An incredibly easy basic recipe for making your own yogurt cake. A yogurt cake is deliciously creamy, yet airy and fresh.
A basic yogurt cake recipe
I have been baking yogurt cakes for years and I love them. Yogurt cakes are a little less fatty and heavy than a regular cake, and they have a lovely moist and a fluffy texture at the same time. As you can hear, I am a fan! However, the basic recipe for a delicious yogurt cake was missing from Laura’s Bakery. That will change today. This basic recipe is delicious on its own, but you can also experiment with it. For example, you can substitute lemon zest for the vanilla extract or add fresh blueberries to the yogurt cake batter. Or use orange zest instead of lemon. You can find all the tips in this article!
Making a yogurt cake
Not much to say here, because making a yogurt cake is really very simple. Within 10 minutes the cake will be in the oven and only your patience will be tested 😉 Even the ingredients to make this yogurt cake you probably already have at home:
- Flour. I usually use all purpose flour or wheat flour.
- Baking powder. I measure this with an official measuring spoon set. Always use a spoon, never a cup.
- Salt. This balances the flavors.
- Sugar. I prefer fine granulated sugar. You can use cane sugar or brown sugar but the looks of the cake will change and will be less vibrant so for best results you should use granulated white sugar..
- Greek yogurt. I used Greek yogurt with 10% fat, but 2% will do. I prefer using Greek yogurt over plain yogurt or regular yogurt.
- Eggs. Indispensable as eggs give the cake the right binding, structure and rising.
- Vanilla extract. For a nice subtle vanilla flavor.
- Sunflower oil. I prefer to use sunflower oil instead of butter for a soft and creamy cake, but you can also substitute with butter or another vegetable oil. Olive oil is also an option but olive oil can be too strong so don’t use extra virgin olive oil but go for the mild versions. Sunflower oil is more neutral and a better choice though. Read more about substituting sunflower oil if you’re interested.
The important thing when making this cake is not to mix the ingredients for too long and make sure they are all at room temperature when you start. As soon as the dry ingredients are absorbed by the wet ingredients, stop mixing immediately; if you mix too long, you will end up with a cake that is too dense.
Make sure to prepare the loaf pan or cake pan properly and line it with parchment paper. Add the batter to the prepared cake pan and smooth the top if necessary. Now bake the cake in the preheated oven until an inserted skewer in the center of the cake comes out clean.
