Blueberry Lemon Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

One of my best friends adores blueberries and was about to turn 40, so I decided to find a new cake recipe. This one is a triple layer cake that uses fresh blueberries and a lemon to make. The frosting has cream cheese and more lemon. If you’ve tried my blueberry muffin recipe, you already know that blueberry lemon is a great combination, so I knew immediately the cake would also be delicious!

Don’t be put off by worries about a cake with three layers. All a third layer means is an extra few swipes of frosting atop another layer to stick them together. Three is just as easy as two!

First, gather 3 9″ round cake pans and spray them with Baker’s Secret (it’s like Pam spray, but with flour). I used to grease them with shortening and sprinkle flour over that, but the spray is so easy!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and set the pans aside. In a bowl, measure 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar. Zest a whole lemon into the sugar. To zest, take a zester (a small grater) and rub it over the skin of a washed lemon. Don’t forget to take the bar code sticker off if your lemon came from a grocery store (pretty much the only place I can get a fresh lemon in VA–it gets hot in the summer, but not lemon-growing hot!).

Mix that up a bit, and let it sit a few minutes for the flavors to settle. Then, mix in 2/3 cup softened butter (I keep butter in the freezer and set it out overnight to soften) and 3 eggs.

Next, add in 1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract. Then, in a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients of 2 3/4 cups cake flour (all-purpose will turn out fine if you don’t have cake flour, though it might be less delicate), 1 tsp. salt, and 3 1/2 tsp baking powder (3 tsp.= 1 T, so if it’s easier for your brain, 1 T and 1/2 tsp).

Combine the liquids in a liquid measuring cup: 1/2 cup milk and 1/4 cup lemon juice (I juiced half of the huge lemon I already zested). Alternate adding liquid and dry mixtures into the cake batter until all is combined.

Then, wash the blueberries and dust them with flour to keep them from sinking to the bottom.

Divide the batter equally among the 3 prepared pans. Smooth the batter in the pans so it bakes evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

You can let the cakes cool in the pans or on a wire rack. Usually, I let them cool in the pans for about 10 minutes and then switch them to wire racks, but I was having a Zoom call with my dad, so the cakes were left to cool in the pans. This turned out not to impede removing them at all!

Then, to make the frosting, take 2 8 ounce packages of cream cheese and 4 Tbs of softened butter (about a half stick) and put them in a bowl with 4 cups of powdered confectioner’s sugar, the juice from other half of the lemon (it really was a huge lemon!), and a tsp of vanilla extract. Using an electric mixer, mix it all up. I’m usually very much the mix things by hand sort of person, but I like how easy it is to get the frosting really smooth with a mixer.

Then, once the cake is cool, turn one layer onto the cake plate upside down. Cover the center with frosting. Add the next layer, again, upside down. Repeat the frosting swipe. Put the top layer on, this one right side up. Cover the sides of the cake with frosting, as well as the top.

When the cake is all frosted, you can decorate the top. I had some leftover blueberries, but no remaining frosting, so I decided to put Happy Birthday in blueberries. It turned out to take up a lot of cake space with blueberries, so I ended up with HB 40.

This recipe comes from flouronmyfingers.com

Cake

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 T. lemon zest (I zested one huge lemon)

2/3 cup butter, softened

3 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 3/4 cup cake flour

3 1/2 tsp. baking powder (aka 1 T and 1/2 tsp)

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 1/4 cups blueberries (washed)

Frosting

16 oz cream cheese, softened (2 8 oz bricks)

4 T. butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 T. lemon juice (I used more–the other half of the lemon)

4 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease 3 9″ round cake pans with cooking spray/flour or use the shortening and flour method to grease them.
3. Mix together the sugar and lemon zest. Then let this mixture sit for 3-5 minutes, so the lemon can really infuse into the sugar.
4. In a separate mixing bowl, mix together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a liquid measure, combine the milk and lemon juice. Set aside.
5. Cream the butter into sugar lemon zest mixture.
6. Add the eggs, one at a time, into the sugar mixture.
7. Then mix in the vanilla extract.
8. Alternate the dry ingredients with the milk and lemon juice mixture. Keep alternating, adding the milk and lemon juice and ending with the dry ingredients.
9. Toss the blueberries in a T. of cake flour, and then gently fold the flour-coated blueberries into the cake batter. Use a spatula, not a mixer.
10. Spread the batter evenly into 3 round greased cake pans.
11. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
12. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
13. To mix up the lemon cream cheese frosting quickly and easily, I use a mixer.
14. Mix together the softened cream cheese and butter.
15. Add vanilla extract and lemon juice, mixing in well.
16. Then add in the powdered sugar, mixing until smooth and creamy,
17. Now, you’re ready to frost and layer your cake. I usually like to frost between layers as I add them. Then frost all over the outside of the cake, including the sides.
18. Then you can add blueberries and lemon slices to the top, whatever your preference.