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 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
- Convenientโuse 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!
Video Tutorial
How to Make Lemon Berry Yogurt Cake
This doesnโt get any easierโfrom 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 room temperature 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 donโt 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 creamโall were excellent. Greek yogurt added a little more tang and structure, though. It was our favorite. It’s a powerhouse ingredient in this grapefruit Greek yogurt cake, too.
- 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, lemon blueberry cupcakes, and lemon blueberry muffins, 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 loveย this oneย andย 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 moreย information.
More Lemon + Berry Recipes
- Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes
- Lemon Blueberry Tart
- Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
- Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cake
- Lemon Cupcakes with Blackberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Lemon Berry Yogurt Cake
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 4 hours, 15 minutes
- Yield: serves 12
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Sweet, studded with berries, and flavored with fresh lemon, vanilla, and butter, this supremely moist yogurt cake will soon become your favorite “anytime” cake. We love it!
Ingredients
- 3 cups (354g) cake flour*ย (spooned & 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 (16 Tbsp; 226g) 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)*
Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup (120g) confectioner’s sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make the cake: Preheat oven to 350ยฐF (177ยฐC). Generously grease a 10-12 cup Bundt panย with butter or nonstick spray.
- Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk the yogurt, lemon zest, and lemon juice together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a silicone spatula. On medium speed, beat in the vanilla extract. On low speed, beat the eggs in 1 at a time allowing each to fully mix in before adding the next. After the 3rd egg is added, be careful not to over-mix. Stop the mixer once all eggs are incorporated.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the butter/eggs. Pour the yogurt mixture on top. Turn the mixer onto medium speed and beat everything together *just* until combined. Do not over-mix. Using a silicone spatula, fold in the berries. The batter will be a little thick and very creamy.
- Pour/spoon batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake for 55-70 minutes. Loosely tent the baking cake with aluminum foil halfway through bake time to ensure the surface does not over-brown. Use a toothpick to test for doneness and begin checking at 55 minutes. Once the toothpick comes out completely clean, the cake is done. This is a large cake so donโt be alarmed if it takes longer in your oven.
- Remove cake from the oven and allow to cool for 1 hour inside the pan. Then invert the slightly cooled cake onto a wire cooling rack or serving dish. Allow to cool completely before glazing, slicing, and serving.
- Make the glaze: Whisk the glaze ingredients together. If desired, add more confectionersโ sugar to thicken or more lemon juice to thin out. Drizzle on top of cooled cake. Icing will set after a few hours, making this cake convenient for storing and/or transporting.
- Cover leftover cakeย tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Wrap unglazed baked and cooled cake in 1-2 layers of plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw in the plastic wrap & foil overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature before glazing, slicing, and serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 10- to 12-cup Bundt Pan (I loveย this oneย andย this one) | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack
- Loaf Pan: Pour the batter into two greased 9ร5-inch loaf pans. Bake each at 350ยฐF (163ยฐC) for about 45 minutes or until baked through. Use a toothpick to test for doneness. Or halve all of the ingredients to make one loaf. (Use 1 egg + 1 egg yolk.)
- Cake Flour:ย For the best results, I strongly recommend cake flour. You can find it in the baking aisle and I haveย many more recipesย using it. If you cannot get your hands on cake flour, you can make a DIYย cake flour substitute.
- Yogurt: You can use plain Greek yogurt, plain yogurt, or even sour cream. I recommend low-fat,ย non-fat, or full fat yogurt. If using sour cream, use full fat.
- Lemons: 2 medium/large lemons will be enough for the cake and glaze. If you’re looking for a plain yogurt cake (no lemon flavor), simply leave out the lemon zest and replace the lemon juice with milk (dairy or nondairy) in both the cake and glaze.
- Berries: I recommend sticking with mostly blueberries and chopped strawberries. Some raspberries and/or blackberries are OK, but they become a little wet and mushy and can impact the color and consistency of the baked cake. I use 3/4 cup blueberries, 3/4 cup chopped strawberries, and 1/4 cup each raspberries and blackberries. You can use frozen berries if needed. Do not thaw.
Reader Comments and Reviews
The best cake I have ever made, according to my family and work colleagues . Everything came out perfectly, except the glaze did not set. Still delicious but a bit sticky on the outside.
