☕️🍰 Sweet Cream Yogurt Coffee Cake is fluffy, soft, sweet, and very close in taste and texture to boxed yellow cake mix but this cake is made from scratch. Made with simple ingredients and ready in an hour, it’s a perfect cake for sharing!
Vanilla Greek Yogurt Coffee Cake Recipe
I’ve made a lot of cakes over the years, and coffee cakes like my glazed pumpkin coffee cake, cinnamon sugar swirl coffee cake, and buttery crumb coffee cake are some of my favorites.
However, this vanilla coffee cake is equally as delicious and truly unique.
- The batter comes together with a secret ingredient: Baileys® Coffee Creamers Sweet Italian Biscotti! It’s a creamy, alcohol-free flavor capturing the essence of the traditional double-baked Italian cookies that gives the cake an amazing, sweet vanilla taste.
- Pro Tip: If you can’t find that exact creamer, feel free to use another liquid coffee creamer such as vanilla or French vanilla.
- The cake is an easy, no-mixer recipe, and always turns out supremely moist, springy, and fluffy. The trifecta of moisturizing and tenderizing ingredients, including creamer, yogurt, and oil, gives the cake a creamy and rich flavor profile while preventing dryness.
- I glazed the cake with a simple confectioner’s sugar glaze and more creamer. It’s the final sha-zam that makes the cake really sing and locks in even more moisture.
- My family and taste-testers said the cake is definitely a keeper. It’s got just enough density to give it some heft and body, but it’s still light, springy, bouncy, and fluffy. It’s perfect with a warm cup of coffee in the morning or as an afternoon snack and is a great option for Mother’s Day, added to a brunch board.
Ingredients You’ll Need
This is definitely a sweet coffee cake, with a strong vanilla flavor. Here’s what you’ll need to make the coffee cake with yogurt and coffee creamer:
- Baking staples: All-purpose flour, granulated sugar, salt, egg, vanilla extract
- Coffee Creamer: Baileys Coffee Creamer, Sweet Cream, Vanilla, French Vanilla, or your favorite coffee creamer. You can make this yogurt coffee cake with any flavor coffee creamer you’d like. Anything in the realm of vanilla, cinnamon / spice, or even pumpkin should work. If you don’t keep coffee creamer on hand, you could try making the vanilla coffee cake with either half-and-half or whole milk instead and add a bit of sugar mixed into the milk, since coffee creamer is usually sweet.
- Vanilla Greek yogurt: Full-fat yogurt will create the richest flavor and the most tender crumb
- Oil: Use a neutral-tasting oil such as avocado oil or canola oil in place of unsalted butter for richness and moisture.
- Confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar) for the glaze.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Vanilla Greek Yogurt Coffee Cake
This rich vanilla cake recipe is easy to make, and the best part is that you don’t need to dirty lots of dishes in the process! There’s no need to pull out a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or fuss with a million tools.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
- In a large measuring cup, whisk together the egg, creamer, yogurt, oil, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and fold lightly with a rubber spatula until just combined.
- Spoon the cake batter out into a parchment paper or foil-lined square pan, smoothing the top into an even layer lightly with a spatula.
- Bake until the center is set, slightly springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
- Place the pan on a wire rack and allow the cake to cool for at least 30 minutes before optionally glazing. The glaze makes about double what’s shown. Use as little or as much as you like, depending on your sweetness preferences. Or, omit it completely if you think it would be too much for you. Powdered sugar and fresh berries or a sprinkle of brown sugar make for great toppings! You could even add a crumb topping like the one used for my mini pumpkin nut bread loaves.
Can I make Greek yogurt coffee cake muffins?
I haven’t tested it, but I don’t see why not! Prepare the batter as normal. Then, spoon it into a greased muffin pan, filling each cavity 2/3 of the way full. Adjust the baking time as needed, and let the muffins cool completely before adding glaze.
Vanilla Yogurt Coffee Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup Baileys Coffee Creamer, (or your favorite coffee creamer such as French Vanilla, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Pumpkin Spice, Sweet Cream, etc. I recommend full-fat creamer with regular sugar rather than lower fat or sugarfree options)
- ⅓ cup vanilla Greek yogurt, (plain Greek yogurt or sour cream may be substituted; use full fat for optional results)
- 3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, or to taste
Glaze
- 2 tablespoons Baileys Coffee Creamer, (or your favorite coffee creamer)
- about 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and optional salt; set aside.
- In a large measuring cup or separate small bowl, whisk together the egg, creamer, yogurt, oil, and vanilla.
- Add the wet mixture to the dry, mixing lightly with a rubber spatula until just combined; don’t overmix.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, or until center is set and slightly spring to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. Watch your cake, not the clock, and always bake until done noting that climate, oven, and exact ingredients used effect baking time.
- Place pan on a wire rack and allow cake to cool for at least 30 minutes before optionally glazing. While cake cooks, makes the glaze.
