Super quick to whip up, this ultra moist Blueberry Lemon Yoghurt Cake is loaded with fresh blueberries and bright lemon flavours. This is a lovely cake for all occasions! Yoghurt keeps the cake moist and adds a lovely tang too. This is the same batter I also use for this Lemon Cake and Strawberry Cake.
After a show stopper Blueberry Cake? Try this one – 3 layers, studded with blueberries, plus a lemon cream cheese frosting!
Sneaking in a quick blueberry recipe before the prices start hiking up again!!
I get childishly excited when berries come into season. Specifically, blueberries. Raspberries never seem to be a bargain – or is it just me?? You’ve never seen a raspberry specific recipe on my site for exactly that reason. Also because, to be honest, raspberries sold in shops here in Sydney are not that great. Too tart, no juicy enough and not much flavour. My only memory of truly great fresh raspberries here in Australia was in Tasmania.
So for me, raspberries are typically reserved for decorative purposes only. Used sparsely.
Blueberries, on the other hand…. when they are in season, they are so great! Juicy, sweet, plump, and just begging to be popped into your mouth by the handful.
OR – loading up a cake with them. 🙂
Specifically, this lovely Blueberry Lemon Yoghurt Cake that is astonishingly quick to make. No creaming butter, it’s a dump-and-mix-with-a-wooden-spoon cake.
The “secret ingredient” in this recipe – albeit not so secret because it’s in the recipe name – is yoghurt. That’s what makes this cake so incredibly moist. It’s not the yoghurt itself that makes the cake moist. The reason yoghurt in cake / muffins etc makes the crumb moist is because the more flour in a batter, the drier the cake is (all other things being equal). Yoghurt thickens the batter, meaning less flour is required to make the batter thick enough to allow the baking powder to make the cake rise.
In this particular case, the yoghurt makes the cake moist and the sourness adds to the bright lemony flavours!
This cake is loaded with blueberries. 3 whole punnets (375g/12 oz). It’s as much as I could pack into it without compromising the rise of the cake.
This Blueberry lemon Yoghurt Cake is a complete and utter celebration of blueberries being in season because at no other time of the year will you find me making this with fresh blueberries. But don’t worry! This is great made with frozen too, I made this one in the photos with frozen blueberries, and I’ve included directions in the recipe. – Nagi x
More afternoon tea favourites
Cinnamon Swirl Bread – easy, no yeast!
Cheese, Herb and Garlic Loaf or Zucchini Cheese Loaf– quick bread, no yeast
Whole Orange Cake – super easy and yes, with whole oranges!
Savoury Cheese Muffins or Cornbread Muffins (personal fave😇)
And more blueberry recipes
In case you’re lucky enough to be overloaded with blueberries…
Blueberry Muffins – moist!
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Blueberry Lemon Yoghurt Cake
Ingredients
Blueberries:
- 375 g / 12 oz blueberries, fresh , divided (3 punnets) (Note 1 for frozen)
- 1 tbsp plain flour (all purpose flour)
Wet:
- 1 1/4 cups / 275g white sugar , preferably caster / superfine
- 2/3 cup / 165ml vegetable or canola oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ tbsp grated lemon rind
- ¼ cup / 65 ml lemon juice
- 1 cup / 250 g plain yoghurt (I use Greek)
Dry:
- 2 ¼ cups / 335g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 4 tsp baking powder (Note 2 for baking soda / bi carb)
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C / 390F (standard) or 180C / 350F (fan / convection). Grease a 22 cm / 9” springform pan with butter, line base with baking paper.
- Rinse blueberries, shake off excess water (but don’t pat dry). Set aside about 1/3 of the blueberries (for topping cake). Toss remaining blueberries in flour, set aside.
- Whisk Wet in a large bowl. Add flour and salt, sprinkle over baking powder.
- Whisk until just combined – few small lumps is fine. Stir through blueberries (including loose flour in bowl). Pour into pan, top with remaining blueberries.
- Place in oven, TURN DOWN to 180C/350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan/convection). Bake 50 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Remove sides of springform pan and cool on a rack, then once cool remove the base.
- Sprinkle with icing sugar (powdered sugar). Serve!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
LIFE OF DOZER
No blueberry cake for Dozer. So he shredded a toy instead. 😂
Can i substitute sour cream for the yoghurt??
That should be fine here, I often interchange the two when baking! N x
I am baking this blueberry cake regularly and every loves it ,so easy ,fluffy and tasty 😋
Hi Nagi, the cake was really delicious, moist and a hit. I used powdered sugar (it said super fine on the packet, so I figured it was ok) and it was ok.
