Blueberry Yogurt Cake (2024)

FAQs

What does yogurt do in a cake? ›

But yogurt is also an excellent dairy to bake with. Because of its acidity, yogurt reacts with baking soda to encourage leavening. It also adds nice, tangy flavor that hardly overpowers, but instead keeps everything in balance.

While sour cream sets the stage for a denser, more traditional cake, the inclusion of Greek yogurt can often lead to a lighter, health-conscious choice with a subtler finish, perfect for those who enjoy a less heavy dessert.

Adding mayonnaise, sour cream, yogurt, or melted ice cream to boxed cake mix can make the finished product moist and rich. Swapping out ingredients, like oil for butter or milk for water, will take a boxed cake to the next level. Things like coffee, soda, and spices will help to amplify the flavors in a boxed cake.

You can use the same amount of plain yogurt to replace oil in any cake mix.

You have to be careful with swapping Greek yogurt and regular. In some applications, the thinner consistency of regular yogurt doesn't impact the recipe at all. With baking, if a recipe specifically calls for Greek yogurt, the added moisture from using regular yogurt instead might make the dough or batter too wet.

Both yogurt and buttermilk are good substitutes for eggs. It's best to use plain yogurt, as flavored and sweetened varieties may alter the flavor of your recipe. You can use 1/4 cup (60 g) of yogurt or buttermilk for each egg that needs to be replaced. This substitution works best for muffins, cakes, and cupcakes.

Full-fat plain yogurt has a thinner texture because not all the whey has been removed. It is best for salad dressings, marinades and baking.

Full-fat Greek yogurt will offer the closest approximation of sour cream's flavor and texture, and can be used as a one-to-one replacement for sour cream. If you'd like, you can stir some heavy cream into any percentage of Greek yogurt to give it a somewhat richer body and higher fat content.

Yogurt is milk that goes through a culturing process with a starter culture to convert its lactose to lactic acid. Greek yogurt is regular yogurt that has a thicker, more dense consistency due to a filtering process that removes whey and liquids or through the addition of whey protein and milk protein concentrates.

Whole-fat Greek yogurt is a great swap for oil in baked goods. It's creamy and rich, and adds a nice texture to pound cakes, cookies, and Blueberry Muffins, plus a bit of extra protein. Due to its thickness, you'll want to add a bit more yogurt to the recipe than the amount of oil called for. Start with a 1:1.25 ratio.

Why did my yogurt cake collapse? ›

Underbaking Your Cakes

Underbaking is one of the most frequent reasons that cakes and quick breads collapse. Baking times are essential guides, but ovens and cake pans vary, so checking for doneness with a cake tester is the ultimate insurance against underbaking.

I use Greek yogurt in place of much heavier, higher fat or more calorie dense ingredients – like butter, sour cream, oil, or buttermilk. Using yogurt in your baked goods will make them incredibly moist, while adding yogurt to savory dips and soups gives them creaminess with a touch of tang.

Most cake mixes call for oil, but butter will bring in amazing flavor. To substitute butter for oil in baking just melt the butter, measure it, let it cool, and add it as you would the oil. Compared to oil, butter will create a cake with a firmer, cakeier texture.

The Taste and Texture of Yogurt Cake

It's tender and fluffy, barely sweet, and has a wonderful hint of tang from the yogurt. The yogurt and oil provide lots of moisture, so it can sit on your counter for a few days without any fear of it drying out.

Sour cream is one of the fattiest dairy products; the extra fat content (for example, adding sour cream to a cake instead of milk) will make the cake moister and richer, says Wilk. "Fat, in any form (butter, lard, cream, etc.) shortens gluten strands, which essentially leads to the most tender baked goods," she adds.

Yogurt lends itself beautifully to breads, biscuits, muffins, and cakes, providing a slight tanginess and a light, fluffy texture. You can substitute yogurt for several dairy products like sour cream and kefir in many recipes, or bake up a recipe that specifically uses yogurt.

Yogurt contributes to the texture of baked goods. Substitutes like sour cream, buttermilk, or silken tofu can help maintain or approximate the desired texture. However, when using an ingredient like cottage cheese or heavy cream, the texture can chance.