This Blueberry Bread Loaf is an easy blueberry cake recipe that takes 10 minutes to prepare. The batter is made with yoghurt which makes this loaf lovely and moist, and all you need is a wooden spoon and one bowl. With a simple lemon glaze, this makes for a lovely afternoon tea!
Make this with any fruit you want – fresh, frozen or even dried!
Blueberry Bread Loaf
This is a quick bread recipe, and is aptly named as such because it is so quick to prepare. Once you pull out your tub of flour, sugar and other ingredients onto the counter, it will honestly take you less than 10 minutes to prepare.
In fact, you will probably have to start preheating your oven before you start preparing the batter. Otherwise it won’t be hot enough. That’s how fast this is to make.
Because it goes like this: whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Then add egg, yoghurt, oil, lemon zest and vanilla. Fold in blueberries. Pour into pan and bake.
Yes, it’s that easy. ONE BOWL. No mixer. I like very much. ❤️
Ingredients in Blueberry Loaf Bread
Here’s what you need to make this blueberry loaf cake recipe:
Blueberries – I typically make this during blueberry season when they are ripe, plump, and cheap. But it works 100% perfectly with frozen too, and with other berries such as raspberries, blackberries. Note: If using frozen, stir them in frozen. If you thaw, they will bleed into the batter and you’ll end up with blueberry streaks.
Yogurt – A “secret ingredient” wet ingredient in baking to make batters that bake up into lovely moist cakes. Any plain, unsweetened yogurt is fine here. I typically use Greek Yogurt.
Flour – Just plain / all purpose flour.
Oil – Canola oil, or any other plain flavoured oil (such as vegetable, sunflower, grapeseed oil). This is another ingredient that keeps the crumb of this cake lovely and moist compared to using butter. While butter provides more flavour in cakes, it makes the crumb more dry. In this recipe, we get flavour from the lemon, vanilla and blueberries so we can use oil instead of butter for a more moist crumb.
Baking powder – This provides the lift in this recipe, to make the crumb lovely and soft.
Lemon – Lemon and blueberries are a classic pairing I use in many of my blueberry recipes.
Sugar – Less than most, so this blueberry bread loaf is not as sweet as many recipes you’ll find. And that’s just the way I like it!
Eggs – At room temperature, so they incorporate easily into the batter. I use large eggs which are 55-60g / 2 oz each, an industry standard so the eggs will be labelled “large eggs” on the carton.
Vanilla – For flavour. I use vanilla extract here which is real vanilla flavour. Vanilla essence is artificial so the flavour is not as good. I typically only use pricier vanilla bean paste or vanilla beans for more refined dessert recipes, such as the recently published Flan Pâtissier (the world’s greatest Custard Tart!)
Salt – Just a touch, to bring out the flavours. This is good general practice for all (well, most!) sweet baking recipes.
How to make Blueberry Loaf Bread
Super quick and easy… remember, this is a quick bread recipe!
Toss blueberries in flour – This helps ensure the blueberries remain suspended through the batter as it bakes, rather than sinking to the bottom. Yep, been there, done that! 😩
Whisk dry ingredients – The flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
Add wet ingredients – Eggs, yogurt, lemon, vanilla and oil. Give it a good mix just until combined. Once the batter is smooth and you no longer see streaks of flour, stop mixing. If you overmix, your cake will end up hard instead of soft.
Stir in blueberries – Add the flour coated blueberries and stir gently just to mix them through.
Pour into loaf pan – Scrape the batter into a lined loaf pan. The one I use is fairly small, 21 x 11 x 7 cm (8.3 x 4.5 x 2.75″). This makes a nice tall shaped loaf. If your loaf pan is larger, that’s totally fine, it will just won’t be quite as tall as pictured.
Line the loaf pan with parchment / baking paper to ensure your cake will not stick. Just lightly grease it with butter so the paper sticks.
Bake 5o minutes at 200*C/390°F (180°C fan forced).
Cover with foil then bake for a further 15 to 25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. I check it after 15 minutes, then if the skewer is still wet, I leave it in for another 10 minutes. The variable is usually whether you used fresh blueberries (shorter baker time) or frozen (longer bake time).
Voila! Ready to devour! Will you glaze it with lemon glaze?? YES!
