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
- 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!
Video Tutorial
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 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 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. 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 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.
More Lemon + Berry Recipes
- Raspberry Lemon 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*Â (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 350°F (177°C). Generously grease a 10-12 cup Bundt pan 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 don’t 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 confectioners’ 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 cake 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 love this one and 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 9×5-inch loaf pans. Bake each at 350°F (163°C) 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: For the best results, I strongly recommend cake flour. You can find it in the baking aisle and I have many more recipes using it. If you cannot get your hands on cake flour, you can make a DIY cake flour substitute.
- Yogurt: You can use plain Greek yogurt, plain yogurt, or even sour cream. I recommend low-fat, 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.
This was delicious! The crumb is really something else, and the flavors are just right. I halved it and baked it in a loaf pan which I think led to it being a tad drier than it would have been had I made the full recipe and baked it in a bundt pan–next time I’ll do that. I made it with the icing but personally I thought it detracted a bit from the taste of the cake, which I loved so much that it’s all I wanted to taste! So next time I’ll leave that off.
Hi Sally! I’ve tried lots of your cookie recipes and they are amazing! so thank you! I’m excited to try this cake! Question: Have you ever used avocado instead of butter ? Part of the butter… I wouldn’t want to leave all of it out!
Thannks!
Hi Daniela! I haven’t. I’m unsure how the final cake will taste or if the bake time will change, but you can certainly try it.
Hi Sally,
This recipe is wonderful and the cake was delicious. But i do not know why the areas around the blueberry were soggy. I had reduced the amount of the berry so certain area where there was no berry, the cake tasted very good. But the other areas were soggy. Would you be able to advise? Thank you.
Hi Yuki, Did you use frozen or fresh berries? If using frozen do not thaw. If the berries are extra juicy/wet you can blot them dry before adding them to the batter.
Hi Sally,
I use fresh berries. Had pad dry them before putting into the batter. My yogurt wasn’t the thick creamy type, wonder if that will affect or does reducing the lemon juice help? Thank you 🙂
Really delicious light cake. I’m not a great baker by any means and was delighted to find a relatively easy recipe that delivered a mouthwatering cake. Thanks so much.
Hi Sally,
Tried this recipe in a silicone bundt mould. However, after nearly 85 minutes of baking, some parts of the cake were still undercooked. Is it too much water from frozen berries that might have caused that?Please advise. Thanks
Hi Y, as a general rule– cakes typically need longer in the oven if baking in a silicone pan. The frozen berries may have also caused it, but I’d say it was mostly pan.
This is a delicious cake. I am adapting it to a layered cake for someone’s birthday. Is there a frosting you recommend for this cake
I’m so glad you enjoy it, Ashley! There are many frostings you can use – strawberry and lemon would both be wonderful, or a cream cheese frosting for a tangy flavor. You can browse all of my Frosting Recipes here.
I’ve been making a lot of your recipes being home now, and I totally agree this is one of the best cakes ever! What other flavours can I use this base for? I really love your orange cake too but when I add chocolate chips, they tend to sink to the bottom. Would this recipe work for orange?
Hi Charmaine, so glad that you love this cake! Try tossing the chocolate chips in a little flour. This could help prevent them from sinking. You can definitely add some orange flavor, too. Replace the lemon juice/zest with fresh orange juice/zest.
I halved the ingredients and cook the cake in a typical asian rice cooker. It turned out pretty well! Texture of a fluffy muffin.
This is one of my favorite recipes from Sally! The flavor and cake crumb is absolutely to-die-for. To date, I’ve baked it as a sheet cake, cupcakes and most recently, mini Bundt cakes. My favorite combo is lemon blueberry, but have added raspberries with great success. Highly recommend giving this recipe a try as soon as you can, you won’t be disappointed!
Hi! Cake tastes great but the cake was too soft and crumbled and entirely fell apart when I tried to take it out of the pan after an hour. Any idea what went wrong and how it could be improved? Thank you!
Hi W, this is an extremely moist cake and will lose its shape if you cut into it while it’s still warm. (Assuming it was fully cooked!) Large Bundt cakes need a few hours to cool before completely room temperature.
Excellent receipe, I always have problems baking and find that something always goes wrong even when following the receipe to a tee. I made this cake and Wow! What a success, tasty, soft and just so yummy. Thank you, you have given me confidence in baking as I was having such a hard time with getting a soft consistency.
Do you think this could be made into mini cupcakes?
I can’t see why not! I’m unsure of the best bake time for mini muffins or how many this recipe will yield. I recommend baking them at 350°F (177°C). Use a toothpick to test for doneness.
Hi Sally, I made this cake yesterday and it’s delicious but a lot of my berries sunk to the bottom rather than staying evenly distributed throughout. I know this is usually due to the mix being too thin but I use a scales so the measurements were all precise and the mixture looked similar to yours pictured; it was lovely and thick. Any ideas? It didn’t affect the overall texture of the cake but where the fruit was quite heavy in some places the cake surrounding it was quite dense. I used the fruit quantities exactly as recommended, using mainly blueberries and strawberries with a few raspberries.
