This Lemon Yogurt Cake is slightly tangy, flavorful, moist and totally delicious. Simple to make and lots of lemon flavor. If you love lemons and lemony desserts, then you’ll love this incredible cake.
I’m a sucker when it comes to lemony desserts. I can honestly say that they are right there at the top with my favorite desserts. Especially in the winter.
This is a cake that I’ve been making a lot over the years. There’s just something so comforting about a good slice of lemon cake early in the morning with my cup of coffee. I love waking up to that!
There’s a reason this is one of my favorite cakes. It’s light, it’s lemony, and it’s versatile. You can serve it with fruits, whipped cream, a lemon glaze, chocolate syrup, whatever you can think of. I decided to serve mine with berries and give it a light sprinkle of powdered sugar. What a delicious little cake.
How to Make Lemon Yogurt Cake
This lemon cake is super easy to make. Simply combine all the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then whisk the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and mix well using a mixer.
Butter a loaf pan well or spray it with cooking spray. Bake for close to an hour at 350 F degrees or until you insert a toothpick into the center of the cake and it comes out clean.
While the cake is baking you can make the lemon glaze. Simply add the lemon juice and sugar to a saucepan and cook until the sugar dissolves. I would say this lemon glaze is a must because it truly does make the loaf moist and adds that much extra lemony flavor.
What Size Pan Can I Use
I have made this cake using many different pans. I have used a 9 inch loaf pan as seen in the pictures, but I have also used a bundt pan. This cake will come out looking really nice if using a fancy bundt cake pan.
How to Store Lemon Yogurt Cake
What I usually do is cut the whole cake into slices and then I wrap each slice individually in plastic wrap then store them in the refrigerator. This way whenever I feel like having a slice, I just take a piece from the fridge, unwrap it and eat it. This is also the perfect way to have a treat when you’re on the go.
I’ve also frozen these and this way they will last a lot longer in the freezer, for up to 2 months. I wrap them the same way, in plastic wrap in individual slices, then place the slices in a freezer bag and store them in the freezer until ready to eat. You can thaw them out in the fridge overnight, or pop them in the microwave oven for about a minute.
Looking for More Lemon Recipes? Try These:
- Lemon Orange Cake with Lemon Honey Glaze
- Old Fashioned Lemon Bread
- Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake
- Limoncello Lemon Cake
- Lemon Chiffon Cake
- Lemon Magic Cake
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Lemon Yogurt Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup yogurt plain, I used greek yogurt
- 1 cups sugar granulated
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp lemon zest from 1 lemon
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup vegetable oil
Lemon Glaze
- ⅓ cup sugar granulated
- ⅓ cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a loaf pan with butter or cooking spray.
- Make cake batter: In a medium size bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, the sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla, and vegetable oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated using a mixer.
- Bake: Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Make lemon glaze: Cook the ⅓ cup lemon juice and ⅓ cup sugar in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.
- When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the loaf pan for 10 minutes. Carefully transfer the loaf to a rack that's placed over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon glaze over the cake and allow it to soak in.
- Let the cake cool before serving. Sprinkle some powdered sugar over the top or serve with berries. (optional)
Video
Recipe Notes
- Let the cake cool completely. Store leftovers in a tin or wrapped up in foil or plastic wrap in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
- You can use sour cream in place of the plain yogurt.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
- Originally shared Nov 2013.
- Recipe adapted from Ina Garten.
This recipe makes a yummy loaf! How do convert this recipe to make cupcakes?
Thanks!!
You can just put the batter in a muffin tin! The baking time may be about 20 minutes less so just keep an eye on them!
I made them into cupcakes. DELICIOUS and soooo easy!
Excellent cake. I had some lemon curd yoghurt in the fridge, so used that for extra zing. Moist and tasty result.
Hi Jo, I didn’t have an electric mixer so i used a wooden spoon to fold in the flour then mixed it till it was just about lump-free. The cake rose up nicely in the oven and after taking it out, I drizzled the syrup over. However, the cake deflated almost immediately and when cut open, it’s quite gummy in the centre. Do you know why this would be?
It sounds like it might have been a little overmixed or not baked all the way through! Baking is so finicky, every oven is different!
Great taste! Although mine cooked at 175C for 50 minutes and came out a little on the brown side (with few crispy bits). I’m not too sure why, but otherwise great!
Every oven is different! You can adjust the time to see what works best. So glad it was a success 🙂
This recipe came out beautifully so fluffy light and moist. I used the same Ingredients except i used half Greek yogurt half natural yogurt.
Can I add fruit to this cake? Such as blueberries? It looks really nice and I look forward to baking it.
For sure! Toss them with a bit of flour before folding into the batter.
Thanks! 🙂
This will be so much fun to make
This is my third time making this!
This time I didn’t have Plain Greek Yogurt so subbed in Blueberry GY and it tastes sooo good! I also cut down the sugar to 3/4 cup
Delicious cake, I’ve already made it twice! (only I used less sugar)
I’ll be making this again!! Love that it’s yogurt and not butter.
Tried this today with my 7yr old. We (cough cough ME) absolutely devoured them after we baked them but had made them for dessert for his grandma’s and daddy’s house. We made 2 varieties. Lemon cupcakes and lemon ginger. They were both really sweet for our liking. I was hankering for a sweet treat. This hit the spot.
Changes i made to this due to things we had on hand. No zester so did as much zest as I could and juiced half a lemon. No plain yoghurt only Chobani Lemon yoghurt and no vanilla. Used macadamia oil.
For the lemon ginger, my ginger spice went stale and no fresh ginger. Son suggested marmalade. Mixed a 1/4 cup roughly of ginger marmalade in. Has chunks. Added a dash of yellow food dye so wouldn’t mixed them up and few tablespoons maybe of flour.
Changes i would make next time, add 1/4 or 1/2 cup of sugar. Probably a quarter to get the lemon glaze on top. Mmm delicious. Going to make more tomorrow. So excited.