Glaze
- To a small bowl, add the creamer, and slowly add the confectioners’ sugar.
- Whisk together until smooth. Depending on desired consistency, you may need to play with the creamer and sugar ratios slightly.
- Evenly drizzle the glaze over the cake before slicing and serving.
Notes
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.
More Easy Coffee Cake Recipes:
Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake — An EASY, no-mixer cake studded with juicy blueberries and topped with big buttery streusel nuggets that are just SO GOOD! Not overly sweet and PERFECT with a cup of coffee for breakfast, brunch, or a snack!
Pumpkin Coffee Cake — A FAST and EASY no-mixer pumpkin coffee cake with rich pumpkin flavor! Super soft, tender, and topped with the BEST crumble topping that you’ll fall in love with! Great for brunches and holiday entertaining!
Cinnamon Coffee Cake — Between the cinnamon-sugar crust AND the cinnamon-sugar swirled through the center, this EASY coffee cake is IRRESISTIBLE! Soft, fluffy, light, and of course it’s perfect with coffee!
Glazed Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake — The BEST blueberry coffee cake you’ll ever make! The blueberries are juicy, abundant, and make this cake taste like one big, soft, moist blueberry muffin!
Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake — A very fast and straightforward cinnamon coffee cake to make and isn’t fussy at all. It’s moist, dense, and way easier to make than actual cinnamon rolls!
Strawberry Coffee Cake — Sweet, juicy strawberries are found in every bite, and the cream cheese glaze is the perfect tangy complement to the creamy, sweet cake.
This post brought to you by Baileys Creamers. Recipe and all opinions expressed are my own.
Absolutely delicious! Super easy to make, great vanilla flavor, moist, and yummy. I use French vanilla creamer, and I know this will be on my baking rotation.
thanks for the five star review Aimee and I’m so glad to hear that this was delicious, great, moist, and that you know it will be going into your baking rotation! I recently re-shared this recipe to my email list and it’s gotten some love after going dormant for about a decade, so I’m equally pleased to see your comment
Amy not Aimee (autocorrect!)
I didn’t have Greek yogurt so I subtituted with ¾ vanilla whip cream
Replaced 1 of the teaspoons of baking powder with baking soda. Dropped the sugar to 1/2 cup. Added 1/4 tsp salt. Sifted the dry ingredients except the sugar together. Whisked the egg and oil then beat in the sugar and added the rest of the wet ingredients. Used vanilla coffee creamer. Texture was amazing. So good and not too sweet.
I am glad to hear this turned out very well for you given the variety of changes you made!
Can you make these into cupcakes?
Yes I’m sure you could although I haven’t personally tried.
Hi, how could you turn this cake into a chocolate cake?
Just ran across your recipe while googling desserts using coffee creamer. How do you think this would do with Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce coffee creamer?
It would probably be great!
This is very easy and soft moisture cake !! I like this. But only thing I think its sweetness is too much. If I don’t using frosting, maybe OK amount sugar 3/4 cup. But 8×8 small cake pan with these amount of sugar are too much for me
But thank you so much for your recipe and of course I’m going to repeat this one !!
Being that it’s made with sweet cream, it’s going to be a sweeter cake. You can swap out with half-and-half or cream/whole milk and that will reduce the sweetness. Glad you will make it again.
THIS CAKE IS DELICIOUS!!!!! It’s very moist, light, and just the right amount of sweetness with the glaze. I just made this tonight, and my husband and Daughter loved it. I’m even thinking of making it for Thanksgiving, as I know my in-laws would love it. I made a few of my own slight changes: I used Coffeemate vanilla creamer, (I don’t use Bailey’s brand), I used Wegman’s brand vanilla yogurt (not greek), and I baked it in an 11×7 glass dish. It came out perfect after 30 minutes, no problems at all. I love ANYTHING vanilla, especially my coffee creamer.
Thanks for this recipe, it’s a keeper!!!
Glad that you loved this cake and are thinking of making it for the holidays and for your inlaws! Glad it’s a keeper!
Hi Averie,
I want to save myself some time and bake this a week in advance. Have you (or anyone) baked this and then put it in the freezer? Just wondering if anything was lost in the freeze/thaw to eat at a later time? Thanks.
I haven’t baked and froze this cake but in general cakes freeze pretty well. But like I said, I haven’t personally done it with this one so can’t speak to results.
I made this cake today using french vanilla. It’s a keeper!!!!!! Everyone loved it, especially me. The middle of the cake could have risen a little more, but, it was so good no one noticed. Next time, as you suggested, I’ll cover with aluminum foil and bake a little longer. I’m now going on the treadmill and am giving up dinner to compensate for the amount of cake I ate. Thank you so much for this recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it and yes running and light dinners to compensate for the sweets I’ve eaten? Been there :) Glad the cake was worth it!
