I do love a good French yogurt cake during any season. And today’s late Summer version includes ripe seasonal blueberries paired with the tang of fresh lemons. It’s moist, zesty and has just the right amount of fresh ripe blueberries. As with most French yogurt cakes, this Blueberry Lemon Yogurt Loaf is an easy and foolproof recipe to make at home. The small trick here is to lightly toss the blueberries in flour so they don’t sink to the bottom of the pan while baking. This ensures the blueberries are evenly distributed into the crumb and offers juicy little bursts of sweetness in every bite…
Cooking notes:
- Use 2% m.f. Plain Yogurt. I have tried this recipe with different types of yogurt: 2%m.f, Greek yogurt and Skyr. Surprisingly, the yogurt that produces the best cake texture and taste is the 2%m.f (I thought Greek Yogurt or Skyr would be better, but no!). You want a cake that is dense, but also airy and bouncy – the 2%m.f yogurt cake version is exactly that! Avoid flavored yogurt, only use plain.
- Use Organic Lemons. Because we are using zest from the peels, make sure you are using organic lemons which are pesticide free.
- Fresh blueberries are best, but if you only have frozen blueberries on hand, you can use them (same quantity) by making sure they are well thawed and well drained. If possible, pat them dry with a paper towel to remove excess moisture.
- Instead of brushing the cake with the suggested lemon glaze, you can choose to cover it with a light dusting of icing sugar, or leave it plain.
I hope you’ll love this Blueberry Lemon Yogurt Loaf as much as I do! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.
You may also like:
- Orange Yogurt Cake
- Lemon Poppy seed Yogurt Cake
- Blueberry Almond Financiers
- Alsatian Blueberry pie
- Crepes with Blueberry Balsamic Sauce
Did you make this recipe?
I’d love to know how it turned out! Please let me know by leaving a comment below, rate the recipe and/or share a photo on Instagram: tag @pardonyourfrench and hashtag it #pardonyourfrench. This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my Privacy Policy & Disclosure page for more details.
44 comments
Wonderful Recipe! Could one make it with raspberries?
Thank you so much for your blog !
Yes raspberries would work great too! Happy baking!
Hi!!
Did you use an 8×4 pan or 9×5 ?
Thanks
Carm
Hi Carm! Great question – My loaf pan is 8.5 x 4.5.
Thawing my blueberries now and will have a go at it. My fresh blueberries are the larger ones and not as nice for a loaf.
Thanks!!!!
Thanks, happy baking!
This looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it this weekend.
Great, thank you Tammy and happy baking!
The loaf looked good but was on the dry side. I used 5% yogurt as there was no 2% sold. Took a while to incorporate the oil into the batter. Tasted nice though.
Glad you enjoyed the loaf, Jeannie, but unfortunate that it came out dry. I don’t think the 5% yogurt would have done that. I’m wonderling if 5min fewer in the oven would have done the trick. Regardless, thanks for trying the recipe 🙂
Could I make this recipe with less sugar?
And what would be the least amount ?
Hi Therese! Yes absolutely. In most cake recipes, sugar can be safely reduced by about a third without impacting the texture/flavor of the cake too much. So 1 1/3 cup is the least amount of sugar you could use. If you try it out, let me know, I’d love to know how it turned out 🙂 Happy Baking!
After having tremendous success baking the lemon poppyseed yogurt cake, I decided to give this one a try. It’s blueberry season and I thought it would be a delicious way to highlight this season’s crop. I made it exactly as described, and did not push down the berries into the batter. They stayed on top and never sunk down, so when it is eaten, many bites do not include berries. Also, because the upper layer of berries did not sink down, the flour coating on the berries is quite visible and it appears that I must have done something wrong. I suppose that if I were to make it again, I would divide the batter into smaller layers when putting it in the pan so that the berries would be more uniformly dispersed.
Hi Kristine, thank you for your review! Another option for the blueberries is to gently fold them in the batter (very gently, so they don’t break). I personally like the idea of layers (to ensure no blueberries burst) but folding is a great option too, especially if you don’t want blueberries to show at the top of cake. 🙂
Is there any way i can substitute the yogurt
Hi Eva! I never made a yogurt cake without yogurt, so I can’t really give you any accurate recommendations, sorry 🙂
Can I use frozen blueberries or raspberries or strawberries?
