This 4-ingredient Yogurt Cake recipe is a dairy-free, egg-free moist vanilla cake inspired by the classic French yogurt pot recipe. It’s the easiest cake you will ever make, perfect to whip a dessert in no time.
As a kid, the first cake recipe I learned to make was a “gâteau yaourt,” which means, in French, yogurt cake. In this French recipe, all the ingredients were measured from a simple yogurt pot. I created this vegan yogurt cake inspired by this childhood cake recipe, except I used US measuring cups for precision.
The cake is super easy to make in less than 10 minutes, and its batter is moist and sweet, just like my 2-Ingredient No-Bake Chocolate Cake, Vegan Apple Cake, or Vanilla Wacky Cake. The flavor of the cake comes from the choice of yogurt. I like to bake with vanilla cashew yogurt. It adds a lovely vanilla flavor to the crumb. Using lemon yogurt or strawberry yogurt will create a range of yogurt cake flavors using the same recipe.
If you like more French recipes, try my Vegan Almond Croissant Pastry or Almond Croissant Cookies.
While the whole recipe is just below, don’t miss all my tips further down, including ingredient swaps, my cooking tips, and step-by-step shots!
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Yogurt Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup Self-Rising Flour - (note 1)
- 1 cup Vanilla Plant-Based Yogurt - (note 2)
- ⅔ cup Unrefined Sugar - (note 3)
- ⅓ cup Avocado Oil - or canola oil
Optional – recommended for flavor
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract - or 1 teaspoon of almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 6-inch or 8-inch round cake pan with parchment paper. Oil sides and bottom of the pan. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk vanilla yogurt, oil, and sugar. If your yogurt is unflavored, or your yogurt has a light vanilla flavor, stir in some vanilla extract.
- Fold in flour and stir to incorporate until the batter is thick and smooth.
- Pour the batter in the prepared pan.
- Bake the cake at 350°F (180°C) for 45-50 minutes for a 6-inch pan or 35-40 minutes for an 8-inch pan. Check if the cake is ready by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's ready to remove from the oven. If not, bake longer, in 10-minute increments, until the crumb is set.
- Cool down on a cooling rack before at room temperature for 1 hour before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Self-Rising Flour is the basic ingredient I love to use to bake cakes quickly. You can swap it for all-purpose flour and add 2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of flour. For a gluten-free option, use my gluten-free converter, but don’t forget the baking powder.
- Vanilla Plant-Based Greek Yogurt – I baked the cake with vanilla cashew yogurt or coconut Greek-style yogurt. Any kind of yogurt works in this recipe. You can use any yogurt flavor to flavor the cake. To cut down on calories and added sugar, you can use plain yogurt, but you will need vanilla extract to flavor the cake.
- Sugar – I am using caster sugar, but any granulated sweetener like coconut sugar works.
- Vegetable Oil of Choice – I recommend a light flavor oil to avoid adding an overpowering flavor to the cake crumb. I used avocado oil or light canola oil. You can also use melted plant-based butter.
Flavor Boosters
The cake is not flavorsome without adding any extract. Here are some of my recommendations.
- Vanilla Yogurt Cake – Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and use vanilla Greek yogurt. This is optional, but recommended if your yogurt doesn’t have a strong vanilla taste, or you want to boost the vanilla flavors of the cake.
- Lemon Yogurt Cake – Use lemon yogurt, 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons of lemon zest.
- Yogurt Berry Cake – Fold in 1/2 cup of fresh berries in the batter like raspberries, blueberries, or strawberries.
- Coconut Yogurt Cake – Use coconut yogurt, and fold in 1/4 cup of desiccated coconut in the batter.
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 6-inch round cake pan or 6-inch round pan with parchment paper. Slightly oil the paper with cooking oil spray.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk yogurt, oil, and sugar. Stir to combine. If you are using unflavored yogurt, you can up the sugar from 2/3 cup to 3/4 cup for a sweeter cake. Also add the vanilla extract now, if your yogurt is unflavored.
- Fold the self-rising flour in the yogurt mixture. Use a rubber spatula to incorporate. The batter should be quite thick.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Let it cool down at room temperature for one hour on a cooling rack before serving.
Serving
I like dusting powdered sugar on top of the cake. But, feel free to first the cake if you prefer using some of my favorite dairy-free frosting recipes below.
- Vegan Vanilla Frosting
- Coconut Frosting
- Cashew Frosting
- Vegan Chocolate Frosting
- Vegan whipped cream
This recipe turned out perfect! I used vegan coconut yoghurt instead.
That’s amazing! thank you
could you use olive oil, instead of oils listed?
You can use any mild flavor in all my recipes, like mild olive oil.
If i used metric x2 or x3 wht size pan should be used?
Click the metric button before the list of ingredients, it will convert the recipe in grams and ml for you. The pan size will be 8 inches if you double, I didn’t triple the recipe, i can’t recommend on that.
hello Carine if I want to make a bigger 3 ingredients cake do I just double the ingredients?
Yes, but use a bigger pan too, a 6-inch pan won’t work for this cake if you double each ingredients. You will need a 9-inches pan.
thankyou carine but I do realise that or it would not be a bigger cake.
Hi Carine, i don’t have canola ou avocado oil. can i use olive oil instead? or what alternative can you suggest? thank you
Absolutely, you can use any kind of oil, I simply recommend picking a low-flavor oil to keep the vanilla yogurt flavor intact. I love baking with olive oil too.
hey Carine I wish you could suggest a callorie free sugar for all you lovely recipes. let me knaw as I can’t really have sugar.
Of course you can use zero calorie 1:1 sugar replacement like erythritol, brand like Lakanto or swerve are perfect.
Carine, this is the best recipe I’ve tried!
Thank you !
This worked exactly as written, thanks!
I haven’t cooked this recipe but most definitely will do it looks delicious .
Thank you! Let me know how it goes.
can we bake it with a normal cup cake pan or that will not work?
Do you mean a muffin pan ? If so, probably yes, but the batter won’t fill a 12-hole muffin pan as it’s for a 6 inch cake. You will probably made 8 muffins, and need to bake them less around 25-30 minutes.