Lemon Blueberry Cake
Lemon juice and zest infuse this cake with plenty of lemon flavor and there’s fresh blueberries in every bite. The lemon cream cheese frosting brings this lemon blueberry cake together while packing in even more sweet and tangy lemon flavor!
If you’ve been around for a while, you know that I love lemon blueberry treats. This simple, yet spectacular cake is no exception and it’s bursting with flavor!
This recipe is actually adapted from my lemon cake and lemon blueberry bundt cake recipes (which are both reader favorites!). It’s a soft lemon cake studded with fresh blueberries and topped with a homemade lemon cream cheese frosting.
A blend of oil, buttermilk, and sour cream keeps the cake incredibly moist, while a light coating of flour (and a secret trick I discovered!) prevents the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the cake layers.
If you love lemon blueberry desserts as much as I do, I guarantee you’re going to be obsessed with this recipe!
Watch The Full Recipe Video
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
Flour
I originally tested this recipe with cake flour, but the blueberries sank straight to the bottom of the cake layers every single time. After at least 10 failed attempts (and countless tweaks), I realized that cake flour was FAR too delicate to hold up to the weight of the juicy blueberries.
I finally tested this recipe with all-purpose flour (since it worked well in my lemon blueberry bundt cake), but made a few other adjustments to keep the cake soft. And guess what? All of blueberries didn’t end up at the bottom of the cake layers, but stayed more evenly distributed throughout the cake batter!
So, long story short: Do not use cake flour in this recipe. All-purpose flour is crucial!
Lemon Juice & Zest
You’ll need at least four medium lemons to have enough juice and zest for making the cake and frosting.
And yes, using actual lemons rather than bottled juice is important since the essential oil in the zest is what gives this cake a strong lemon flavor and prevents us from having to use bottled lemon extract.
The Secret to Making a Soft & Fluffy Cake
- Use room temperature ingredients. When your eggs and dairy products are at room temperature, they combine seamlessly with the dry ingredients and trap tiny pockets of air in the batter in the process. Those bits of air translate to a fluffy cake with a lighter and tender crumb.
- Measure your flour correctly. In a perfect world, you’d use a food scale to measure out your flour and other ingredients. If you don’t own a food scale, make sure to spoon your flour into the measuring cup and level it off with the back of a knife. If you’re new to baking, I have a full post on how to measure flour.
- Mix the butter and sugar together long enough. Again, it’s all about developing those air pockets! It takes 4 to 5 minutes to properly cream butter and sugar together, so don’t skimp on this step. You’re looking for the butter and sugar to be fully combined, lighter in color, and fluffy in texture.
- Don’t over mix the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients in three additions to prevent over-developing the gluten in the flour.
- Avoid over baking the cake layers. The cake layers are done when they spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Mine usually take about 30 minutes, but every oven is different so make sure to keep a close eye on them!
- Wrap your cake layers if you plan to decorate the cake later. You never want to let your cake layers sit out at room temperature too long without frosting. If you plan to decorate your cake later or another day, let them cool completely, then wrap them with some plastic wrap. This will keep the layers moist and prevent them from drying out.
How To Keep The Blueberries From Sinking
An old baker’s trick to prevent blueberries from sinking to the bottom of a cake is to toss them in some flour before folding them into the batter.
As an extra precautionary step, I also spread a thin layer of the plain lemon cake batter into the bottom of each cake pan before folding the blueberries into the remaining batter.
While using all-purpose flour and coating the blueberries in flour helps A LOT, this ensures that no blueberries come into contact with the bottom of the cake pan and sink to the bottom.
Decorating Your Cake
Once you’ve let the cake layers cool completely, you can decorate your lemon blueberry cake however you like. If you’re new to decorating, I have a post showing you my exact step-by-step method on how to decorate a cake. I promise, it’s easier than you think!
To decorate this cake, I used my lemon cream cheese frosting recipe. If you’d prefer to try something else, my lemon buttercream, coconut frosting, or classic cream cheese frosting would all work great.
I applied a crumb coat first, then used an angled spatula to add more frosting to the cake and an icing smoother to smooth it out. For the topping, I used the Wilton 1M piping tip and added some lemon slices and fresh blueberries on top.
If you want to add even more lemon flavor, spread some lemon curd between the cake layers. Just be sure to pipe a border of frosting around the edge of each cake layer first so it doesn’t come out of the sides of the cake!
