Greek yogurt pound cake is a moist homemade pound cake recipe that uses Greek yogurt in place of sour cream. So easy and so good!
Over the years, I’ve taken family recipes and created my own versions of those recipe, like my grandma’s chocolate sheet cake. This Greek yogurt pound cake is my updated version of my great aunt’s sour cream pound cake.
I love the original sour cream pound cake, but it’s full of butter, sugar, and full-fat sour cream. After some tinkering, I ended up with a pound cake that is every bit as moist, tangy, and delicious as the my great aunt’s cake but with better nutritional stats.
Ingredient notes and substitutions
- Cake flour: You can make a cake flour substitute with this easy tutorial. To properly measure the flour, weigh it or stir or sift it to break it up. Lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cup, and level. Don’t pack the flour or the cake will be heavy and dry.
- Greek yogurt: If your yogurt has separated (looks watery on top), be sure to stir it before measuring. You can also use 2% or whole milk Greek yogurt in this recipe.
- Almond extract: You can omit the almond extract and use additional vanilla extract if you prefer.
How to make Greek yogurt pound cake
Here you’ll find step-by-step photos showing how to make this recipe. The full recipe is given below.
Step 1: Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease and flour (or spray well with a nonstick spray like Baker’s Joy that has flour in it) a 12-cup bundt pan.
Step 2: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
Step 3: In a large bowl, beat yogurt, butter, and sugar together until well-combined.
Step 4: Beat in eggs one at a time.
Step 5: Stir in extracts.
Step 6: Add flour mixture, and stir in until just combined.
Step 7: Pour batter into prepared bundt pan.
Step 8: Bake 60-80 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. You may need to cover the exposed cake with foil if it starts to brown too much.
Step 9: Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe Tips!
- Greasing the pan: Bundt cakes can be notoriously difficult to remove from the pan. It’s key to grease and flour the pan well. You can also use homemade pan release to prep the pan.
- Flavoring: The cake is flavored with both almond extract and vanilla extract. You can use either flavoring and omit the other, or you can use a different flavoring, like lemon, if you prefer.
- Serving suggestions: I like to dust the cake with powdered sugar and serve it with homemade whipped cream and fresh raspberries or strawberries.
Recipe FAQs
You can. I’ve made the cake both ways. I prefer cake flour because it gives the cake a finer crumb and softer interior.
You can make your own cake flour substitute with this tutorial. However, all-purpose flour will work in a pinch.
Sure! I don’t recommend using fat-free sour cream in this recipe, though, as I’ve never had good luck baking with it.
You can! Pound cakes freeze well.
Storage
Store any leftover Greek yogurt pound cake in an airtight container at room temperature. The cake will keep for 3-4 days when properly stored at room temperature.
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Greek Yogurt Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups cake flour properly measured
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups plain, non-fat Greek yogurt at room temperature
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease and flour (or spray well with a nonstick spray like Baker’s Joy that has flour in it) a 12-cup bundt pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat yogurt, butter, and sugar together until well-combined.
- Beat in eggs one at a time.
- Stir in extracts.
- Add flour mixture, and stir in until just combined.
- Pour batter into prepared bundt pan.
- Bake 60-80 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. You may need to cover the exposed cake with foil if it starts to brown too much.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Cake flour: You can make a cake flour substitute with this easy tutorial. To properly measure the flour, weigh it or stir or sift it to break it up. Lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cup, and level. Don’t pack the flour or the cake will be heavy and dry.
- Greek yogurt: If your yogurt has separated (looks watery on top), be sure to stir it before measuring.Â
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Nutrition
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Originally published 7/26/13.
Reader Interactions
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Comments & Reviews
LoriAnn says
This cake is delicious! I used the instructions for making my own cake flour, (weighing it to get the correct amount), and only used 2 cups of sugar. Cooked perfectly at 70 minutes and is firm, but not “heavy” like a lot of pound cakes can be. Thanks for a great way to use my left over Greek yogurt!!!
Kate says
Thank you! I’m glad that you liked it!
jk says
Kate, could I substitute sour cream for the yogurt?
Kate says
Yes, you can. However, I don’t recommend using fat-free sour cream in this recipe.
Hannah says
Great pound cake recipe. Reminds me of the one my mom used to make. Love it!
Brooke says
I make adjustments, but I love this recipe! Thank you!
Kate says
Thanks!