I did run into some trouble with the timing using an 8″ cake pan. At 75min it was still uncooked in the middle and I was worried it was going to come out as a pile of mush. Left it in for probably another 20 min at a lower temperature and it finally cooked through. Phew! Gorgeous cake, thank you!
If anyone has better guidance on the timing/temperature for an 8″ pan, I’d appreciate it!
Just took this out of the oven.
Sooo easy,smells delicious
I think t could try raspberries next time.
Thanks again for making me look like a great cook ❤️
Sounds like you’ve nailed it Cynthia!! N x
Lovely moist cake, easy to make albeit the recipe is a bit different! I substituted 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce for some of the oil, did use the other 1/4 to 1/3 oil. Used 2 and 3/4 cup flour which made for a dense batter which made for a moist cake. Also added 1 tsp vanilla to batter as a personal preference and sprinkled course sugar on top for some crunch. Baked in 50 minutes exactly with the reduced heat with the convention setting. Recipe is a keeper, thanks!!
Beautiful cake. I made mine with plain Greek style coconut yoghurt and baked for probably half an hour more than the recipie. It came out so perfect thanks for the recipe!
Thanks Nagi for the recipe – I made this and the family loved it! I see from quite a few comments that some have run into trouble with this recipe. I think it may be because of the flour, cup vs grams measurements. I found out by chance using my cup on the electronic weighing scale. From the conversions available online, 2.25 cups does not convert to 335g of flour.
I used 335g after reading some comments and this turned out fine. I needed an hour (and probably could do with a little more) baking time.
I made this today, and unfortunately it has gone straight to the compost bin. After 1.5 hours the cake finally seemed cooked when tested. Alas this was not so, and runny batter came up through the cake. Not sure what I did wrong as all the reviews have been positive. I’m an experienced cook so am baffled why I didn’t get this right. Back to Ottolenghi’s recipe for me – perfect every time.
The same thing happened to me yesterday! Cake tester didn’t come out clean after 50 minutes, so I gave it 10 more minutes and that still wasn’t enough. I thought surely it would be done then, but not the case. Cake fell after I took it out of the oven and the entire middle was gooey & gross. So sad! Maybe I’ll try again and bake much longer. The outside edges sure tasted good.
Can I make mini cupcakes/muffins out of this recipe? I see there’s another blueberry muffin recipe on the site too, but it doesn’t have yoghurt or lemon!
I made it today it’s super fluffy and delicious but the thing is all the blueberry went down to the bottom of the cake … so what’s the problem? and to know I used fresh blueberry and added the 1tbsp flour
This is the 5th time im cooking this delicious cake! Its my favourite and on this occasion requested by a friend i shared some with last time, she’s getting it for a birthday cake tomorrow. Thanks Nagi! Don’t know what i ate before you came along x
Ok, where do I start? Well, don’t ever skip your morning coffee. But here’s to an imperfect yet perfect baked blueberry yoghurt cake. Added 1 1/4 cup of flour instead of 2 1/4. Hit the fan/convection at 180 c after preheat for the first 20 mins, coz I didn’t read the full recipe. Although the cake deflated once out of the oven, Einstein did a mighty good job of it. Still tastes delicious despite getting almost everything wrong and a slightly burned base.
Anyone tried this with regular powdered sugar?
I haven’t tried Mel, I imagine it should be fine – just use 275g of powdered sugar. N x
Yogurt tanginess cuts through sweetness thereby balancing flavours.
I have made this once and it is sensational. Cannot forget how gorgeous it is and everybody loved it. Just cooked it again looks great but for some reason the second time round the blueberries I added on top have sunken in completely. Csnt see then! Haha baffled. Thank you so much for the recipe nagi xx
Made this yesterday. Absolutely delicious, light, moist and fluffy. Thank you Nagi!
Hi Nagi, can I substitute raspberries and blackberries for the blueberries, or will I need to add more sugar if I do?
Hi Amanda, I find raspberries to be softer, whilst I’m sure you could do it, I haven’t actually tried! N x
Can I use butter instead of canola oil? If so, how much butter?
Hi Lucy, unfortunately it will affect the final texture of the cake if you sub out the oil – N x
What a simple and delicious cake! For some reason this took me ages to cook despite all the other recipes being spot on with time, this one took a lot longer. It didn’t matter though because it was incredibly moist and delicious. Needs no accompaniments! I am slowly making my way through all the cakes and have loved the all!
Made this cake before and always comes out well. Decided to bake a cake on the spur of the moment but, of course, didn’t have lemons or blueberries (damn these late night cravings) so I used double cream guava yoghurt instead. Came out fabulous and tasted even better the next day when the guava flavour was even more pronounced. Will try again using cinnamon stewed guava