Lemon Blueberry Cake. A tender layer cake recipe brightened with lemon juice, lemon zest and wild blueberries, frosted with a tangy sweet lemon cream cheese frosting.
Today’s cake is tart yet sweet and perfect for summer. A tender butter cake is brightened with a hint of fresh lemon juice and flecks of lemon zest. Wild blueberries dancing throughout each layer give the cake a pop of contrast, both in appearance, texture and taste. Then comes the dreamy cream cheese frosting that boasts tangy cream cheese and tart lemon juice balanced with mellow butter and powdery sugar. It’s the kind of frosting you’ll want to eat with a spoon, if you’re in to that kind of thing.
Rustic swirls keep the frosting simple and casual, making this cake a welcomed addition to any of your summer events. Topped with clusters of lemon wedges, fresh berries and edible flowers, the complete package looks pulled together but truly takes little effort. Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone how easy it was!
Lemon Blueberry Cake
Lemon Blueberry Cake. A tender layer cake recipe brightened with lemon juice, lemon zest and wild blueberries, frosted with a tangy sweet lemon cream cheese frosting.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: One 8" Round Cake (3 layers)
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Cake
Ingredients
For the Lemon Blueberry Cake:
- 3 cups cake flour + 2 tablespoons cake flour, divided
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon organic lemon zest
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2 cups wild blueberries, frozen or fresh
For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 16 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
- 4–6 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon organic lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
For the Assembly:
- Lemon slices
- Fresh blueberries
- Edible flowers (optional)
Instructions
Make the Lemon Blueberry Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350. Butter and lightly flour three 8″ round pans. Line with parchment paper circles.
- Sift together 3 cups cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine milk and lemon juice. Stir to combine and set aside for milk to curdle. This is similar to making homemade buttermilk!
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium-high using the paddle attachment. Beat until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
- With the mixer on low, add eggs one at a time. Mix well after each egg.
- Add vanilla extract and lemon zest. Mix to combine.
- Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Do not over mix. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.
- In a small bowl, gently toss blueberries with 2 tablespoons cake flour to coat. Using a spoon or spatula, gently fold blueberries into batter, being careful not to break berries.
- Divide batter evenly between the three 8″ round pans.
- Bake for 30-33 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
- Let cool in pans for 10 to 15 minutes, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
Make the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Add vanilla, lemon zest and juice and mix until combined.
- Gradually add confectioners sugar, adjusting amount, until desired sweetness is reached. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Whip until smooth.
Assemble the Cake:
- Place one layer of cake onto serving plate or cake stand and top with about one cup of lemon cream cheese frosting. Repeat with second cake layer, more frosting and then last layer of cake. Crumb coat and frost cake with remaining frosting. Decorate with lemon slices, additional blueberries and edible flowers, if desired.
- Store in refrigerator. Serve at room temperature.
Notes
- If using frozen blueberries in the cake, do not thaw before mixing into cake batter. Avoiding over mixing once the berries are added to prevent the cake batter from turning grayish-purple from their juices.
- I used 365 Frozen Organic Wild Blueberries from Whole Foods.
- You may bake this as two full-sized 8″ round cake layers. Alternatively, I baked it as three intentionally shorter 8″ round layers – this saves time and effort because the shorter layers do not need to be torted.
- If frosting is too thin after whipping, refrigerate for 30 minutes before assembling cake. The chilled frosting will have a thicker consistency. For an even thicker consistency, add additional confectioners’ sugar as desired.
MORE LEMON CAKE RECIPES TO TRY:
What are the edible flowers? They make a nice detail?
They are edible violas. Sometimes I can find edible flowers in our local grocery stores but often not. Here is a link to where I ordered them:
Gourmet Sweet Botanicals
Hi Carrie 🙂 will the frosting work if I cover the cake with fondant?
Personally, I prefer a firmer frosting for under fondant, like a ganache or swiss meringue buttercream. This frosting is delicious but definitely better suited for a casual cake.
I have just recently found this website and am loving it! So many good recipes and tips! I just made these cake layers – best cake I have ever made. The layers turned out perfect. Very moist fine crumb with lots of flavor. I did not use the frosting because I am not too fond of cream cheese. Put lemon curd between the layers and a lemon-vanilla buttercream as the frosting. Great cake. Thank you.
So glad you liked this cake – thanks for the feedback!
This cake is beautiful! How would you recommend replacing blueberries with strawberries?
Great question Kristy. I generally use strawberries in fillings and frostings rather than baking with the whole berries, because of their large size and moisture content. You can find a strawberry version of this recipe here:
Strawberry Lemonade Cake
I’d like to make a loaf out of this gorgeous cake. Will it make 1 or 2 do you know?
Looks amazing. Blueberries abound here in the PNW.
Thanks!
Depending on the size of your loaf pan, you should be able to bake two loaves.
Hi Carrie, could you omit the blueberries altogether and still use the same amount of ingredients for a basic lemon layer cake?
Yes, you could certainly omit the blueberries. The layers won’t be quite as tall since you’ll have 2 cups less volume than when including the blueberries. You may be best served to bake it as a two layer cake, instead of three layers.
Do you think two 9″ pans would work? They of course will be a bit thicker…. Would cutting them in 1/2 with my cake-cutter to make a 4-layer cake be a bad idea?
