Easy Yogurt Cake
Easy Yogurt Cake, a simple easy and delicious Snack or Dessert Cake Recipe made with your favourite flavor of Yogurt. You can use either Greek or Regular. Change your Yogurt Flavor, change your Cake!
I happened on this Easy Yogurt Cake Recipe almost 20 years ago, from a woman I encountered in the local supermarket, buying yogurt no less.
My Italian was far from perfect at the time (still isn’t perfect I might add), but a cake recipe I understood. In Italy, yogurt usually comes in single servings of 125 grams.
Recipe Ingredients
- Yogurt – either regular or greek yogurt will work
- Eggs – large room temperature
- Vegetable oil – I use sunflower or corn oil
- Sugar
- Flour – all purpose or cake flour
- Baking powder
- Powdered sugar – also known as icing or confectioners sugar – for dusting the finished cake
So the recipe was as follows …
2 containers of yogurt (containers are 125 grams each), 1 container of oil, 2 containers of sugar and 3 containers of flour, 3 eggs and 1 package of baking powder, now how easy is that? And it makes the perfect snack, breakfast cake or even some Yummy Strawberry Cupcakes.
I make this cake quite often and I recently made the cake with low fat regular yogurt, zest of 1 lemon and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. It was gone in a day!
How to make Yogurt Cake
In a medium bowl, using a hand mixer on medium speed, lightly beat the eggs.
Add the oil, sugar and yogurt and beat.
Add flour and baking powder and beat until well combined.
Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake until done, test with a toothpick, when it comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached it’s ready!
Let cool completely then dust with powdered sugar before serving.
How to make Homemade cake flour
For every cup of all purpose flour, remove two tablespoons and replace with two tablespoons of corn starch. Be sure to sift the flour and cornstarch together a couple of times, this way it is sure to be properly combined and lump free. Cake flour in cakes will give you a very tender texture and fine crumb, it will also help the cake to rise.
Why bake with room temperature ingredients?
With cakes and other baking, it’s always better to use room temperature ingredients. So, take any cold ingredients out of the refrigerator an hour ahead of time or sooner if it’s cool in your kitchen. Room temperature ingredients blend easier, creating a silky batter, which will help to create a light tender baked good.
What makes a cake fall?
- There are a lot a reasons a cake may fall, but the most common ones are, your oven temperature is off, you can always check it with an oven thermometer to check this.
- You open the oven door too early. Never open the oven door before 25-30 minutes of baking.
- Once the batter is mixed it should be baked, letting a cake batter sit too long can cause it to fall. The baking powder or baking soda usually start acting immediately and will only last for a very short period of time, therefore if the cake batter is left to stand before baking then there is always a risk that the baking powder or soda will have expired by the time that the cake goes into the oven.
- Your baking powder or soda has expired and is no long active.
- Use room temperature ingredients.
- The pan size might not be the correct size, sometimes using a bundt pan will help.
How to serve the cake
I think it depends on when you are serving the cake, if you serve it for breakfast then a little dusting of powdered sugar is perfect. If you want to serve it as a dessert then why not serve it with a delicious Blueberry Sauce, a dollop of whipped cream, a scoop of ice cream or even dress it up as a Strawberry Shortcake?
What’s the best yogurt to use?
And it can also be made with any flavour of yogurt, I find that greek yogurt, 0 fat (yes 0 fat!) or regular yogurt both work well. If you use greek yogurt then it is a good idea to use 3/4 cup of yogurt and 1/4 cup of milk, that’s because greek yogurt is thicker than regular yogurt. Each makes this Easy Yogurt Cake super moist and delicious.
FAQs
The cake can be stored well covered at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also store it in the refrigerator, make sure it is covered well so no air gets to it, which can dry it out. Bring it to room temperature before serving. It will keep for up to 5-6 days in the fridge.
Once the cake is completely cooled, double wrap it with either foil or plastic wrap and then place in a freezer safe bag. It will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let the cake thaw overnight on the counter before serving, or overnight in the fridge fully wrapped.
Adding yogurt helps to make a cake moister.
Yes you can although you may want to add a flavoring such as vanilla, orange, lemon or even almond.
So choose your favourite fruit greek yogurt or regular fruit yogurt and turn on the oven. This cake is also a perfect Easy Summer Dessert Recipe. Enjoy!
More Delicious Italian Cakes
- Mascarpone Cake with Raspberry Cream
- Tablespoon Italian Lemon Cake
- Classic Italian Tiramisu Layer Cake
Easy yogurt cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup any flavour yogurt** (I find flavoured regular natural yogurt to be the best / room temperature )
- 3 large eggs (room temperature)
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1½ cups all purpose flour or cake flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
EXTRAS
- 2-3 tablespoons powdered sugar
BLUEBERRY SAUCE
- 1 cup blueberries
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ½ tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- ½ tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350F degrees (180 cm). Grease an 8 inch (20cm) cake pan or a 9½-10 inch (24 cm) bundt pan.