Can I Bake This In A 9×13 Pan?
Yes, but you’ll need to adjust the baking time to 35 to 45 minutes. You’ll also need just one batch of the lemon cream cheese frosting.
Can I Use This Recipe To Make Cupcakes?
Absolutely! The full recipe will yield 30 to 32 cupcakes.
To make them, fill each cavity ⅔ of the way full with batter, and bake for 16 to 20 minutes. Or you can use my lemon blueberry cupcake recipe instead.
I still can’t get over how well this cake turned out, even though it took so many tries to get it just right. I hope you love it as much as we did!
If you make this recipe, don’t forget to leave a comment letting me know how it turned out! Happy Baking!
Lemon Blueberry Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Lemon Blueberry Cake
- 2 cups fresh blueberries (300 grams) plus 1 tablespoon flour (8 grams)
- 3 cups all-purpose flour spooned & leveled (375 grams)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup buttermilk at room temperature (180 ml)
- ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil (60 ml)
- ¼ cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt (60 grams)
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (60 ml)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened (170 grams; 1 ½ sticks)
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar (350 grams)
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter softened (2 ¼ sticks; 255 grams)
- 4 ½ cups powdered sugar (540 grams)
- 1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 ½ tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
- 12 ounces brick-style cream cheese softened and cubed (1 ½ bricks; 340 grams)
Instructions
- To make the lemon blueberry cake: Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray three 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray, line the bottom of each pan with a parchment paper circle, and set aside.
- Add the blueberries and 1 tablespoon of flour to a mixing bowl and toss until all of the berries are coated. Set aside.2 cups fresh blueberries
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together until well combined. Set aside.3 cups all-purpose flour,2 teaspoons baking powder,½ teaspoon baking soda,½ teaspoon salt
- In a separate large mixing bowl or measuring cup, whisk the buttermilk, oil, sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla extract together until well combined. Set aside.¾ cup buttermilk,¼ cup canola or vegetable oil,¼ cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt,¼ cup fresh lemon juice,1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth.¾ cup unsalted butter
- Add the sugar and lemon zest and mix until it starts to come together, then increase to medium speed and continue mixing for another 4 to 5 minutes or until the mixture is light in color and fluffy.1 ¾ cups granulated sugar,2 tablespoons lemon zest
- Mix in the eggs, one at a time, making sure to stop and scrape around the bottom and sides of the bowl after each egg.4 large eggs
- Add the dry ingredients in three additions alternating with the buttermilk mixture (begin and end with the dry ingredients) on low speed. Mix in each addition until just combined, making sure not to over mix the batter.
- Use a rubber spatula to scrape around the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is well combined.
- Spread a thin layer of batter into each of the prepared cake pans (about 150 grams per pan).
- Gently fold the blueberries into the remaining cake batter, then divide the batter evenly between all three pans. Smooth each one out into an even layer.
- Bake for 28 to 33 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans for about 20 minutes or until they’re cool enough to handle. Slide a knife around the outside of the cakes, then carefully remove the cakes from the pans, and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the lemon cream cheese frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth.1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Mix in half of the powdered sugar on low speed until well combined, then mix in the remaining half of the powdered sugar.4 ½ cups powdered sugar
- Add the lemon juice and lemon zest and mix on low-medium speed until fully combined, making sure to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice,1 ½ tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
- Add the cubed cream cheese and continue mixing on low speed until fully combined. I recommend stopping a few times to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. If needed, you can mix for 30 seconds to 1 minute on low speed to ensure that the cream cheese is fully mixed in and no lumps remain. Just make sure not to mix the frosting too much after you add the cream cheese or it will become softer.12 ounces brick-style cream cheese
- To assemble the cake: Level the tops of each cake layer with a knife or cake leveler.
- Place one of the cake layers on a cake stand, top with ¾ cup of frosting, and smooth it out into one even layer. Place the second layer on top, and repeat the same process with the frosting. Place the third cake layer upside down on top.
- Spread a thin layer of frosting all over the cake. This is known as the crumb coat and will catch any crumbs so that they don’t end up in your final layer of frosting. Place the cake in the freezer for 10 minutes to allow the crumb coat to firm up.
- Use the remaining frosting to frost the top and sides of the cake. If you plan to pipe some decorations on top, reserve 1 to 1 ½ cups of frosting for later.
