This Lemon Blueberry Cake is the perfect dessert for spring celebrations and get-togethers! Each layer is studded with blueberries and frosted with a bright and refreshing lemon icing. Recipe includes a how-to video!
All the Flavors of Spring in One Slice
So many of you have requested this lemon blueberry cake, and I am excited to finally share it with you today! With lemon notes in both the icing and the cake and a bounty of blueberries throughout each layer, this cake is so fruity and light. It’s absolutely perfect for spring and would be a very welcome addition to your Easter dessert table this year.
What’s So Great About This Lemon Blueberry Cake:
- It’s a lemony, perfectly tart variation of my vanilla cake with just the right amount of sweetness.
- A soft, plush crumb suspends at least some of the berries, thanks to the reverse creaming method (like I did with my chantilly cake!).
- We’re icing it with the lemon frosting I just shared last week, which makes it both refreshing and beautiful!
What You Need
Here are the key ingredients that ensure every bite of this cake is flavorful and light:
- Blueberries. I use fresh blueberries, but frozen will work too. If you use frozen, don’t thaw them first–just add them right into the batter.
- Lemon juice. For the most flavorful lemon blueberry cake, use fresh squeezed lemon juice.
- Lemon zest. Make sure you zest your lemons before you juice them! It will be quite a challenge to zest a juiced lemon.
- Buttermilk. While I love using my buttermilk substitute in a pinch, I actually don’t recommend using it for this cake. Stick with real buttermilk!
- Cornstarch. This helps achieve a soft, plush cake.
SAM’S TIP: While my lemon frosting complements this cake beautifully, you can make a cream cheese frosting variation that also tastes fantastic. To make this, follow the recipe for my lemon frosting, but add 4 oz of softened cream cheese in with the butter. You may need to add up to an additional cup of powdered sugar to get it the right texture!
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make It
- Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add the butter one tablespoon at a time, using an electric mixer on low speed to mix after each addition.
- Slowly drizzle in the oil.
- Combine the remaining wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then slowly drizzle them into the batter.
- Use a spatula to gently fold the blueberries into the batter.
- Divide the batter among your prepared pans and bake for 30 minutes.
- Let the cakes cool in their pans for 10-15 minutes before inverting the cakes onto a cooling rack.
- Frost and decorate your cooled cakes, slice, and enjoy!
SAM’S TIP: If you only have two cake pans (or your oven only fits two pans at a time), you can let the remaining batter sit on the counter while the others are baking. If you do have three pans and they can all fit in your oven at the same time, definitely keep a close eye on them while they bake–most ovens do not cook evenly, and some may be done before others.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Just add them in frozen (no need to thaw) and bake as normal. Note that if you use wild blueberries, these tend to streak the batter and turn it purple. If you don’t mind that look (it’s almost like a tie dye effect), feel free to use them as well!
While many (but not all) of your blueberries will sink, you’ll still get a nice distribution of blueberry to cake in the final result, especially since the cake layers are fairly thin. I made several variations of this cake where the crumb was dense enough to suspend blueberries evenly throughout, but the cake itself ended up gummy, dense, flavorless, and just all-around lackluster. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take flavor and texture over perfect looks any day! Note: While some people like to toss their berries with cornstarch or flour to help keep them suspended, I found it made no difference here.
This cake can sit at room temperature for a few hours, but after that, it will need to be stored in the fridge in an airtight container.
And in case you are wondering, this cake is different from my (well-loved) lemon cake. While that one is divinely light, fluffy, and perfect in all its lemon splendor, today’s recipe was designed specifically to be a bit denser so that not all of the blueberries sink straight to the bottom (which would happen with my lemon cake).
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Lemon Blueberry Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter softened and cut into 8 pieces
- ½ cup (120 ml) canola, vegetable, or avocado oil
- ¾ cup (180 ml) buttermilk
- 2 Tablespoons lemon zest zest lemons before squeezing
- ¼ cup (60 ml) lemon juice fresh-squeezed preferred
- 4 large eggs room temperature preferred
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups (340 g) blueberries see note (12 oz)
- 1 batch lemon frosting or preferred frosting
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line three 8” round cake pans by lightly but thoroughly greasing and flouring the sides and lining the bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, 1 ½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar, 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon table salt
- Using an electric mixer, add softened butter, one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon only after the first is combined. The mixture will appear sandy in texture.½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter
- While mixing on low-speed, slowly drizzle in oil.½ cup (120 ml) canola, vegetable, or avocado oil
- In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together buttermilk, lemon zest, lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla extract until combined.¾ cup (180 ml) buttermilk, 2 Tablespoons lemon zest, ¼ cup (60 ml) lemon juice, 4 large eggs, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- With mixer on low-speed, slowly drizzle in the buttermilk mixture until the batter is smooth and completely combined.
