This moist lemon blueberry cake is made of soft lemon cake layers, filled with lots of fresh blueberries and decorated with a fresh lemon cream cheese frosting. It makes the perfect spring and summer dessert.
The softest lemon cake with lots of fresh blueberries and a slightly tangy cream cheese frosting. Enjoy this easy cake recipe for any occasion.
How to make a smooth cream cheese frosting?
The main key of creating a smooth cream cheese frosting is to have all the ingredients at room temperature. The cream cheese should be soft to touch, remove it from the fridge several hours before baking if you life in a moderate climate or if you have the AC running. For warmer temperatures it is ok to soften the cream cheese only for 1 to 2 hours before using it.
The second important step of creating a smooth frosting is to cream the cream cheese in a big mixing bowl for about 4 minutes on medium speed until it is very soft before adding any other ingredients. If you skip this step you are on great risk of having small lumps of cream cheese speckled in your frosting. When the cream cheese is very soft add butter and cream until combined and fluffy. You cannot really over mix it at this point. The longer you mix the lighter and fluffier the frosting gets and the less it tastes like butter. Butter helps for a pipe-able cream cheese frosting that creates a smooth finish almost like buttercream. When the mixture is well mixed add powdered sugar in small amounts until the frosting has a nice and thickened texture. At this point add the raspberry sauce and mix it in. The frosting might split because of the water amount in the raspberry sauce, keep mixing and it should come together.
These are the cake pans and my KitchenAid hand mixer that I always use in my recipe videos
A 8 inch cake pan is the traditional choice to make most cake recipes. It creates tall cake layers without making a huge cake! This 6 speed KitchenAid hand mixer is the only one with flex edge beaters for a 2 times faster mixing and to protect your mixing bowl from scratches!
Lemon Blueberry Cake
Ingredients for 4 8-inch cake layers
Lemon cake:
1 1/4 cups (250 g) sugar
3 2/3 cups (440 g) cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) butter milk
3 tbsp (36 g) unsalted butter, very soft
3/4 cup (180 ml) vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon extract
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
2 cups fresh blueberries
Cream Cheese frosting:
1 cup (227 g) butter, soft
8 oz (225 g) cream cheese, softened
4 cups (800 g) powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp lemon extract
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup blueberries
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1:
Start off with a medium sized bowl. Sift in cake flour, baking soda and baking powder. In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar, butter, eggs, lemon and vanilla extract and oil. Mix for about 4 minutes. The mixture should be very fluffy and lighter in color. Add the flour mixture and mix the batter until everything is thoroughly incorporated. Mix in the butter milk and keep mixing until everything is just combined.
Step 2:
Divide the batter evenly among 4 8-inch cake pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each layer comes out clean. Cool the layers in the pans for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 3:
In the meantime make the cream cheese frosting. In a large mixing bowl add the softened cream cheese and mix it until smooth for about 2 minutes. Add butter, vanilla, lemon extract and zest. Mix it until everything comes together with a smooth consistency. Slowly add the sifted powdered sugar. Mix it on low until it is completely incorporated. Add the lemon juice and mix it in.
Step 4:
To decorate the cake place the bottom layer on a plate and spread a thin layer of frosting on top and smooth it out. Add the second cake layer and repeat the step for all remaining cake layers. Cover the cake with frosting on the top and its sides. Smooth it out and let it cool in the fridge for about 40 minutes or place it in the freezer for 8 to 10 minutes.
Step 5:
When the cake is cooled add a final layer of frosting and smooth it. Pipe some decorations on the top of the cake and decorate with fresh blueberries and lemon zest shortly before serving.
Enjoy!
**Pro Tips**
If you want to decorate the cake more than I did you will probably need more frosting. I would suggest to make 1.25 times the frosting ratio so 10 oz cream cheese, 1 1/4 cup butter and 5 cups powdered sugar
Make your own cake flour: The ratio is for every cup all-purpose flour take out 2 tbsp of flour and add 2 tbsp of cornstarch. So if you need 4 cups of cake flour, measure the all-purpose flour, take 8 tbsp of it back into the flour container and add the same amount of corn starch. Sift at least 5 times.
