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. 😂
This cake is delish but my centre was undercooked- not sure what I did wrong?
Hi Elyssa, sorry you had issues, does your oven run cool? It may need to cook a little longer. N x
I made this cake and everybody loved it. The cake is moist and has a lovely unexpected tangy flavour.I will definitely be baking this again, I used frozen blueberries and turned out just fine but I had to keep in oven for extra 20 minutes to cook fully so maybe frozen berries impacted cooking time.
Thanks for a great recipe
Best cake ever
This was absolutely fantastic- brought sugar down to 250 g and sweetness was “asian parent approved” haha.
This cake is soft, beautifully moist, and the flavour profiles are top notch.
I bake quite a lot and mom instantly ranked this as her top “favourites”. Everyone try this! Thank you very much Nagi 🙂
Just made this and am so pleased with it. I never bake from scratch – this is one of the first cakes I’ve ever made. Thank for for making it so easy. I hope to see you out with Dozer on the northern beaches 😀❤️
I could make (and eat of course) this cake every day for the rest of my life – it’s that good. Simple, moist, flavourful, not too sweet. Perfect!
I’m so happy you loved it Nicole, thanks so much! N x
Hi. I only have 250g of fresh blueberries. Will that be enough for this recipe?
Probably the best cake I’ve made for over a year. I’ll definitely be making this again.
Baked this today in 3 6x2inch cake pans. absolutely amazing. full 2 inches in each pan too and flat top! going in my favourite recipes thank you
Made this today and it was absolutely amazing!!!!! Will make this again…and again
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