This lemon blueberry cake has a soft and tender crumb flecked with juicy blueberries and a lemon cream cheese frosting delivers the ultimate balance of sweet and tart!
Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake
Spring is certainly in the air with this vibrant lemon blueberry cake! A moist layered lemon cake studded with fresh juicy blueberries and a homemade lemon cream cheese frosting is the perfect summery dessert for Easter and all of your special occasions.
If you love lemon and blueberry as much as I do, you’re going to want to try my lemon blueberry cupcakes next.
Why I Love This Recipe
- Love the zesty lemon taste combined with sweet blueberry flavor and texture.
- Would make the perfect cake for Easter or really any celebration!
Ingredients Notes
Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements below.
- Unsalted butter, cream cheese, and eggs: Bring all of these out to room temperature about 40 minutes before you begin. Room temperature ingredients help with blending as well as even baking.
- Buttermilk: If you don’t have any, you can make your own buttermilk substitute with whatever milk you have on hand.
- Fresh lemons: The zest of fresh, clean, bright yellow lemons along with the fresh lemon juice are what give the cake its citrusy flavor.
How to Make Lemon Blueberry Cake
Whisk the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. In a separate large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Then, beat in the vanilla and eggs followed by the lemon juice, sour cream, and buttermilk.
Alternate adding 1/3 of dry ingredients with 1/3 of the wet ingredients into another bowl, mixing on low speed until just combined. Do not overmix. Gently fold in the flour-coated blueberries and pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pans.
Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 25 minutes. Let them cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the pan and placing them on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Recipe Tips
- To make this a single layer blueberry lemon cake, use a 9×13 pan and bake for 25-35 minutes.
- Use 6″ pans for a thicker cake and 8″ pans for a thinner cake.
- Make sure to grease and line your pans with parchment paper for easy removal.
- If you don’t have a cake slicer, use a serrated knife across the top to level it.
- Cool the cake completely before frosting. Otherwise, the frosting will melt!
- Use an offset spatula, if you have one, to frost the cake. If you prefer more frosting, this recipe can be doubled.
- Garnish the lemon blueberry layer cake with fresh lemon slices and fresh blueberries.
More blueberry and lemon recipes include lemon blueberry muffins, lemon blueberry Dutch baby and lemon blueberry zucchini bread!
More Lemon Recipes
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Lemon Blueberry Cake
Video
Ingredients
Lemon Blueberry Cake
- 260 grams all-purpose flour (or 2 cups) plus 1 Tablespoon for the blueberries
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter , softened
- 300 grams granulated sugar , or 1 1/2 cups
- 1 lemon , zested
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs , at room temp
- 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 ½ cups blueberries
Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter , softened
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 Tablespoon cream
- 1 lemon , zested
Instructions
Lemon Blueberry Cake
- Preheat and prepare: Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom and sides of (2) round pans with non-cooking spray, add parchment paper, and spray again. Use 6" pans for a thicker cake, 8" for a thinner cake.
- Whisk dry ingredients: In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together 260 grams flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- Beat butter, sugar and lemon zest: In a large mixing bowl, beat together 3/4 cup softened butter, 300 grams sugar, and the zest of one lemon until light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla and eggs: Add 2 teaspoons vanilla and 3 eggs. Beat well.
- Add lemon juice and sour cream to buttermilk: Add 3 Tablespoons lemon juice and 1/2 cup sour cream to 1/2 cup buttermilk. Stir.
- Alternate adding wet and dry ingredients: Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix on low speed. Add 1/3 wet ingredients. Alternate back and forth until all ingredients are added and it's just combined. Don't over mix.
- Fold in blueberries: Add remaining 1 Tablespoon flour to the blueberries and stir. Fold into the cake batter gently.
- Cook: Pour batter into prepared pans and bake at 350°F for 25 minutes. Check with a toothpick. The cake is done when the toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool: Leave cakes in pans for 5 minutes, then move cakes to cooling rack until completely cooled.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat butter and cream cheese: In a medium sized bowl, beat the 1/2 cup softened butter for 1 minute. Add the 8 ounces of cream cheese and beat until blended well.
- Add lemon juice, powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, lemon zest and whipping cream: Add 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1 pinch salt, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, the zest of 1 lemon, 1 Tablespoon whipping cream and 3 cups of powdered sugar. Beat until combined.
- Frost: Add frosting between the two layers, on the top and around the sides.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Recipe FAQs
The neat little trick is to toss the blueberries in flour before folding them into the cake batter. This helps to suspend them in the batter as it bakes, ensuring they’re evenly dispersed.
Absolutely! If you want it without the lemon flavor, you can use a classic cream cheese frosting instead.
You can use frozen blueberries and there’s no need to thaw them first. They will still need to be tossed in flour.
Keep leftover cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Because of the cream cheese frosting, it shouldn’t be kept out at room temperature for too long.
If you want to freeze the cake, you can. However, if you know ahead of time you want to freeze it, I’d say do that without the frosting. Wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in a freezer bag. Once you thaw it, you can add some fresh frosting overtop.
Categorized as: American, Cake + Cupcakes, Desserts, Easter, Reader Favorites
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
This looks so good and I’d like to try it gluten-free. Would this be successful made with a GF flour? Would it be the same amount as all-purpose flour? And any other adjustments?
Thank you for your help!
Hi Sherrie, the recipe hasn’t been tested with gluten free flour. I would try a cup 4 cup that you like. Looking forward to hearing how it goes!
Cake was dense so I didn’t end up putting the layers together or icing it. We’ll just use it more like a loaf or muffins. The flavor was nice.
Sorry to hear the texture wasn’t quite as light and fluffy as you would have liked. A dense texture can usually indicate over mixing or too much flour. If you have a baking scale, I would definitely recommend it for this cake.
Absolutely delish! I loved the lemon and blueberry pairing in this cake. Can’t wait to make it again with fresh picked blueberries this summer. – recipe tester
Yum! That would be amazing with fresh picked berries in the summer!