Serve a thick slice of cake with your favorite cup of tea and enjoy! Making it in a Bundt pan means it’s well-suited for spring celebrations and gatherings, such as Easter and Mother’s Day—though it’s equally fit for a casual brunch.
Get to Know Yogurt Cake
If you haven’t had the pleasure of baking a yogurt cake before, allow me to introduce you. Yogurt cake is a humble, pantry-style cake that has origins in France. It’s a simple mix of plain yogurt, olive oil, eggs, flour, vanilla extract, baking powder, and salt that results in a tender, delicately sweet cake liken to pound cake but lighter and fluffier in texture. At its core it is such a basic cake and can be easily adapted with extra flavors and add-ins. This lemon version is one of the most popular, and for good reason: Tangy yogurt and tart lemons are a natural pair.
The Secret to the Best Lemon Cake
There are lots of ways to add lemon flavor to a cake, including squeezing lemon juice into the batter or adding a splash of lemon extract. My favorite way, however, is to use lemon zest. Freshly grated lemon zest is bright and bold and bitter in all the best ways. It’s the true essence of lemon flavor. While you can simply stir it into the batter and achieve solid results, take it one step further by making lemon sugar with the zest first and you won’t be disappointed. Rubbing the sugar and zest together causes the zest to release its fragrant oils into the sugar, so you can get every bit of lemon flavor, resulting in the brightest, most lemony cake possible.
Yogurt Cake Swaps and Substitutions
Make this yogurt lemon cake your own by making any of the changes below:
A neutral oil like vegetable oil or canola oil won’t lend any flavor to the cake, while olive oil will provide a mild savory flavor that’s both buttery and peppery. Choose whichever oil you have on hand or prefer.Try any other citrus in place of the lemon, such as lime, grapefruit, or orange.Use regular or Greek yogurt—just be sure it’s plain and not sweetened. You’ll have the best, moistest results with full fat, whole-milk yogurt, though low-fat yogurt will work, if you prefer.This cake can be halved and baked in a 9x5-inch, a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan or a 9-inch round cake pan.If using an alternative cake pan, it will take about the same amount of time to bake, but you should start checking the cake for doneness at 40 minutes.
What to Serve with Lemon Yogurt Cake
This Bundt cake features a light, lemony glaze and can be garnished with additional fresh lemon zest to really make it a show-stopper. That means it really doesn’t need much else alongside it when served. However, if you’d like, pairing slices with a side of fresh berries, Vanilla Roasted Strawberries or even citrus segments, would be lovely.
How to Store
Yogurt cakes have a reputation for staying fresh for days, and this one is no exception. The glaze will soften a bit, but otherwise the cake will stay moist and fresh for up to 5 days at room temperature if well wrapped. You can also freeze the cake, unglazed, and add the glaze after defrosting. Let the cake defrost overnight on the counter before glazing and serving.
More Tart Lemony Cake Recipes
Lemon Pound Cake Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake Flourless Lemon Almond Cake Lemon Blueberry Ricotta Pound Cake
1 cup vegetable oil, canola oil, or olive oil, plus more for coating the pan
3 cups (384g) all-purpose flour, divided
1 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup finely grated lemon zest (from about 4 medium lemons)
4 large eggs
2 cups (452g) plain whole milk yogurt (regular or Greek)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
For the glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest, optional
Generously coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with olive oil. Dust with 2 tablespoons of the flour and tap out any excess; set aside. Let stand for at least 10 minutes to allow the glaze to set before slicing and serving.
