French Yogurt Cake is a quick soft cake that you can prepare anytime when you crave a simply delicious cake.
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I have made this cake countless times in a square and round mold.
Pick your cake pan shape and let's make my family's yogurt cake recipe.
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📕 What is this cake?
The French yogurt cake is probably the easiest cake in the world and is prepared by using cups.
The best part is, that it only requires 6 ingredients.
Traditionally yogurt glass cups were used to measure the ingredients quickly and effortlessly for the cake.
The yogurt in the cake makes the cake fluffy and lends a certain moistness to the cake.
Hence why this cake always turns out perfect every time.
The yogurt cake is better known as Gateau au yaourt in French.
Tip: Make this cake with homemade french yogurt.
🔪 How to make it?
This french yogurt cake is a family recipe and we have been making it since forever.
You can follow the straightforward steps to prepare this cake from scratch within minutes.
The complete recipe instructions with ingredient details can be viewed further below in the printable recipe card.
Step 1
In a mixing bowl add the yogurt, flour, sugar baking powder, eggs, and oil.
Step 2
Combine all the ingredients to a smooth pastry.
Step 3
Bake your simple cake for about 30-35 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit/180 Celsius.
📜 Variations
You can pep up this cake recipe by switching the plain yogurt with yogurt flavors or yogurt varieties such as:
- Vanilla flavored yogurt
- Fruit-flavored yogurts
- thick Greek or Bulgarian Yogurt or Icelandic skyr yogurt
- Non Dairy Yogurts such as coconut milk yogurt or lactose-free
- Curds (thick curdled milk)
- Kefir fermented yogurt
- Homemade Yogurt
🎂 Cake Shape
For this yogurt cake recipe, you get to choose which cake shape you would like to use.
I like to use square, rectangular or round BPA-free food save silicon molds.
Square or Rectangular shape: 8 x 3-inch (20 x 7.5 cm) or up to 10 x 5 (25 x 12.5 cm)
Round shape: 8 or 9 inch shape (20 or 22)
I used a 9 inch silicon mold in my video.
However, keep in mind that each cake shape will need baking time adjustment which can vary by 5 minutes.
Especially if you use a larger 10 x 5-inch cake pan and not all ovens are the same.
Keep an eye on your cake and do a test by poking with a knife into the cake when you think it's done.
If the knife comes back clean, the cake is ready but if it comes back sticky with dough, bake the cake for another 5-10 minutes and repeat the test.
👁️ More Cake Recipes
📖 Recipe
French Yogurt Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 8.45 fluid ounces Yogurt
- 2 Teaspoon Baking Powder *see Notes
- 7 ounces All Purpose Flour
- 7 ounces Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 4 Tablespoon Oil
- Butter to grease cake pan/mold
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl add the yogurt, baking powder, all purpose flour, sugar, eggs and oil.
- Mix the contents well to a smooth cake mixture.
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit/ 180° Celsius.
- Grease your cake pan with butter.
- Pour the cake mixture into the prepared cake pan.
- Bake for about 30-35 minutes at 350° Fahrenheit/ 180° Celsius.
- Test if your cake is done baking by poking in with a knife. If it comes back clean it's done, or else some more minutes and repeat test.
Notes
- Use Baking Powder, not Baking Soda!! These are two different ingredients.
- You can use half amount all-purpose flour and the other half corn flour to make a super fluffy french yogurt cake
What size round pan? 8"? 9"?
A nine-inch pan is great, but you can use either one. 8 inch will bake faster than the 9 inch. Just do the test with a knife by poking into the cake if it looks baked and if it comes out clean, it's done.
So good
Excellent recipe! I substituted oil for coconut oil, sugar for coconut sugar and sprinkled coconut flakes on top. So happy I found this post.
Great, thanks for sharing your adaptation! Someone else might find it helpful 🙂
I loved this recipe it is so adaptable, during lockdown (UK) I’ve re-discovered my love of baking, First cake was vanilla closely followed by a variation with almond essence and flaked almonds, then apple and blackberry with a brown caster sugar topping. Thank you for the metric figures, I much prefer weighing ingredients, I used self raising flour and 60ml of vegetable oil, less caster sugar about 220 grams, and a tsp. of cinnamon with the apple and frozen blackberries. I’m going to try a rhubarb and ginger variation next. A totally delicious cake.
Hi Lorna! That's wonderful! Thank you for all the amazing adaptation ideas. That way we can get creative. I totally get what you mean, I like to weigh my ingredients too. So, much easier to get it right when you are baking a cake.
Tried it, turned out delicious!
glad you likes it Brittany 🙂
Thanks so much for this recipe. I tried it out during this COVID lockdown and it was amazing!! I didn't have the same amount of yogurt but it still came out amazing. Definitely will keep this recipe for another rainy day 🙂
OK I just made this cake, watched the video twice. I added an 1/2 tsp of pure almond extract. From ur video the yogurt you used looked more liquid (did u make ur own?) because my batter did not pour so fluid as your. Used plain organic yogurt and vegetable oil.
End result, it was ok, greased the pan well still stuck to pan. More likely the birds will enjoy it more.
Hi Mia,
I'm sorry Mia that your cake didn't turn out how you expected. I used regular plain store-bought yogurt. I removed all the cup measurements and switched them to weighing measurements because I feel the problem is that a standard cup isn't the same thing everywhere.
Lol! I guess the baker didn’t like my comment since it was deleted. Definitely would not make this again; bland, bland and bland. The photo looks good but that’s about it.
Thanks for your feedback. Nope, no comment is ever removed. Comments are removed automatically if bad language is used.
To the cake: It's a french yogurt cake and yes our cakes are not that super sweet in Europe. It's a french cake after all.
I’ve made this twice now because it was so good. I don’t know how you made it but to me it tasted like a pancake. So I made maple buttercream frosting and frosted it with that. Everyone at my sisters work loved it as well
Tehya thanks for your feedback. Glad to read that you liked it.
I love the simplicity of the recipe, AND your cake looks sooooo moist! Beautiful, Hugs, Terra
And that, dear Helene, is why I bake. The world is too fast and too crazy and often too difficult and isn't it nice to close oneself in the kitchen and measure and stir and bake? And then have something simple yet luscious to savor. Beautiful, perfect cake just like we love cake in our house.
Yummy looking! I have been adding fresh yogurt to a lot of my recipes and this is a must try. Unfortunately I don not know the conversion. Can you help with that!
Kind regards!