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This Blueberry Lemon Yogurt Cake is an easy quick bread made with Greek yogurt and juicy blueberries, fresh or frozen, and it’s ready in under an hour.
When a regular Lemon Loaf Cake just isn’t enough for your spring tastes, add blueberries. It’s simple to make and delicious to eat (or share at a work potluck, or give to a neighbor or new mom friend).
The Greek yogurt makes it extra moist without making it heavy, and it doubles as brunch or dessert. There really isn’t any good reason not to make this!
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Baking powder: Instead of yeast, quick breads such as loaf breads, muffins, biscuits, and scones use chemical leavening agents, in this case baking powder (baking soda is another example).
- Blueberries: You can use either fresh or frozen blueberries in this recipe. If using frozen blueberries, leave them frozen right up until the moment you are going to stir them in. Then, fold them in with as few strokes as possible. If you do see some residual purple streaks in the batter, they likely won’t bake up that way. In my experience, the cake looks the same as one made with fresh blueberries.
Step-by-step instructions
- Move an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and coat with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, yogurt, eggs, zest, and vanilla.
- Add the flour ingredients in 3 batches, whisking to incorporate after each addition. Fold in oil and stir carefully until uniformly combined. Fold in the blueberries until just incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 1 hour until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Using a sharp knife, slice around the inside of the loaf pan to loosen the cake and flip out onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Cool the cake completely.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes 1 loaf cake, enough for 8 slices (or more or less depending on how you slice it).
- Storage: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days.
- Freezer: Wrap tightly in a double layer of plastic wrap, label, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.
- Made with boxed cake mix: This Lemon Blueberry Cake is a delicious version made in a bundt pan. Cut thick slices for breakfast, bake sales, and snacks.
Recipe FAQs
Culinary wisdom suggests you should toss the blueberries in some flour before mixing into the batter. I usually forget about this until it’s too late, but it’s a great idea if you’re worried about that! The blueberries in my photos were not tossed in flour, so you can decide for yourself how long I should kick myself about it.
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Blueberry Lemon Yogurt Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (see note 1)
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 6 ounces fresh blueberries or 1 cup frozen (see note 2)
Instructions
- Move an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and coat with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, yogurt, eggs, zest, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients in 3 batches, whisking to incorporate after each addition. Fold in oil and stir carefully until uniformly combined. Fold in the blueberries and stir until just incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Using a sharp knife, slice around the inside of the loaf pan to loosen the cake and flip out onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Cool the cake completely.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Baking powder: Instead of yeast, quick breads such as loaf breads, muffins, biscuits, and scones use chemical leavening agents, in this case baking powder (baking soda is another example).
- Blueberries: You can use either fresh or frozen blueberries in this recipe. If using frozen blueberries, leave them frozen right up until the moment you are going to stir them in. Then, fold them in with as few strokes as possible. If you do see some residual purple streaks in the batter, they likely won’t bake up that way. In my experience, the cake looks the same as one made with fresh blueberries.
- Yield: This recipe makes 1 loaf cake, enough for 8 slices (or more or less depending on how you slice it).
- Storage: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days.
- Freezer: Wrap tightly in a double layer of plastic wrap, label, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.
I did not know, how to make a cake but with the help of this recipe I made it successfully. It’s taste was marvellous!!!!!!!! I would like to recommend this cake to all my friends.
Hi Meggan,
I was wondering if could swap out some of the oil for more yogurt? 1/2 a cup makes me a little queasy.
Hi Norah, you could certainly try. I feel like it would probably still taste great but I haven’t tried it. It could possibly affect the baking time but I don’t know for sure. One time I forgot to put the oil in entirely and it was still good, just a little dry. 🙂 So if you went with 1/4 cup of oil, even, it would probably still taste good too! Thanks for your question.
Hmm it appears like your site ate my first comment (it was extremely
long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I had written and say,
I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring
blog blogger but I’m still new to the whole thing.
Do you have any helpful hints for beginner blog writers?
I’d really appreciate it.
