO yummy!
Well if you make it, LMK how it goes!
outstanding close ups!! and looks darn yummy!
This is really beautiful! The colors are outrageous :) I love yogurt cakes and lately, I’ve definitely been down with some lemon flavor!
Thanks, Rachel, and glad you like your yogurt cakes, too!
Small cake and cookie recipes are what I need…we have been throwing out too much because like you I get bored and want to move on to the next thing! I love the bright blueberry polkadots in this wonderful looking cake!!!
Bright blueberry polkadots is a perfect description!
And as a blogger, you know that keeping the recipes moving and always onto the next thing is important, too, so between getting sick of it AND needing new recipes, smaller batches are just so welcomed :)
I love baking with sour cream – especially for banana breads! I bet a fruity olive oil would work well for this blueberry yogurt cake too :)
I’ve made pudding cakes, yogurt cakes, sour cream…the one I haven’t baked with in a sweet application is olive oil. I’ve always resisted thinking it would make the sweet item taste a little off…but a fruity olive oil has me intrigued!
FUN to see blueberry this time of year :)
I made this cake like…gasp…6 weeks ago. It got lost in a shuffle of pumpkin, savory, and Halloween oriented recipes although in the last week of August or early Sept when I made it, blueberries were full-on available. The joys of blogging – sometimes you hit things right in season, sometimes you’re early, and sometimes you’re nearly late :)
I always wondered about oil vs butter in baked goods so I like your summary about that and the baking soda vs powder….I love the science involved in baking (I think it’s the only way I can relate to chemistry)! Lemon and blueberries are such a light, refreshing combo and I’m keeping a steady supply of Greek yogurt on hand. I am on a roll with the roasted red pepper and carrot soup–it is making its way into my lunch on a weekly basis and I think it’s the addition of the peanut butter that I love so much!
I just wrote this to another friend who commented on this post:
‘It’s only been in the last year or so where Ive REALLY made lots of cakes that I have honed the butter vs. oil situation. In banana bread, I like butter. In cakes, of all kinds, generally speaking, I prefer oil. It lends to a spongier and squishy-er cake-mix style crumb in cakes, which a Duncan Hines yellow cake is sort of my gold standard for what scratch-cakes should be like, but to each her own. But to get there, I find oil is better. And after I lived in the South for 5 years, I realized southern cakes, which are the height of moist, are usually make with oil…and then some butter for good measure :) For blondies, brownies, and bars, and banana bread – I like butter. Cake, muffins, and anything I want to have some squish – oil. That was long :)’
And baking soda/powder. Soda is 4x as strong as powder and more ‘pure’ so in all ways, need less of it, and what I do use, doesn’t effect taste as much. However, for some things, i.e. muffins and sometimes cakes like this, baking powder is preferred b/c the dough will rise based on what types of other ingredients are present (liquids, alkalinity of ingredients, etc.)
It’s the only science I enjoy relating to, too :)
Good thing I just picked up blueberries at Trader Joe’s this weekend : ) I never thought about the sensitivity to baking powder, but I can definetly see that happening!
Oh I can taste the stuff a mile away! I love TJs frozen fruit (and fresh) but their frozen berries, mango chunks, etc are always a staple for me!
Haha – never thought about it lemon that way – but I could see it being one of those peppermint types of ingredients. But definitely true. I love lemon though .
When you have a child, the too sour/too spicy considerations come into mind naturally; although I am lucky, very little is scoffed at. Child of a food blogger – better get used to novel things real quick in life!
wow looks great Averie! Just pinned this! Happy Friday
Thanks for the Pin – and have a great weekend :)
Ooooh this looks yummy Averie!! I love yogurt bread!
I love it, too. You are the bread queen – don’t think there’s a type you haven’t made! You have quite the arsenal!
As much as I love chocolate . . . lemon and blueberry together in a dessert is one of the next best things! And I do enjoy yogurt in quick breads because it helps keep them so moist (like the pumpkin bread I made a couple of weeks back). Happy Friday! https://eatmovebalance.com/protein-pumpkin-bread/
Mmm your bread looks good! And have a happy Friday, too!
Averie, it looks and sounds incredible. Simply incredible. I love pairing blueberry and lemon – dotting blueberries through a lemon loaf is one thing my mom is darn good at. I love lemon loaf! the same exact idea here, except not as dense. Light, soft, but still impeccably moist – it looks as moist as your banana zucchini pudding cake, which I’ve bookmarked. You and I alike – small cakes are just so much easier to deal with on so many levels. Skipping the masses of leftovers and avoiding getting cake A.D.D. which I know we both suffer from. ;) The use of oil over butter – until only a few months ago, I really didn’t know that much of a difference between using the two. After making banana bread with both options, I do prefer melted butter over oil but you are right – there is nothing as dense and moist as the Cake Batter Blondies, using oil. It’s like my mom’s recipe for gingersnaps (she uses shortening). While I prefer butter in cookies, there is NOTHING comparable to make the gingersnaps as thick and soft as shortening.
The glaze looks and sounds incredible! So simple, yet adding SO much to the cake. I’d like a simply drizzle rather than a long dunk in the stuff too. But lemon blueberry loaves and muffins sure do taste wonderful submerged in it!! Incredible recipe Averie – staring at these pics first thing in the morning was a perfect start to my Friday!!!
It’s only been in the last year or so where Ive REALLY made lots of cakes that I have honed the butter vs. oil situation. In banana bread, I like butter. In cakes, of all kinds, generally speaking, I prefer oil. It lends to a spongier and squishy-er cake-mix style crumb in cakes, which a Duncan Hines yellow cake is sort of my gold standard for what scratch-cakes should be like, but to each her own. But to get there, I find oil is better. And after I lived in the South for 5 years, I realized southern cakes, which are the height of moist, are usually make with oil…and then some butter for good measure :) For blondies, brownies, and bars, and banana bread – I like butter. Cake, muffins, and anything I want to have some squish – oil. That was long :)
Yogurt makes cake so moist and rich, it’s a great ingredient if you can use it. I’ve been thinking about blueberry cake/muffins/something baked lately! This would satisfy all of my blueberry desires. :)
It reminds me of the yogurt cakes I used to eat…usually very late at night after a night out, and boy did those things hit the spot! :) So this satisfied all my blueberry and yogurt cake desires, too!