This Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake is one of the best homemade strawberry cake recipes I’ve ever had! It’s made from scratch and is so incredibly moist. And that lemon glaze? Such an amazingly delicious addition!
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Fresh strawberry season has become one of my favorite times of the year!
The only problem is, it never feels like the season is long enough and I always feel like I barely have time to enjoy all of my favorite strawberry desserts.
Desserts like Fresh Strawberry Pie (my mom’s classic recipe!), Strawberry Short Cake (both my grandma’s that has chocolate chips in it and mom-in-law’s more classic recipe), Strawberry Pretzel Salad and this Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake.
Fresh Strawberry Cake Ingredients
- Butter. You can use salted or unsalted. Be sure to allow time for it to soften.
- White and Brown Sugar.
- Eggs.
- Lemon juice. Either bottled or fresh will work.
- Lemon zest. Swap for lemon extract if preferred.
- Flour.
- Baking soda.
- Salt.
- Yogurt. Use either plain or vanilla flavored Greek or regular yogurt.
- Strawberries. These need to be fresh.
- Powdered sugar.
How to Make Strawberry Cake From Scratch
STEP 1: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. If you are using a glass dish, preheat to 350 degrees.
STEP 2: In a large mixing bowl, toss the diced strawberries in a 1/4 cup of flour and set aside.
STEP 3: Cream together the butter and sugars in a separate bowl using an electric mixer until it’s light and fluffy.
STEP 4: Beat the eggs in one at a time, then add a tablespoon of lemon juice.
STEP 5: Mix in the rest of the flour, baking soda, salt, lemon zest, and yogurt. Alternate adding the wet and dry ingredients.
STEP 6: Fold in the floured strawberries, then pour the cake batter into a greased 9×13 baking dish.
STEP 7: Place the cake in the oven and turn the temperature down to 325 degrees. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean or around 45 minutes.
STEP 8: Once the cake has finished baking, allow it to cool. Whisk together the remaining lemon juice and powdered sugar to make a glaze, then drizzle over the cake.
STEP 9: Garnish with fresh sliced strawberries, and serve!
Helpful Recipe Tips
Substitute flour. You can swap at least 1 cup of whole wheat flour for the regular flour without any problems.
Softening butter. If you are like me and don’t do well at remembering to soften butter ahead of time, try this easy way to soften butter quickly! So simple!
Choosing yogurt. The thicker the yogurt (ie: Greek), the less moist the cake. It will still be moist, just a bit less so than when using regular yogurt. However, either way is delicious!
Glaze. I like to glaze each individual piece just before serving, it looks so much prettier. If you choose, you can also leave off the glaze.
Freezing. Wait until the cake has cooled then transfer to a freezer-safe container. If preferred, you can also wrap it in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag instead. Store for up to 2 months. If freezing leftover cake, remove any strawberries used to garnish, as they will not freeze well.
More Easy Dessert Recipes You’ll Love
- No Bake Fresh Strawberry Pie
- Classic Blueberry Buckle
- Super Easy Rhubarb Pudding Cake
- Best Ever Chocolate Cake (no eggs, no milk, no oil)
- Favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Blonde Brownies
Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake from Scratch
Ingredients
- 1 c. butter, softened
- 1 c. sugar
- 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 Tbsp. lemon juice, divided (bottled or fresh juice)
- Zest of 1 lemon or 1/2 tsp. lemon extract
- 2 1/2 c. flour, divided (see Notes below)
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 8 oz. plain or vanila yogurt (see Notes below)
- 2 1/4 c. diced strawberries (around 12 oz. fresh berries)
- 3/4 c. powdered sugar
- Additional strawberries for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (see Notes below)
- Toss strawberries in 1/4 c. flour; set aside.
- Cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy (takes about 2 to 3 minutes).
- Beat in the eggs one at a time, then mix in 1 Tbsp. lemon juice.
- Mix in remaining flour, baking soda, salt, lemon zest and yogurt, alternating between the wet and dry ingredients. Mix just until incorporated.
- Gently stir strawberries into batter; pour batter into a greased 9×13 metal cake pan.
- Place in oven and reduce temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow to cool. Once cooled, whisk together remaining 2 Tbsp. lemon juice and the powdered sugar to make a glaze. Drizzle glaze over the cake. (I like to wait and do this until right before I serve the cake and then drizzle over each individual piece. I think it looks so much prettier!)
- If desired, garnish with sliced fresh strawberries. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.
Notes
- You can substitute at least 1 cup of whole wheat flour for the regular flour in this recipe and it will still be delightfully moist and delicious.
- The kind of yogurt that you use will make a slight difference in the end result of the cake. The thicker the yogurt, the less moist the cake- but it will still be quite moist. But no matter what kind of yogurt I’ve used (Greek, regular bought or homemade), this cake has always been delicious!
- If you bake this in a glass pan, you will need to reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees. And you will likely need to bake it for an additional 10 minutes or so.
Eileen Kelly
Such a Delicious cake. It was so flavorful. the family enjoyed it.
Lydia Beiler
Happy to hear that you all enjoyed it, Eileen!
Glenda
I love what adding yogurt does for baked goods! So moist and tender! I can’t wait for summer to grab some fresh, at their peak berries to try in this recipe! Thanks so much for sharing!
Lydia Beiler
Yes, yogurt does make it so moist! And farm fresh berries are the best. Yum!
Mahima
I made millet flour cake using your recipe and it turned out to be you
Thanks a bunch for Sharing the amazing recipe and my toddler loved it .
Lydia Beiler
So glad to hear that you and your toddler enjoyed the recipe, Mahima! And thanks for sharing that the millet flour worked well. I hope that can help other readers that are looking for gluten free options!
Andrea Senn
I searched for a recipe to use up some strawberries and Greek yogurt I had sitting around and found your recipe, so made it this morning. It is absolutely wonderful! I followed it to a T except for two changes — I used a 15″ x 9″ metal pan since it’s all I had, and I pricked the cake all over as soon as it came out of the oven, because I wanted the icing to ooze into the cake. It is moist, flavorful, and slightly crunchy around the edges, because of the butter. It was a bit labor intensive because I had to dice the strawberries, but it was a Saturday morning, so why not spend it baking for my family? I have this recipe bookmarked and will make it again. Thank you!
Lydia Beiler
I’m so happy to hear that this recipe met “bookmark” status, Andrea! And I love the idea of pricking the cake to let the icing ooze into it. Going to have to try that myself!
Patricia Thornton
Very scrumptious! I’m not terribly fond of regular cake but really enjoyed this one. Love the “wet” texture and the flavors are awesome. Thank you!
Lydia Beiler
So glad to hear that you loved it, Patricia! I’m not a big cake fan either but this one won me over for the same reasons it did you.
Mariah
I made the cake today. If I’m not serving it until tomorrow should I do the glaze tomorrow or tonight while it’s still warm?
Lydia Beiler
I would wait until tomorrow. You could do it now, but it might kind of soak into the cake a bit, so if you can wait, I would. I hope you enjoy it!
Mariah
Thank you!! I did put the glaze on right before I served it. It turned out amazing. So refreshing for a summer cake and super moist! I live at a high elevation, but the cooking times were perfect. No adjustments needed.