Lemon Yogurt Cake

A hint of bright lemon flavor is at the heart of this tender yogurt bundt cake. With a sweet and tart glaze and an ultra-moist crumb, it’s a sunny treat even on the gloomiest of days.

Serve a thick piece of cake with your favorite cup of tea and enjoy! Preparing it in a bundt pan means it’s well-suited to spring celebrations and gatherings like Easter and Mother’s Day — although it’s equally suited to a casual brunch.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of making a yogurt cake, allow me to introduce you.

yoghurt Cake is a humble pantry-style cake that has its origins in France. It’s a simple mixture of plain yogurt, olive oil, eggs, flour, vanilla extract, baking powder and salt resulting in a tender, delicately sweet cake that resembles a sponge cake but is lighter and fluffier in texture.

At its core it is such a simple cake and can easily be customized with additional flavors and additions. This lemon version is one of our most popular, and with good reason: tart yogurt and tart lemons are a natural pairing.

The secret of the best lemon cake

There are many ways to add lemon flavor to a cake, including squeezing lemon juice into the batter or adding a squeeze of lemon extract. However, I prefer to use lemon zest. Freshly grated lemon zest is bright and bold, and bitter in the best way. It is the true essence of lemon flavor.

While you can just stir it into the batter and get solid results, take it a step further by making lemon sugar with the zest first and you won’t be disappointed.

When you rub the sugar and zest together, the zest releases its fragrant oils to the sugar, allowing you to retain every bit of lemon flavor, resulting in the brightest, most lemony cake possible.

Yogurt Cake Swaps and Substitutions

Make this Lemon Yogurt Cake your own by making any of the following changes:

A neutral oil like vegetable oil or canola oil will add no flavor to the cake, while olive oil will provide a mild, savory flavor that’s both buttery and peppery. Choose the oil you have on hand or prefer.
Instead of lemon, try other citrus fruits like lime, grapefruit, or orange.
Use regular or Greek yogurt – just make sure it’s plain and not sweetened. For the best, moistest results, use whole-milk yogurt, although low-fat yogurt will work if you prefer.
This cake can be cut in half and baked in a 9″×5″, an 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan, or a 9″ round pie pan.
If you use a different cake pan, it will take about the same amount of time to bake, but you should start checking the cake for doneness after 40 minutes.

What to serve with the lemon yogurt cake

This bundt cake has a light, lemony glaze and can be topped with additional fresh lemon zest for a real showstopper. That means it really doesn’t need much more when served. However, if you wish, it would be nice to pair slices with a side of fresh berries, roasted vanilla strawberries, or even segments of citrus.

How to save

Yoghurt cakes have a reputation for staying fresh for days, and this one is no exception. The frosting will soften a bit, but otherwise the cake will stay moist and fresh at room temperature for up to 5 days if wrapped well.

You can also freeze the cake unglazed and add the frosting after thawing. Allow the cake to thaw overnight on the counter before frosting and serving.

More Tart Lemony Cake Recipes

Lemon Bundt Cake
Lemon poppy seed ring cake
Lemon Almond Cake without flour
Lemon Blueberry Ricotta Pound Cake

preparation time
10 mins

cooking time
45 minutes

total time
55 minutes

portions
12
up to 16 servings

For the cake

1 Cup vegetable oilCanola oil or olive oil and more for coating the pan
3 cups (384G) all purpose flourdivided
1 1/2 cups (300G) granulated sugar
1/4 Cup Finely grated Lemon peel (from about 4 medium-sized lemons)
4 big eggs
2 cups (452G) normal whole milk yoghurt (normal or greek)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt

For the glaze

1 Cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon Freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon freshly grated Lemon peelOptional

Cover the grid, preheat the oven, prepare the Bundt cake:

Place a wire rack in the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 350°F.

Brush a 12-cup Bundt skillet generously with olive oil. Dust with 2 tablespoons of flour and tap out excess flour; put aside.
Mix sugar and lemon zest:

Place the sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl and rub together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the mixture is fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add wet ingredients to the sugar:

Crack the eggs into the bowl with the sugar and lemon zest and beat vigorously until light yellow and fluffy, about 1 minute. Stir in the yoghurt, olive oil and vanilla extract.
Add the dry ingredients:

In the bowl with the wet ingredients, stir together the baking soda and kosher salt. Add the flour and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined and all the flour is incorporated. (A few small lumps in the batter is okay, just be careful not to mix too much.)
Pour into the prepared pan and bake:

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake until cake is lightly browned and a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean with only a few crumbs, about 45 minutes.
Cool the cake and remove it from the Gugelhupf pan:

Leave to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Carefully tip out of the pan onto a wire rack. Cool completely before glazing.
Prepare the glaze, drizzle and serve:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake and sprinkle with lemon zest, if you like.

Leave to stand for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving to allow the glaze to harden.