Name: Lemon Berry Yogurt Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 4 h 15 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3 cups (345g) cake flour* (spoon & leveled); 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 cup (240g) plain Greek yogurt, at room temperature*; 2 teaspoons lemon zest; 1/3 cup (80ml) fresh lemon juice; 1 cup (230g; 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature; 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar; 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract; 3 large eggs, at room temperature; 2 cups (325g) mixed berries, fresh or frozen (do not thaw)*; 1 cup (120g) confectioner’s sugar; 3 Tablespoons (45ml) fresh lemon juice; 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Jump to Recipe

Unlike any other cake I’ve baked, this incomparably moist lemon berry yogurt cake has a soft, creamy, and buttery crumb. Lightly flavored with fresh lemon and bursting with Greek yogurt and mixed berries, it’s a generous drop of sunshine in a bundt cake pan. It’s been dubbed one of the best desserts I’ve ever made.

Chocolate? Who needs it. Caramel swirls? Nope. Peanut butter brownie swirl chunks mixed with cookie dough pieces? Yum, but not today.

When one of my assistants, Hilari, and I were testing this recipe, she turned to me and said “this is the best thing we’ve ever made.” Out of 1,200 recipes both on my website and in my cookbooks, garnering a description like that is no easy accomplishment. I replied with a simple “agreed.” In other words, today’s cake should not be overlooked.

Why You’ll Love This Lemon Berry Yogurt Cake

Supremely moist (other cakes don’t even compare)
Soft and almost creamy-tasting crumb
Made with 1 cup of Greek yogurt
Fresh flavors
Filled with tart lemon and sweet berries
Convenient– use fresh or frozen berries

And as a welcome bonus, there’s no complicated decorating required. Let the cake cool and drizzle with lemon glaze. She’s a natural beauty!

How to Make Lemon Berry Yogurt Cake

This doesn’t get any easier– from the mixing bowl to the oven in 15 minutes.

Mix dry ingredients together.
Whisk yogurt, lemon juice, and lemon zest together.
Beat butter and sugar together. Then add the vanilla and eggs.
Combine all ingredients.
Fold in the berries.
Spoon batter into bundt cake pan.
Bake. The cake takes about 1 hour, but check with a toothpick.
Cool for at least 1 hour in the pan. Then invert onto your serving platter and cool completely before icing.
Drizzle with icing.

Expect the creamiest, silkiest cake batter in the entire world:

Ingredients You Need

Cake Flour: Cake flour is lighter than all-purpose flour and, depending on the recipe, produces the best cakes. I tested this recipe with both cake flour and all-purpose flour (varying amounts, too) and 3 cups of cake flour won by a landslide. All-purpose flour was simply too heavy. If needed, use this homemade cake flour substitute.
Baking Powder & Baking Soda: With so many wet ingredients, we need both baking powder and soda to help lift this cake so it’s not overly heavy and flat.
Butter: Butter is the base of this cake. You need 2 sticks of properly softened butter.
Sugar: This is a very large cake, so a lot of sugar is required to sweeten the cake and sufficiently cream the butter.
Eggs: Eggs provide structure, stability, richness, and flavor. I based this recipe off of my cranberry orange bundt cake and reduced the amount of eggs since we are using so much Greek yogurt and lighter cake flour.
Lemon Zest & Juice: Grab a large fresh lemon and use its zest (around 2 teaspoons, give or take) and lemon juice. You may need a 2nd lemon to yield enough juice. Fresh juice is best. Here is a wonderful inexpensive juicer if you don’t have one.
Greek Yogurt: You’ll notice that I use yogurt or sour cream in a lot of my cake recipes. Both bring a slight tang (very mild) and brilliantly creamy moisture. I tested this cake with nonfat and low fat Greek yogurt, regular yogurt, and sour cream– all were excellent. Greek yogurt added a little more tang and structure, though. It was our favorite.
Vanilla Extract & Salt: Both are used for flavor.

Each ingredient is important and has a very specific job.

Describe the Taste & Texture

This yogurt cake tastes creamy. I’m not even sure how that’s possible, but the crumb is so luxuriously soft, silky, and buttery. You’ll get a lovely preview of its texture when you experience the massive creaminess of the cake batter. Greek yogurt is a workhorse and when paired with cake flour and butter, it truly takes cakes to a whole other level. The cake is a little dense like pound cake, but the crumb isn’t quite as tight. Like my lemon blueberry cake, berries add more moisture and a pop of juiciness to each bite.

The lemon flavor is bright, but it’s a little light, so I recommend topping the cake with lemon glaze to really amp up that flavor. The lemon glaze is just lemon juice, a splash of vanilla, and confectioners’ sugar. Easy!

I can see this yogurt cake becoming the base of many other flavors like strawberry yogurt cake (swap the lemon juice for milk and use only chopped strawberries) or lemon coconut yogurt cake (skip the berries, add 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, and 1 teaspoon coconut extract). Those are just 2 initial ideas. Get creative!

Before You Bundt

Bundt Pan: I have two bundt cake pans that I swear by. I love this one and this one. Both are nonstick, but I generously grease them with nonstick spray to be safe. The yogurt cake releases so easily. The size and design of bundt cake pans is imperative because intricate designs don’t always translate well into a baked cake. Likewise, bundt pans can be deceptively small. Use a 9.5-10-inch pan that holds at least 10-12 cups of batter. This batter doesn’t yield quite that much, but it rises up.
Room Temperature Ingredients: All refrigerated items, except for the berries, should be at room temperature so the batter mixes together easily and evenly. Read here for more information.