Fresh blueberries are best, but if you only have frozen blueberries on hand, you can use them (same quantity) by making sure they are well thawed and well drained. If possible, pat them dry with a paper towel to remove excess moisture. Happy baking!
Super recipe, ate some warm with cream. I would use less powdered sugar for the finishing in future.
Great, thank you for this feedback Lynn!
Just found your site via Eat Your Books. I’m signing up for your newsletter and will comment after I have baked something.
Thank you!!
I tried out a cake with the above recipe. The cake was very soft and tasty. Thank you.
Amazing, thank you!
Made the cake was fabulous. Can I put some lemon juice in the cake mixture would like a stronger lemon flavour ?
Hi Annette! Thank you for your feedback. You could add lemon juice in lieu of the vanilla extract; although I don’t recommend adding too much lemon juice or it will make the batter too thin. You can also add the zest of a 3rd lemon, for extra lemon flavour without altering the texture of the cake. Happy baking!
Hi, my 13 year old daughter made this yesterday and it was delicious!!! We loved it! 💜
Amazing, thank you!
Love this! I only used lemon juice in my batter . One tbs. I will use 2 next time. It was delicious.. the glaze really adds to the flavor
Thank you for your feedback Sandy!
Yum! I made it with King Arthur equal measure gf flour. I used 2/3 cup sugar, 1/4 cup oil and 2T lemon juice instead and didn’t add the glaze. It was wonderful!
Thank you for your feedback!
Excellent recipe making it right now for the second time.
Love to hear this. Thanks for checking it out (and remaking it)
Delicious! And it looked just like your picture. I only had zero fat yogurt and it worked, but I will buy the 2% for the next one- I think it would be even softer. I will decrease the sugar next time. I’m so glad you gave that hint about reducing sugar in recipes. My only wish is that I had put the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and the wet in a large bowl. It would be easier to incorporate the dry into the wet in a larger bowl. No topping- not needed- delicious on it’s own.
Much appreciated, Sara! You should definitely notice a difference between using 0 fat and 2% yogurt. It won’t be lifechanging by any means, but it does give the cake a little more to it. And good tips regarding bowl sizes – always hard with bowls, as everyone has different sized ones… but good to be aware of!
I am so pleased with how this cake turned out, really light and fluffy. I had to use olive oil as it was all I had and was worried that it may have been too heavy, but it was beautiful. At the end I used the juice of one lemon and added caster sugar to taste for the glaze (a few tsp), and only needed to use 3/4 of this glaze mixture.
Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe…my cakes always turn out to be a disappointment but your clear instructions made it a success. Look forward to trying your other recipes.
Thrilled to hear this, Emma! Sometimes we just need a little extra guidance and I am so happy my instructions helped you achieve the result you wanted.
Hope you’ll continue to bake and have further success with my recipes.
I just made it and now is cooling on the window. Love this cake.
Merci, Brenda! I absolutely love this cake as well… lemon and blueberry just marry perfectly, it’s such a nice treat. Enjoy!
Made this it was so good ! Fluffy and moist and filled with blueberry and lemon flavor. I skipped the glaze and added a streusel topping with a bit of cinnamon it was amazing. Thanks for the recipe!
Congrats on the successful bake, Laeticia! So glad you enjoyed the loaf, and your topping sounds absolutely delicious! A slice this morning with my coffee would have been perfect 🙂
Hello! I had blueberries and yogurt that I wanted to use up and luckily found this recipe! It’s cooling now and my only question is about the glaze, is 1 cup powdered sugar correct? It made so much more glaze than I needed! I think next time I will definitely use less powdered sugar and add lemon juice to taste. The rest was perfect!
Thank you so much, Marcie, I’m so happy you made the cake! It really is a winner, and I hope you enjoyed it!
As for the glaze, my notes say 1 cup, but perhaps I’ll have to remake it to see if I made an error, because it does seem like a lot of sugar (though I do use a good amount of glaze to let a bit soak in). merci!