Hello. I made this cake last night and it came out looking great, but to be honest you could really smell the oil. I even used less than the 1/2 cup suggested. Even though it tastes fine, you can still taste the oil quite a bit. So my question is, why is the oil needed and can it be left out or replaced with anything else? Thank you
Hi Anna, my first thought is that your oil was rancid. You should not be able to “smell oil.” However, that being said, I did accidentally leave the oil out of the cake one time. It was quite dry, still edible, my dining guests seemed to like it okay. But, the oil make the cake incredibly moist and soft. Omitting it means your cake will be very dry. You could try replacing it with something else, but since I haven’t done that I don’t have any specific recommendations. I know people use apple sauce in recipes a lot, but I don’t know how much here or if it’s a 1:1 ratio. Sorry I couldn’t be more help! But you should not be able to smell the oil, so I think there was an issue there. Thanks for your question Anna!
I made this twice this week, it’s delicious! The second time I had orange instead of lemon and used almond flavor instead of vanilla…..both were delicious and disappeared quickly.
Orange, what a great idea Marie!!! I’m going to have to try that. Orange + almond, genius. Thank you so much for sharing your variations. 😀 Have a wonderful week and thanks for reading!
Hello!
We love the original lemon yogurt cake with the double glaze!! We seem to not be able to get that recipe any longer, even when we click the link provided above. Can you please repost or forward the recipe to me? Can’t wait to try this blueberry version:)
Thanks!!!
Hey there Aprile! Sorry about that! I’ve restored the post (I didn’t think anybody ever used it, ha ha). You can find it here. 🙂 https://cash-surge.live/lemon-yogurt-cake/%3C/a%3E It’s back! Thanks! Sorry about that!!
I just tried to make this recipe with frozen blueberries. At the hour mark it was dark brown on top and a tooth pick came out clean. After I took it out of the pan the entire inside was still runny. I was hesitant to follow your instructions about the frozen blueberries but I didn’t see anyone else have a problem with it so I gave it a shot. I wouldn’t recommend this recipe without thawing the blueberries first.
Hey Kayla, I am not sure what happened here. I am so sorry! I have absolutely 100% made this recipe with frozen blueberries (not thawed) and didn’t have any problems. Perhaps it’s time I try the recipe again, just in case. I’m really sorry that you had issues.
I will definitely try thing recipe during the fall! too hot to bake right now! yummy
*the recipe
Hi there, I just made this and it’s delicious. I poured a bit (1/2″) of plain batter into the pan before adding blueberries to the batter, so there were no problems with blueberries at the bottom. Question, though… I had to bake it longer to get the Center done, which resulted in a thick crust (not burned, though). Do you have a fix for this? Higher temp? Lower temp but longer time? Thanks ?
Hey Lori! How much longer did you bake it (how much time over one hour)? I guess I’d say probably a lower temp for longer, but that’s just me sort of guessing and compiling past baking experiences. Have you ever checked the temperature in your oven to make sure it’s true? As in, is it baking at 350 degrees when it says it is? I’m sure you’re oven is correct but I was just wondering. Also, did you peak at all and let the heat escape? Sorry for the troubles! At least it was edible. 🙂
Hi Meggan, Thanks for your response. I didn’t open the oven until the hour was up, to test it. I think, in the end, it took an additional 15 minutes. Usually my oven needs an extra 2-5 minutes (depending what I’m baking), but perhaps it was because it was such a heavy loaf that it took 15. I’ll see if I can find anything on line re whether it should be less hot for longer, or higher for shorter. I’m thinking you are probably correct re lower/longer, though.
Anyways, it was the best new recipe I’ve tried in a while… and I will
definitely be making it again.
Could you use bread flour instead of all purpose white flour?
Hi Charlene, I haven’t tested the recipe with bread flour but my guess is your results might change quite a bit. My understanding is (and this is just what I learned from the Food52 website) that bread flour is higher in gluten and makes things chewier. It also absorbs more liquid so you may have to add more to avoid a dry batter. If you did half bread flour and half cake flour, that might bring you closer to all-purpose flour. You could definitely try it, but you might be really angry with the resulting cake. I’m not sure! :-/ Good luck!