I decided to take some principles that I learned from Christina Tosi’s Milkbar class and applied it to this delicious Lemon Blueberry Cake. I wanted to make a fruit based cake for my grandmother’s birthday. Growing up she always had raspberries and blueberries in her garden and we would pick them all summer long. Last year I made a delicious vanilla bean raspberry cake. So this year I wanted to make something with blueberry. I decided to add some lemon to this blueberry cake. I felt that it needed some extra flavor to distinguish it from the classoc blueberry muffin taste.
Overall I think the blueberries balance out the lemon cake and the vanilla frosting add some lightness. I opted for the naked cake look and added some candied lemons for some extra pizzazz. I don’t think I realized that the candied lemons took so long to cook.
Lemon Blueberry Cake
Ingredients
- Cake:
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 TBSP vanilla extract
- 3 cups flour
- 1 TBSP baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 TBSP lemon zest
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1 ½ cups blueberries
- 1 TBSP flour
- 1 cup blueberries
- Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 TBSP milk
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F . Spray a quarter sheet pan with baking spray, line it with parchment, and spray the top of the parchment and up the sides of your pan
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder,and salt together. Set aside.
- In a standing mixer, beat the butter until creamy, about 1 min, then add in both sugars and cream for an additional 3 minutes. Gradually add in the eggs and vanilla. Beat for 2 more mins. Add in the lemon juice, lemon zest and buttermilk.
- Gradually add in the dry ingredients from the large bowl into the stand mixer, beat until incorporated but not more than that.
- Toss the blueberries with 1 Tablespoon of flour and gently fold into the batter.
- Bake for about 20 mins or until a toothpick comes out smooth. Set aside to cool.
- Frosting
- In a stand mixer beat the butter until creamy. Gradually add in the sugar, salt, milk, vanilla extract. Beat for about 3 mins.
- Assembling
- Place a piece of parchment or a baking mat on the counter. Loosen the cooled cake from the sides of the sheet pan and flip it upside down on the countertop. Peel off the parchment stuck to the cake and discard it.
- Use your cake ring to stamp out 2 circles from the cake, one from the upper right-hand corner and one from the lower left-hand corner (or lower right-hand and upper left-hand corners), which will form the top and middle layer of the cake. Use the ring to stamp out two half-circles from the remaining sponge, which will come together to make the bottom layer of the cake. Make sure to plan out your circles to make sure you know exactly where to stamp before completing this step — you can mark them lightly on your sponge using your cake ring.
- Clean the cake ring and place it on the 8-inch cardboard round, or any other cake board, platter, or parchment-lined pan. Use 1 strip of 5-6" tall acetate to line the inside of the cake ring.
- Place the two half circles of cake together inside the ring, spongey side up, and fill the gap between them with additional pieces of cake scrap.
- Spread one fifth of the frosting in an even layer over the cake using the back of a small spoon that fits into the acetate collar, or a spoon you've bent into a ladle-like shape. Use figure-8 motions and try to not pick up your spoon as you work.
- Spread some of the Blueberries on top of the frosting
- Then add another fifth of the frosting on top of the blueberry layer.
- Next place your middle cake layer on top of the frosting, passing it through the acetate collar at an angle to help it nestle into place.
- Repeat the same process with the frosting and blueberries and cake. The following order from Bottom to Top should be followed: Cake, Frosting, Blueberries, Frosting, Cake, Frosting, Blueberries, Frosting, Cake, Frosting.
- Decorate the top with blueberries or candied lemons.
- Transfer the cake to the freezer and freeze for a minimum of 3 hours (or overnight) to set the cake and filling. The cake will keep in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.
- When Ready to serve, gently peel off the acetate and transfer the cake to a platter or cake stand, or whatever you want to serve it on. Let it defrost for 2-3 hours. Wrapped well in plastic, the cake can be refrigerated for up to 5 days.