- In a medium bowl, using a hand mixer on medium speed, lightly beat the eggs approximately 30 seconds, add oil, sugar and yogurt, beat for 1 minute until smooth, add flour and baking powder and beat until well combined approximately another minute.
- Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes or until tested done (when a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out dry or with a few crumbs attached). Let cool 15-20 in the pan then move to a wire rack to cool completely. When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.
BLUEBERRY SAUCE
- In a medium pot mix together berries, sugar, cornstarch, water and lemon juice, bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer until desired thickness. Pour into a bowl, let cool completely and or refrigerate.
Notes
Nutrition
Updated from February 7, 2014.
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Yes I’ve also tried to make this cake a few times and it never looks like it does in the photo. It’s not fluffy and light but rather dense. Still tastes nice. Had everything at room temperature but I think it might just be the type of yoghurt.
Hi Kristy, sorry about the cake, it could be the yogurt, maybe try a lighter yogurt or use a little less.
I’ve made this twice following the instructions and it didn’t raise, once I take it out of the oven it collapses. It is not fluffy and soft. I’ve made cakes before and I don’t understand what goes wrong.
Hi Anca, there are a few reasons the cake may fall, your oven temperature could be off, the ingredients are too cold (not room temperature), you open the oven door too soon (not before 25-30 minutes), make sure the baking powder and or soda are active. The pan size is accurate, sometimes a bundt help will help with a cake falling. Hope this helps.
How many grams of baking powder pls (1 1/2 teaspoon) and thank you for the recipe 🙂
Hi Farah, should be 7 grams of baking powder. Hope you enjoy it.
Hi. I tried this recipe however the result turned out to be not fluffy and very moist and dense (also burnt a little, my fault). I wonder where I went wrong. I followed every step of the recipe, but changed the temperature to 160c and cooking time to 25min (apparently it is too long for that I used a 28øcm springform).
Hi Funhat, I don’t understand why you changed the temperature. The temperature can make a difference. Also don’t open the oven door before the cake is done. Hope that helps.
So good. This is the first cake I have made in so long. Usually, they don’t turn out so well, and then I don’t try again until the memory has faded. But, this… this was perfect. I tasted yogurt cake for the first time on holiday a couple of weeks ago and decided to give this recipe a try. I baked it in a 10″ pan att 350 and it took 37 minutes to be perfect.
Served with strawberry jam, a pile of blueberries, and a scoop of sorbet.
Absolutely perfect.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. So good.
Hi Hayley, thanks so much, that sounds delicious how you served it. Have a great weekend.
Hi There – this sounds and looks delicious – I plan on making this within the next couple of days. However, I am wondering if it would change too much if I used less sugar – I am using fruity yogurt so it is already sweetened – any recommendations from anyone would be great. Thanks
Hi Rosemarie, it seems some readers have reduced it to 1/2 cup sugar and it worked, let me know how it goes.
I used sugar free strawberries yogurt and a few chia seeds and oats flakes, It turned out pretty good and tasty.
Thanks Sussan, glad you enjoyed it. Have a great weekend.
Rosemary:
I had written you before about possible recipe for “vastedi”(sp?), a baked round bread with ricotta cheese, olive oil, grated Parmesan cheese, sake & pepper. Can you advise? Thanks,
Joe
Hi Joe, I actually have a recipe with ricotta, parmesan & olive oil, I will make it this week and post it next week. 🙂
Does this freeze?
Hi Emily, yes you an freeze it if you want. Wrap in plastic and place in a freezer safe bag or container.
hello! if i am using plain yogurt, how much sugar should i put?
Hi Mims, the sugar amount doesn’t change. 🙂
Pretty good and fast. I did add a pinch of salt, 1 tsp of vanilla, two tsp lemon juice and a cup of blueberries. I had to sub the veggie oil (because I didn’t have it with light olive oil), It turned out pretty good. Like a sponge cake.
Thanks Kate, glad you enjoyed it. Have a great weekend.
Delicious! Easy to make. Great way to use up yogurt that is getting ready to expire.
Hi Sherry, thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it. Have a great weekend.
Easy to throw together and really tasty. I had an overabundance of yogurt so I gave this recipe a shot and I’m glad I did. It doesn’t need any kind of topping, it’s that good.
Hi Julia, thanks so much, so glad you liked it. Take care.
tried the recipe with vanilla youghurt and the results were awesome
thanks Maureen, glad you liked it, have a great week.
Can I use fat free yogurt?
Hi Jaqueline, yes you can use fat free. Let me know how it goes.