Lemon Yogurt Cake

This easy Lemon Yogurt Cake is a quick bread made with yogurt (Greek or regular) and lots of fresh lemon zest. It's moist, delicious, and it’s ready in under an hour.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Cook Time 35

Total Time 35

Servings servings

Calories 470kcal

Author Meggan Hill

Ingredients

For the Cake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder (see note 1)
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup plain yogurt (regular or Greek, see note 2)
4 eggs
4 teaspoons lemon zest (see note 3)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil (see note 4)

For the powdered sugar icing:

2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Move an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray and line with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together 1 cup sugar, yogurt, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients in batches, whisking to incorporate after each addition. Fold in oil and stir carefully until uniformly combined. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean with a few crumbs attached, about 50-60 minutes. The cake should be fragrant and spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from oven and cool in pan 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together powdered sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest (if using) until smooth.
Using a sharp knife, slice around the inside of the cake pan to loosen the cake. Flip out onto a large plate. Slowly drizzle glaze over the top. Cool cake completely. The glaze will harden in 20 to 30 minutes.

Notes

Baking powder: Instead of yeast, quick breads such as loaf breads, muffins, biscuits, and scones use chemical leavening agents, in this case baking powder (baking soda is another example).
Yogurt: Use Greek yogurt, regular yogurt, whole milk yogurt, or even French yogurt.
Lemons: Always zest your lemons before you cut them open to juice. It's much harder to zest half of a lemon!
Vegetable oil: Avocado oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, or canola oil are all neutral-flavored oils that will work here.
Yield: 1 loaf cake makes about 8 slices.
Storage: Store covered at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Nutrition