If this lighter lemon blackberry bundt cake doesn’t scream Spring, I don’t know what does! It’s made with whole wheat pastry flour and Greek yogurt which makes it a little lighter and more health conscious. Plus, I made it in an 8 inch mini Bundt pan so you don’t have a giant cake staring you in the face all week long.
I adapted my favorite recipe for blueberry muffins to come up with this lighter lemon blackberry bundt cake, so it’s more like a giant muffin or coffee cake than a heavy cake. The fresh lemon and blackberries give it a wonderful tart note, and the blackberry jam and hint of sugar bring just enough sweetness to make this feel indulgent. Plus it comes together really easily and bakes up in only 30 minutes!
Lighter Lemon Blackberry Bundt Cake Ingredients:
- 6 oz container of blackberries
- 2 tablespoons blackberry jam
- 3 ½ teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
- Zest of one lemon
- ½ cup granulated sugar + more for dusting the pan
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt (I used 2% but use whatever kind you have)
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Start by preparing the blackberries. Rinse and dry your berries, then slice each berry in half. I like to do this since black berries tend to be on the bigger side and this is a small cake. Place the sliced blackberries in a bowl, and add in the blackberry jam and ½ teaspoon of lemon juice. Mix to combine so the jam and lemon juice evenly coats the berries, then set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix the egg, sugar, lemon zest, remaining 3 teaspoons of lemon juice, Greek yogurt, vanilla extract, and egg together until all the wet ingredients are evenly mixed.
In another bowl (yes, I know this is the third bowl I’m asking you to use; sorry!) mix the whole wheat pastry flour and baking powder so everything gets evenly distributed. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches until all the dry ingredients are moistened.
Finally, add the berry mixture to the batter and fold it together. The berry mixture doesn’t need to be well mixed and it is actually great if there are streaks of jam throughout the batter, but you just want to make sure that the berry mix gets evenly distributed so that there are berries and jam throughout the whole cake.
To prepare your mini bundt pan, spray with cooking spray and lightly rub the pan with a paper towel. You want the bundt pan to have a coating of oil on it, but not big drops of oil as this will seep into the cake. Next add about 1-2 tablespoons of granulated sugar directly into the bundt pan and shake it around so that the sugar completely coats the inside of the pan. This will help prevent the cake from sticking, and it will give a nice texture to the outside.
Distribute the batter evenly throughout the pan and lightly tap the pan full of batter on the counter to remove any air pockets.
Bake the lighter lemon blackberry bundt cake at 400°F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. You may get a tiny bit of moist crumbs on the toothpick or some berry juice but you want to make sure the batter is not gooey in the middle.
NOTE** to make this recipe into muffins instead of cake, divide the batter into muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes instead of 30 minutes.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
You can serve this lighter lemon blackberry bundt cake on its own or with a scoop of plain yogurt. Enjoy!