Hi Kelly, I’m so glad that you tried and loved this lemon berry cake recipe! Thank you so much for reporting back. If the batter was thick and you used fresh berries, I’m unsure why they would have sank so much. Mine sink a bit and you can tell in these photos, but most stay elevated in the thick batter. Try blotting the fruit a little dry next time (removing some moisture) and tossing in 1 Tablespoon of flour before folding into the batter. That should help.
Made this today and followed the recipe exactly except for a slight reduction in the sugar (I used 1-1/2 cups instead of two) and I didn’t use the lemon glaze (my husband and I think it’s perfect without it). Super moist crumb, perfectly lemony. I made it in two loaf pans, so I could share with a neighbor. I used fresh blueberries. Will definitely make this again.
Hi Sally:
This cake is delicious. I have a question for you: can shortening be used instead of butter?
Hi Kathy, you can, yes, but you will lose the buttery flavor.
My daughter made this cake for Mother’s day substituting feijoa for the berries. The she tweaked the glaze slightly and topped the cake with freeze-dried strawberries. One of the best cakes I have ever eaten.
I stumbled across this recipe when I had some surplus greek yogurt and did a quick google search. I made a half sized batch in a loaf pan and our whole family is in love with it. Moist, crumbly and the sweetness of the berries contrasting with the lemon. Perfection.
This cake is extraordinary, Sally. Well done!! I make mine in a mini Bundt pan and the batter will make 18 of the minis!! Soooo delicious.
Hi sally,
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I’ve made this recipe twice and both times the top of the cake gets ripped off when I remove it from the pan. The first time the cake was dry so I think I over baked it. This time I took it out sooner, the cake is moist but still the top stuck. I used the same pan to make the lemon pound cake and it turned out perfect.
Hi Cristina, my advice is to heavily grease the Bundt pan. I always use nonstick spray with Bundt cakes– they release so much easier with a nonstick spray coating vs butter. (I’ve ruined many that way.) Spray generously. This batter is creamier than pound cake batter, so it may require extra greasing.
Delicious! Only had frozen cherries, no berries. Cut half into quarters and left half whole. Worked out well.
Hi Sally,
Thank you for all your fantastic recipes, I’ve tried many and they are always a hit!!! :))
Quick question about this cake.. If I wanted to halve the quantity of this cake, how many eggs would you suggest I use?
Thanks
Roshini
You would need to use one and one half egg. For the half egg, simply crack it in a separate bowl, mix it, and add half to your cake batter.
One of the best new recipe discoveries since COVID cooking! Is it okay not to refrigerate if it will be consumed within 24 hours? What happens if you store the cake in an airtight container but leave it at room temp?
Glad you love this cake! 1-2 days covered at room temperature is completely fine. The refrigerator definitely keeps the cake fresher for longer, but a couple days on the counter isn’t a problem.
Hi Sally!
Love your recipes. Wanting to try this one but wondering if I should drop baking temp and possibly extend bake time because my Bundt pan has a dark colored non stick and has a tendency to get too dark. Would live your feedback!
Hi Cheryl, I usually don’t for darker metal pans, but if this is something you usually do for the pan you are using, I would.
Great recipe, I used 1 1/4 cup of sugar(40% less) for the batter and it was very moist and delicious. The only part I struggled with was taking the cake out of pan. I will have to use more butter to grease it real well next time
Sally! I adore you. Made the cream cheese pound cake….HEAVEN! Loved by ALL. Today I’m making the lemon berry yogurt cake. Wish me well! Also, I NEVER cooked before quarantine. Your post are so easy to read and understand. THANK YOU!!!
Hi Sally, thank you for Sharing the recipe. My children loves bundt cake. I have a question, can i follow this recipe but instead of berries and lemon can I follow this recipe make chocolate Bundt cake? Can I just simply add choc chips and chocolate powder.
Thank you!
Linda
Hi Linda, For a chocolate Bundt cake I recommend using my Chocolate Cream Cheese Bundt Cake and you can leave out the cream cheese swirl and add in chocolate chips to the batter. Enjoy!
I don’t have a Bundt cake pan. I have a small loaf pan (perfect for pound cake) how much do I need to cut the recipe to be enough for a smaller cake?
Hi Sana Malik, see my recipe note if using a loaf pan.
Hi Sally,
Our Bundt pan is a 9 inch fluted one. Any tips to ensure my cake still comes out perfect? Thanks!
Hi Gaitre, what is the cup capacity? If it’s considerably smaller, you can try halving the ingredients for it.
It’s a 9 cup one. Wilton Perfect Results Premium Non-Stick 9-Inch Fluted Tube Pan. So not super small, but not 10-12 and I’m afraid of overflow. Thanks for your response!
Second time I bake this cake and is a new favorite in our house! Just discover your blog looking for muffins recipes and I so glad I did!
Hi Sally!
I have a mini fluted tube pan (mini bundt cakes) would you happen to know the bake time if I made them in here instead of as a big cake?
thank you!!
Hi Jess, Without testing that specific pan I am unsure of the exact bake time. Keep an eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
Best lemon cake ever!!! I took out the berries and did not change anything. Baked for 50min. Can I use some tropical fruit instead of berries?
Amazing recipe. Thank you!!!
Glad you enjoyed this cake! If using extra soft and juicy fruits, blot excess moisture off before adding to the batter.