I used icing sugar (97% cane sugar with 3% cornstarch), wondered if I should have added a little more cornstarch – what’s typical ratio for US confectioner’s sugar?
Hi Paul, 3-5% is typical in the US.
This cake recipe is perfect. The cake came out looking beautiful and the taste and texture were incredible. It needed an extra 8 minutes in my oven and came out of the pan easily. I never use oil spray and I greased the pan with a couple of drops of light olive oil. I also used fat free Greek yogurt and a frozen mix of blackberries, raspberries and strawberries , but left the strawberries out of the recipe because of their size. The cake really looked nice and the berries gave it a beautiful color. I decided to not add the glaze because the cake is sweet enough as it is and the lemon flavor was already perfect. My guests raved about the cake and I will definitely make it again.
I greased the pan really well but the cake wouldnโt turn out of the pan and fell apart. Followed the directions exactly. All of the frozen berries sunk to the bottom and made the top of the cake mushy and it wouldnโt come out of the pan.
Can I make this cake the night before? Do I leave it on the kitchen counter or put it in the fridge overnight?
Hi Gerry! The cake takes a while to cool, so if you make it the night before, we would let it sit at room temperature.
I love this cake as is! I also substitute the lemon for passion fruit pulp with raspberries and that is fabulous too!
Loved this, so scrumptious! Great flavors that work together perfectly. Made it with my tween granddaughter. Itโs a big cake, so she took half of it home. Rave reviews there, she was so proud!
If I use frozen blueberries will it help with sinking fruit if I lightly dust blueberries right before adding
Hi Diana, you can toss the frozen blueberries in a Tablespoon of flour before adding to the batter, yes. Enjoy the cake!
This is one of my familyโs favourite cakes! Can you bake it as cupcakes as well?
Hi Jana, we recommend using this recipe for lemon blueberry cupcakes. Enjoy!
Another amazing recipe from Sally! I made this for a womenโs group gathering and they all raved about it. Very moist and delicious.
My cake did not come out right. I used frozen berries and it just never cooked ๐ I let it bake for 75 min and after it cooled, it wouldnโt come out of the pan. It eventually broke in half with mushy berries and uncooked cake with it. Ugh
I bake a lot. Probably 3 times a week sometimes 4. I share my creations with my neighbors and this is without a doubt the best cake that I have ever made. I did double the lemon zest. I always do! I used raspberries and it worked well.
Hi! I really love your recipes!
I have been meaning to bake this cake but I feel a little confused with the quantities. You mention 3 cups of flour but the equivalent is not 354 grams, itโs 720 grams. So whatโs the correct quantity? 354 or 720 grams of flour? Or should I just go with 3 cups? Thank you very much in advance!
Hi Angela, we’re not sure exactly what you mean. How are you measuring your flour? Make sure to spoon and level, or use a kitchen scale for most accurate results. Here’s more on how to properly measure baking ingredients.
This recipe marries buttery sweetness and tartness from juicy berries. The slight tang of the yogurt is a perfect balance and makes for a moist cake that left my seven year old scraping every crumb off the plate. Kid and adult approved.
EVERYTHING I’ve ever made from your dessert recipe file has been absolutely delicious. This cake is no exception!! It’s light and moist and lemony…perfect!
So happy to read this, Oscar!
Thank you for sharing this recipe, love the taste buttery and not too sweet just perfect balance.
This one is a lot of prep work, but I guarantee you will be blown away with the flavor and texture of this cake!
I absolutely love all your recipes! Can I substitute the sugar with agave? I am trying to find delicious sugar free recipes.
Hi Cheyenne, we haven’t tested a version with agave, but let us know how it turns out for you if you do!
I used coconut sugar instead of refined. It will change the color on the inside. We will see! Itโs baking in the oven as I type.
I used huckleberries instead of blueberries. That is what is in season.
Do you have the nutrition information for this cake?
Hi Lisa, We donโt usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Everyone LOVED this cake and requested that I make it again.
Can this be done as a 9 x 13 sheet cake?
Hi Shelley, This might be a bit too much batter for a 9ร13 pan. It does work wonderfully in loaf pans though. See recipe notes for instructions using loaf pans.