I just made this cake, having to substitute several things due to what I had on hand & it still turned out fantastically! I love recipes that are basic & easily tweaked with just a few subtle changes. I used King Arthur GF flour blend, adding 1 tsp of xanthum gum, used limoncello since I was out of vanilla & raspberry Greek yogurt. I don’t have any coffee creamer but used heavy whipping cream instead. This is a perfect sized treat to make for my DD & I since neither one of us can have wheat & most dessert portions are simply too large for just the two of us. Thank you Averie, this is sure to be a staple recipe for us!
So glad you loved it and you sound like you’re incredibly resourceful in the kitchen – wish all my readers were and I’d never have to answer baking questions :)
“I love recipes that are basic & easily tweaked with just a few subtle changes” <--- amen and that is what I try to do! This cake is adapted from some that I linked to in the post, a basic buttermilk cake recipe that makes a small-batch sized cake, and I have remade it probably 10 different ways from cream-cheese/jelly swirled like a danish to adding snickerdoodle-like spices for a wintertime coffeecake. The base is incredibly versatile and as we now now, can be made with coffee creamer, heavy cream and with GF flour! Thanks for sharing what you did!
I need to get my hands on some of that creamer because your cake looks so incredible, Averie! It’s so fluffy and light and dreamy! I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day and were spoiled ‘n pampered rotten ;)
Oh how I only wish to your last line :) Not quite like that but it was a nice day and I hope yours was as well!!
This coffee cake looks absolutely divine, Averie! :) I can’t wait to try this. And I LOVE baking with flavored creamers- so easy and yummy!
I just pinned some of your stuff and voila, here you are in my comments! Happy Mother’s Day (belated!)
I just made this cake and I’m in love with its flavor! I’ve always been trying to mimic that distinct vanilla flavor of a box mix that everyone seems to love with no success, until I tried this cake! I used Bailey’s French Vanilla coffee creamer and the cake tasted a lot like Betty Crocker French Vanilla cake mix which I love, but without the artificial aftertaste. I’m over the moon with this secret ingredient discovery, thanks to you. My only concern, however, was that the cake sunk in the middle half way through baking. I’m not sure what I could’ve done wrong because I’ve had great results with the cinnamon topped snickerdoodle cake, which is very similar in nature to this one except for the the coffee creamer. It rose beautifully unlike the sweet cream vanilla one. In both cakes I used sour cream instead of the greek yogurt. Could it be the extra sugar and added fat from the coffee creamer that caused it to sink? Please let me know how I could fix this because I’m soooooo obsessed with the flavor of this cake and I wanna keep making it over & over again. Thank you so much for all your amazing recipes:)
So glad you love the cake and that you think it’s as close to a boxed cake mix cake taste (and I mean that in a good way b/c there’s something about boxed cakes that have such nostalgic charm for me and I will always admit to loving the taste!) and that you’re so happy with this cake!
Re the sinking…ok so all the other cakes I’ve made that are similar to this one (and thanks for trying the cinn-snickerdoodle cake too!) but they were all made with buttermilk, not coffee creamer, i.e. ‘plain’ milk. The acid in the buttermilk reacts better with the leaveners and anything made with buttermilk will always rise better than things made with plain milk. There is acid in the greek yog/sour cream, but it’s not the same as using them in conjunction with the buttermilk; hence you’re going to be more prone to sinking w/out using buttemrilk, but then you’d give up this ‘secret ingredient’ flavor discovery. My cake didn’t sink though. I would recommend you bake it an extra couple minutes, maybe 5 or so. Cover it with a sheet of foil the last 5-10 mins if you’re worried about it becoming too browned and see how that goes. Please report back and LMK what you try!
Thank you so much for your helpful explanation. I’m baking science nerd and so that was music to my ears:) I will certainly be playing around with it and use your tips. This is the best vanilla cake I’ve ever tasted & I’ve made and eaten tons. Will definitely keep you posted.
I just made this and it’s the greatest cake my taste buds have ever experienced. I used Nestle French Vanilla Coffemate instead of Baileys and vanilla yogurt instead of Greek (can’t stand Greek, even when baking). I’ve never been able to find a vanilla cake recipe that comes close to the fluffiness of boxed mix, but this is it! It’s moist and delicious with or without the glaze.
I actually made this twice and it’s so quick to make I didn’t even mind it. The first time in a 9X9 pan for 22 minutes but it was too flat and didn’t look pretty (oh well; I get to eat it now!). I found an 8X8 pan for 25 mins for the second one. This is my mother’s day cake and my mama deserves a pretty cake! :-) She’s gonna love this as much as my dad and I do!
So happy to hear this is the greatest cake you’ve ever had. That is SUCH high praise! Glad your creamer swap worked out as did the yogurt swap. And with pan sizes, yes, I can see a 9×9 creating a too-thin cake which is why I used the 8×8 and glad you did that the next time, too! Your mama will be thrilled that you baked for her, that’s so sweet :)
I LOVE this cake SO much!! I can only imagine just how good this was! And it’s GORGEOUS!
You’re the one with the gorgeous photos :)