I would rather not have to buy 3 8” cake pans if I can help it! I don’t know how else to adjust the recipe…. I am considering buying just 1 extra 9” cake pan, and then increasing the ingredients by a total of 25% but am afraid I would royally screw that up! I’m terrible at math.
I completely understand the pan dilemma Melanie! You should be able to bake this as two 9″ rounds, just be mindful when filling your pans that you don’t fill them more than 2/3 full. Overflowing cake batter makes a huge mess in the oven! Once your cakes are cooled, cut them in half horizontally with your cake-cutter to make a 4-layer cake. Or keep it simple and go for a two layer cake. Both will taste delicious!
Don’t make this icing if you’re in the uk using normal cream cheese!! It’s terrible.
Just came here to say that i baked this cake for my 3rd Anniversary. It turned out perfectly most & delicious. My boyfriend and our families literally couldn’t stop eating it! Wish i could attach a photo of the cake to show you!
Anyway, thank you so much for this lovely recipe. I’m excited to try more cake recipes from you 😃
So glad you and your family enjoyed it Carol! I’d love to see a photo – just tag @thecakeblog on Instagram or use hashtag #thecakeblog! That’s the best way to share it with us. 📷🍰📷
This was a huge hit at our house. We live in Stockholm and have so many wild blueberries every year. Fun to use so many in a cake. We are pretty lemony around here so I actually used more lemon juice and less milk than the recipe called for and it turned out perfectly (and a tad less sweet?). I made 2 cakes and froze the one. It did really well after a few weeks in the freezer. Just defrosted overnight in the fridge and then frosted it with the leftover icing.
So happy to hear, thanks Christie!
So glad you and your family enjoyed it Carol! I’d love to see a photo – just tag @thecakeblog on Instagram or use hashtag #thecakeblog! That’s the best way to share it with us. 📷🍰📷
So happy to hear, thanks Christie!
I tried this recipie last week and loved it! Its my favorite cream cheese icing recipe ever, not to sweet and a great consistency. The cake was amazing. I will definitely be making this again in the future.
So glad you liked this cake – thanks for the feedback Catherine!
Hi! Do you think buttercream would work as an alternative to the cream cheese frosting?
Sure! You’ll want to add some lemon (extract, zest or juice) to your buttercream recipe of choice, to keep along the lemon blueberry flavor profile.
So glad you liked this cake – thanks for the feedback Catherine!
I am making a gender reveal cake for my sister this weekend, does the cake turn out blue? I want it to be obvious its a boy. Was thinking about cutting a whole in the center and adding fresh blueberries, but I’m worried it will bleed. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Hi Olivia – no, the cake itself does not turn out blue. Although adding a few drops blue food coloring would certainly do the trick.
Thank you for this recipe! I followed it to the dot and it’s delicious – I’ve always wanted to make this cake and it’s exactly as good as I thought it would be. Many thanks from Cairo, Egypt …
Thanks for your feedback Nadine – so glad you like it!! 😋
Really delicious! I had a problem though… the berries went straight to the botton! Is there a way to avoid this? It’s so good, love it!
Berries sinking to the bottom is the worst! There are several ways you can try to correct this next time. If you’re using fresh berries, try to pick the smallest ones you can find and be sure to toss them in a little flour before adding it to the batter.
I personally have the best results with frozen berries. In the cake shown above, I used 365 Frozen Organic Wild Blueberries from Whole Foods. Hope that helps!
O made this cake last night for a family and there were many that went back for seconds!! So delicious.
My berries all fell to the bottom too. Thanks for the explanation. We used fresh and they were pretty big. Still tasted GREAT!!
I make wedding cakes and I want to add a lemon blueberry cake to my flavors. I just tried a different recipe from another site that used buttermilk and I prefer this one hands down. Nice lemony flavor which is what I was looking for. I did sub the vanilla extract for lemon oil and in all of my baking used AP flour instead of Cake flour but it still came out wonderfully. I used frozen berries and it work great. I have found my new flavor addition to my cake menu. Thank you!
Oops, meant to say I mistakingly used AP flour as I was baking several other test recipes. I will rebaked with cake flour and see if there was a difference.
Thanks for the feedback Jacqueline! Glad you are pleased with the results!
Oops, meant to say I mistakingly used AP flour as I was baking several other test recipes. I will rebaked with cake flour and see if there was a difference.
Hello carrie. You deserve a big of applause for such as delicious recipe. My fam loved it so much! Thanks for sharing it with us.
So happy to hear your family enjoyed this one Sheryl. It’s my husband’s favorite!
How many cups of batter does this recipe make?
I’m sorry Michelle, I’ve never measured it.
I made this tonight. I made it in the ball pan, so I had to measure it out. This recipe makes 8-1/2 cups of batter.
Thanks for the feedback Jacqueline! Glad you are pleased with the results!
So happy to hear your family enjoyed this one Sheryl. It’s my husband’s favorite!
Hi Carrie,
Can I use dried blueberries instead of fresh?. As I am in India its difficult to get fresh blueberries.
Thanks!!!
I haven’t tried it with dried blueberries but I think they would substitute just fine. Enjoy!