Liz says
Was looking for a recipe to use up excess Greek yogurt that I had on hand and gave this a try. The cake has a nice little tang to it and the exterior has a a bit of sweet crunch to it. Wrapped up extra slices and they both froze and defrosted nicely. In my oven, took somewhere around 70 minutes baking time. Yum!
Kate says
Thank you!
Susan says
Too sweet. 2 cups of sugar might have been better
Kate says
Hi! Since sweetness is subjective, it’s hard to find a level that everyone is happy with. You should certainly feel free to reduce the sugar if you find that more to your liking.
Sharon says
Great cake! Used the recipe for cake flour. Want to make again. Can you make it lemon?
Kate says
Thank you! Sure! You could use lemon flavoring in place of the vanilla and almond extracts. You could also grate fresh lemon zest into the batter for even more flavor.
Agata says
Hi!
Excited about this cake! Mine is currently in the oven, but i am a bit nervous as my batter came a bit thicker than yours. It wasn’t watery, I’d say it was the consistency of Greek Yogurt. Is this going to make my cake too dense and small? Why did it come out so thick?
I appreciate any feedback.
Kate says
Hi! The batter shouldn’t be watery. It should be thicker like pound cake batter usually is. There are two reasons why this cake batter might come out too thick. First, there’s too much flour in the batter. It’s easy to pack in extra flour, and this may have happened. The second reason might be the Greek yogurt. There are some consistency differences with different brands of Greek yogurt. I’ve found that some are quite thick, while others are closer in consistency to regular yogurt.
Sophie says
Hi..I followed the recipe to a “t” and unfortunately it didnt work. Placing the sugar, butter and yoghurt all at once didnt incorporate the butter at all. I was left with lumps, resulting in a dense and not so nice cake. Best to beat sugar and butter first then once this is mixed in well I’ll add the yoghurt.
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Kate says
Hi! It’s important to make sure that the yogurt and butter are both at room temperature. What you’re describing is what happens when cold yogurt and softened butter are mixed together. When you mix cold yogurt with softened butter, it causes the butter to cool and form lumps, so the butter and sugar won’t cream properly.
Julie Flowers says
thanks
Julie Flowers says
can i use plain fat free yogurt?
Kate says
I haven’t tried using yogurt other than Greek yogurt to say for certain. If you try it, I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Susan Magnani says
Great recipe, Kate! I printed it out and noted that if you need a smaller size, you can cut recipe in half and it fits beautifully into a loaf pan. Watching the waistline, you know.
Kate says
Thank you so much for that note!
Jana says
This cake is so good and since it has yogurt instead of sour cream I feel like I’m eating healthier.
Kate says
Thank you!
Aracelis Marrero says
Can l use gluten-free flour for this cake?
Kate says
Hi! I haven’t tried using gf flour in this recipe, but I’ve had good luck using measure-for-measure flour in other recipes. Hope that helps!
Ann says
Is it possible t bake this two loaf pans or 9×13 pans? I’ve never had good luck getting cakes out of bundt pans and purged my kitchen of them. What would the cooking time be?
Kate says
I’m going to preface all of this by saying that I haven’t made this recipe in any other pan. With that said, I have a chocolate pound cake recipe that bakes in a 9×5 pan. The Greek yogurt pound cake recipe makes about 3x the batter that the chocolate pound cake recipe does, so you may find that you need 3 loaf pans. For the loaf cake, I bake it at 325F for 50-70 minutes. Hope that gives you a place to start!
Sharon D. says
I’ll never go back! I never thought I would find a sour cream lb. cake that was better than my Granny’s, she was the classic southern lady.
I had Greek yogurt (from another recipe) and some strawberries. I was wondering if making a lb. cake with yogurt would work. I took Kathy’s idea , halved the recipe and used your cakeflour substitution . It was amazing!!!
Kate says
Thank you! I’m so glad that that worked out well for you!
Kathy says
Can I make this recipe in a loaf pan?
Kate says
I haven’t tried it, but I would guess that it would work. However, fyi – this recipe makes a lot more batter than a loaf pan’s worth.
Meredith says
I’d love to use up sweetened Greek yogurt. How would I reduce the sugar as a result? In half maybe? Thanks!
Kate says
I haven’t tried that out, so I can’t say for certain. Sugar both sweetens and provides stability in baked goods, so you may need to try out different amounts of sugar/yogurt before you find one that works well for you. Good luck!