Lemon Glaze ingredients
I’ve provided a lemon glaze in this recipe, but when time is of the essence, I just dust with icing sugar. It doesn’t need a glaze, it is sweet, moist and tasty enough without. But it is even better WITH!
So if you’re in the mood, here’s what you need for the glaze!
Soft icing sugar / powdered sugar – For Australians reading this, soft icing sugar is not to be confused with pure icing sugar. Soft icing sugar is what is used to make creamy frostings like buttercream. Pure icing sugar sets with a crust for things like royal icing.
Lemon juice – The primary liquid used to make the glaze, to give it a subtle tang that balances out the sweetness of the glaze and pairs beautifully with the blueberry loaf bread.
Milk – If needed, to thin the glaze to the right consistency.
To make the lemon glaze, just mix the ingredients, using milk to get the right consistency so it’s thick enough to drizzle over. Careful not to make it too thin!
The weekend is here. It’s time to treat yourself! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Blueberry Bread Loaf
Ingredients
Dry
- 1 3/4 cups flour , plain / all purpose
- 1 cup white sugar , preferably caster/superfine
- 2 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
Wet
- 1 cup plain yoghurt (preferably not low fat)
- 3 large eggs , 55 – 60g / 2oz each
- 2 tsp lemon zest (1 large or 2 small lemons)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup canola oil (or vegetable, grapeseed oil)
Blueberries
- 2 tsp flour
- 1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh blueberries (no need to defrost)
Optional lemon glaze
- 1 1/2 cups soft icing sugar / powdered sugar , sifted
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1-2 tbsp milk , if needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan forced).
- Line loaf pan: Butter and line a loaf pan with parchment / baking paper. I used a 21 x 11 x 7 cm pan (8.3 x 4.5 x 2.75") which makes a nice tall loaf.
- Coat blueberries: Toss blueberries in flour (less flour sticks if dry, more if frozen). This helps keep them suspended in the batter.
- Whisk Dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Add Wet ingredinets: Make a well in the Dry ingredients. Add Wet ingredients. Whisk until incorporated.
- Fold in blueberries: Fold in blueberries, including any flour remaining in the blueberry bowl.
- Bake: Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 50 minutes, then cover with foil. Bake for a further 15 – 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Check after 15 minutes, then if the skewer comes out with batter on it, bake a further 10 minutes.
- Cool: Rest for 5 minutes then turn onto a cooling rack and completely cool. Drizzle with Glaze. Wait until the glaze sets (about 20 minutes) before slicing to serve.
Glaze
- Whisk icing sugar and lemon until smooth, using milk only if needed to achieve the right thickness (Note 3). Pour or spread over cake set on a rack over a baking tray. Scrape glaze drippings on the tray back onto the cake.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Recipe original published in June 2016. Post updated with new photos, ingredient photos, step photos and a recipe video.
More afternoon tea favourites
And more blueberry recipes
In case you’re lucky enough to be overloaded with blueberries…
Life of Dozer
I can’t bring myself to share the photo of Dozer from when I was shooting this. It involved a big puddle of drool as he quietly lay under the table, waiting for a big hunk of cake to drop on the ground (which did not occur). It was disgusting!!!!
So here you go – something a little cuter. 🙂 Boy, I really did NOT expect this 5 kg/10 lb puppy to end up quite as big as he is – he’s now 40kg / 80lb!!!
Super easy to make, love that it’s a throw in a bowl & mix away rather than getting out the electric mixer. Topped with the lemon glaze it was the perfect amount of sweetness with that delicious lemony tang! Such a moist loaf & finally I know the secret to keeping the berries suspended in my cakes – Thanks Nagi 🙂
Woo hoo!! Enjoy the baking Meg! N X
Hi there. Would love to make this recipe but I don’t have a loaf pan. Do you have the cooking time and temperature if I were to use a 8×8 glass pan or a 9×13 glass pan? Thanks so much! I love your recipes!
Hi Anna May – sorry I haven’t tested those sizes! N x
I made this blueberry bread loaf for a group breakfast function and there was hardly a crumb leftover! It was delicious.
Woo hoo Beth!! That’s great to hear!! N x
Can I use whole wheat flour or does it have to be white flour?
I thought the 390 degree fahrenheit sounded high … and it was. It burned the loaf. Might want to try 350 degrees.