- Use a spatula to stir in blueberries.2 ½ cups (340 g) blueberries
- Evenly divide batter into prepared cake pans and transfer to 350F oven (if your oven is not large enough for all three pans or if you only have two pans, it is fine to let the remaining batter sit on the counter while the first two pans bake. If all of your pans do fit in the oven, make sure to keep an eye on them as most ovens do not cook evenly and some pans may be done sooner than others). Bake for 30 minutes or until the surface of the cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs.
- Allow cakes to cool in cake pans for 10-15 minutes before running a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen cakes and carefully inverting onto a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
- Once cooled completely, decorate the cake using lemon frosting (or preferred frosting).1 batch lemon frosting or preferred frosting
Notes
Blueberries
I prefer to use fresh blueberries but in a pinch frozen blueberries will work instead. You do not need to thaw before using. Note that if you opt to use “wild” blueberries, they may streak your batter purple.Storing
Store tightly covered at room temperature for up to 24 hours or in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days (note that the refrigerator does tend to dry out cakes the longer they are in there).Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Colleen
This recipe is DEICIOUS! I read the comments and got the idea to do cupcakes. This recipe made approximately 24, which was perfect for the birthday party I was making it for. I paired it with a cream cheese frosting that I added a bit of the lemon juice to. My husband is asking me to make them again already and I have been craving them too, so it won’t be long before I repeat this!
Meg
I wanted to use vanilla bean paste instead of extract. I know it would be a lot less, do you think that would be ok to use or should I just stick to the extract?
Sam
Hi Meg! If it’s all you happen to have on hand it’s totally fine to substitute it for an equal amount. However, I typically save vanilla bean or paste for recipes where I really want the vanilla flavor to shine, and here I intentionally keep it super subtle so that the lemon can dominate instead, so in this particular instance I would stick to extract. I hope that’s helpful!
Jennifer
Hi Sam – This looks outstanding! I can’t wait to try it. Curious – can you recommend a crunch layer of some sort to add into the cake for more texture? Trying to determine what flavors would complement the cake and frosting.
None the less, thank you so very much for generously posting your fantastic recipes!
Sam
Hi Jennifer! Hmmm I think you could probably try adding some crushed up lemon oreos with a white chocolate ganache. I haven’t tried it so I can’t say exactly how it would be done. Let me know how it goes. 🙂
Tricia Biglow
I love this cake and have made it in both 8 inch and 9 inch pans, but would like each layer to be 2inches rather than the 1-1/4 inches they were. If I increase the recipe by a l/3rd, do you think that would do it?
Sam
Hi Tricia! I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much! I would probably increase it by 50% just to make sure you have enough batter and to keep the math as easy as possible. Make sure your pans will hold all of the batter and not overflow. Of course your bake time will be increased. Let me know how it goes. 🙂
Andrea
Fantastic recipe, my first time making a cake with the reverse method. Loved it (I made it for my birthday yesterday) can highly recommend it.
Mandy
I made it and it was delicious 😊
Kristie Hayes
Can this be made in three 9 inch round cake pans? We could not find the 8 inch pans nearby. We have made the recommended frosting yesterday and ready to do the cake today. Thought I’d double check before proceeding. Thank you!
Sam
Hi Kristie! It can be made in 9 inch pans your bake time will be slightly reduced. 🙂
Pam Mangan
Hello, why 3 cake pans; could I use 2 and cut each horizontally? Or is there a reason for a thicker layer?
Thanks so much! Pam
Sam
Hi Pam! If your cake pans will hold all of the batter you can certainly bake it in 2 pans. The bake time will certainly be longer. This does make a lot of batter though. If you don’t have 3 pans I would just let the batter rest while the other 2 cakes bake. 🙂
aimee
Great flavor and moist texture. I tried to use Bundt pan and it stuck terribly.
Christian
Great recipe! Wonderful with the recommended icing as well. One small tip – toss the blueberries in some of the flour mixture before folding in. It helps prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
Angela Valdez
can I use 9×13?
Sam
Hi Angela! This will fit in a 9 x 13, but the berries are likely to sink. A few may stay suspended. I know others have done it in a 9 x 13 with success, but I don’t know what the bake time would be. 🙂
Angela
Thank you!
Kelsey Hill Hill
Have you used Raspberries in this recipe?
Sam
Hi Kelsey! I have not tried it personally, but I know others have replaced the blueberries with raspberries with success 🙂
NA
Can I omit the blueberries completely and bake it plain?
Sam
That should work fine. The cake will take less time to bake. 🙂
Kelsie
Could you make this into cupcakes and how much of the batter would you need to make 12??
I’d love to take this into work but it’s just be easier as cupcakes
Sam
Hi Kelsie! This can work as cupcakes. Bake time would likely be close to 17 minutes. I think half the recipe will give you about 12. 🙂
Soma
Hi can I use frozen strawberries instead of blueberries?
Sam
Hi Soma! Strawberries can hold more moisture than blueberries, so without having tried it I can’t say for sure how it would turn out.