Greek Yogurt Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake | Amy's Healthy Baking (2024)

A healthy recipe for tender lemon pound cake full of sweet, juicy blueberries. It’s a lemon lover’s dream come true—and just 133 calories!

One year during my childhood, my family ran out of time to plan a birthday party for my younger brother. His birthday falls at the very end of summer vacation, just a week or so before school starts, and we ended up spending too much time running around restocking our supplies of pencils, paper, markers, and erasers that particular year.

We still celebrated with a “family” party on his actual birthday, complete with cake and ice cream and gifts from grandparents. (To this day, we still have family birthday brunches or dinners every year for each of us—they’re one of my favorite traditions!) But later that fall, Mom arranged for a really big party and invited all of his friends to make up for its tardiness to my brother.

She scheduled it for the first weekend of November at Pump It Up, a huge warehouse full of inflatable slides, bounce houses, and obstacle courses, just like what you’d find at the fair. Because the party wasn’t at the end of August, like usual, practically all of his friends could come since they weren’t on family vacations.

So for two hours, 25 of us kids bounced around like little monkeys, racing each other down the gigantic slide and holding competitions to see who could jump the highest in the classic bounce house. It took an entire banquet table loaded with cheese pizza, vanilla birthday cake, and cookies ’n cream ice cream to bribe us to stop so my brother could blow out the candles and open his presents!

Mom, you definitely outdid yourself that year.♥

This year, I planned ahead and asked my brother what birthday cake he wanted over a month in advance. I already knew he’d request something lemon-flavored (it’s his all-time favorite dessert flavor!), and when he also included that he’d like it to have fresh fruit as well, I created this recipe for Greek Yogurt Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake. It’s bursting with that bright citrus flavor, and those sweet juicy berries truly take it over the top. But with just 133 calories, there’s still plenty of room for ice cream!

Or, in my case, a second slice…

Traditional pound cakes earned their name because they included a pound each of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. My waistline is cringing at the thought of all those calories! This healthy one is the exact opposite, so let’s talk about how we’ll achieve that.

To start, you’ll use white whole wheat flour instead of refined flour. White whole wheat flour is made by finely grinding a special type of white wheat, whereas regular whole wheat flour comes from a heartier variety of red wheat. This gives while whole wheat flour a lighter taste and texture, similar to that of all-purpose flour, which is perfect for this tender cake! It also has the same health benefits as regular whole wheat flour, like extra fiber. I call that a win-win situation!

Note: Whole wheat pastry flour would be a great substitute, and I’ve included my preferred gluten-free flour blend in the Notes section of the recipe.

Instead of a pound of butter (that’s about 2 cups!) and a pound of eggs (about 9 of them!), you’ll only use 1 tablespoon of butter (or coconut oil!) and 3 egg whites. Just think of all those calories you’re shaving off! Because of that, the majority of this cake’s tender texture comes from one of my favorite ingredients in healthier baking. Do you know what it is?

Greek yogurt! (Although you probably guessed that from the recipe’s title…) Greek yogurt adds the same moisture as extra butter or oil for a fraction of the calories, and with around 21g of protein per cup, it gives your pound cake a protein boost, too.

To sweeten this cake, you’ll use another one of my favorite ingredients: vanilla crème stevia. Stevia is a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener that’s clean eating friendly. It’s very concentrated, so a little goes a long way! This is the kind that I buy because I love its warm vanilla flavor and don’t notice any strange aftertastes like with some other stevia products. You can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, and I typically buy it online here. (You’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too!)

For the citrus flavor, you’ll add both lemon juice and lemon zest to the batter. I highly recommend freshly squeezed juice, and Meyer lemons are my favorite! The zest actually provides the majority of that bright sunshiny taste. My taste testers all agreed that 3 full tablespoons provided the best flavor, so don’t skimp on it!

And finally, fresh blueberries are the last ingredient you’ll add. I find that fresh berries have the juiciest flavor, and they’re like little bursts of bliss every time you bite into one. So summery and sweet! Gently fold the blueberries into the batter to avoid bursting them and staining the batter that strange shade of gray. And then, after a trip to the oven…

Time for cake! And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees that I’ll see the notification from you! ?) I’d love to see your pound cake and feature it in my Sunday Spotlight series!

And happy birthday bud!♥