I agree, I mixed up the batter and put it in the pan and I decided immediately that I was going to bake it at 350F not 390F. I make banana bread, cranberry bread, and lots of other breads that have fruit in them and I don’t think I’ve ever baked one any higher than 350F. It’s in the oven right now and I’m going to pull it out after 50 minutes and check it with a check tester. We’ll see if I need any more time than that. I will reply back and let you know. Also, I really wanted the blueberry bread and not that heavy sugary icing that she suggests in her recipe. I’m sure that’s fine for a lot of people, but I wasn’t wanting to add a lot of sugar and take away from the blueberry/lemon taste. I may take the lemon juice and a small amount of powdered sugar and make a really thin glaze. My personal preference, this type of bread benefits from a very light glaze or possibly coarse sugar sprinkles on top. I tasted the batter before I put it in the oven and it is very delicious and I am so looking forward to tasting it after it comes out of the oven. Looks to be a very moist bread recipe.
Baked at 350°F for 65 minutes and did not have to cover it with foil. I checked it at 50 minutes and it obviously needed a little more time but it wasn’t overly brown or burning so I left the foil off and baked it for an additional 15 minutes. It came out perfect, so beautiful and I am ready to try it but of course it’s too hot and I have to let it cool. Looks like Nagi‘s picture at the top of the page. Thank you Nagi for the recipe.
Hey Nagi, I found you through your amazing coconut marinated chicken recipe and tried this and it’s the perfect sunday morning bake! Thank you!!
I am glad you liked it Kaki!! N x
Is the sugar really necessary for growing the dough, or just for the taste? Could be replaced by some type of sweetener, by any chance?
Made this today, came out good. The family loved it. I followed the recipe to the letter. Not too sweet just right. I will be making this regularly. Thanks Nagi
I just found you. Once you said you didn’t use canned soups and everything was fresh I was hooked. Thank you
Thanks for Sharing Information .your recipe is really helpful.
Hi Nagi, could u post raspberry white chocolate loaf cake.. and banana walnut loaf cake.. just made blueberry lemon loaf cake can’t wait to dig in but nope.. waiting for sunrise to take pics before devouring 😅.. u r amazing ❤️❤️❤️
Hi Nagi, could u post raspberry white chocolate loaf cake.. and banana walnut loaf cake
A fabulous easy recipe. I used a loaf tin the same size as Nagi which meant it was nice and high. I also thought the cooking time may have been too long but it was perfect (180 fan-forced). I made the glaze as well and the whole thing ended up looking like your picture! It was delicious and moist.
Thanks for your response. I will check my oven temperature. Maybe it runs hot. Best, Liz
Hi Nagi, Just made the blueberry loaf. Was nervous about the 200 degree temperature so did it at 180. Should it really be 200? I feel it would have burned. Thanks for advice, Liz
The batter tasted great and I was so excited about this loaf but 390f was way too high! My gut told me so and I should have listened. I purposely set timer to check in 30 min and it looked completely done! I pulled it out and saw the edges were burning. I turned it down to 325F covered and continued to bake because middle definitely not done, covered in foil and had to guess taking it out numerous times to check middle. The foil stopped it from burning and no idea actual time it cooked. Bringing to friends dinner tomorrow and will hope for the best. Too bad so frustrating because rest of recipe seemed perfect and batter tasted great.
Hi Kathy – I will adjust the initial instructions because in a fan oven you need to start this one at 350F/180C. I do have the C temp on there but not the F one for fan -apologies! N x
When you say fan oven, are you referring to a convection oven? Just confused by the recommended temperatures and the type of oven. I know most of the breads I have made are baked at 350°F.
Hi Liz – I do it at 180 Fan/200C regular oven as written! N x
Absolutely love this bread thanks for the recipe Nagi
I made this it rose so high the batter spilled over the top like lava ! I used a bigger loaf tin even. Also the top was burnt after 40 minutes on Gas 6
I haven’t made anything yet but I really enjoy the recipes. They’re so easy to follow and I enjoy your insightful humor. Looking forward to making some of these great dishes.
Hi Nagi, I love the sound of the Blueberry Lemon Loaf. However, can I use the same batter to make cupcakes? If so, how long would you suggest I bake them and at what temperature in a standard oven? Thank you.
I followed this recipe using fresh blueberries and it came out perfectly. Baked for approx 1 hour.Thanks so much for the great recipe! 🙂