All-natural lemon blueberry cake. No cake mix. No artificial ingredients. Just the perfect blend of fresh blueberries and tangy citrus. I’m glad I took a picture yesterday, because today I have only one piece left, and it’s mine!
As spring creeps in to the Rocky Mountains, I find myself wanting to take advantage of all the good produce arriving in the stores. Blueberries were looking especially ripe and juicy, so I picked up a few containers, along with a lemon and made a mental note to try a lemon blueberry cake.
Lemon and blueberry make a great combination.
Blueberries are super-sweet on their own, but their flavor can be muted a little without some brightness brought by the acid in a ripe lemon. In this cake, I chose to make it easier on myself and leave the lemon only in the frosting, not the cake. Adding acid to a cake can create a number of problems with the leavening, so you have to be careful with it. An easy trick is to just add it to the frosting, and I was all about easy with this lemon blueberry cake.
No Cake Mix at Baking Naturally
The cake base is the same as my Best White Cake from Scratch recipe. I reworked that recipe to add just a touch of vegetable oil to the butter. Butter is great as a fat in cakes, adding tons of flavor. But because it has a large amount of water in it, it doesn’t quite coat the flour particles as well as oil does, and the cake can end up dry. Just a tablespoon of oil added helps to keep that moisture where it belongs.
I used mostly egg whites for this cake because I like the contrast between the very white cake and the bluish-purple of the blueberries. But you could use whole eggs (cutting it down by at least one in the recipe). I’d probably skip the oil, too, as egg yolks have a good amount of fat in them.
Watch your baking times. White cake is especially easy to overbake, resulting in a dry cake. I swear by the finger test, rather than the toothpick test, for cake doneness. It’s really easy to learn once you start. Just touch the center of your cake with your finger. Does it give, as if it’s still wet? Or does it spring back, like a sponge? Are the very edges just turning brown? Are they pulling away from the cake pan? Those are all signs that the cake is ready to take out of the oven.
How to Properly Test Your Cake for Doneness.
Check out this quick video to learn how best to check your cake for doneness:
And finally, the frosting. I have vanilla listed as “optional.” It just depends on what flavor you’re going for. If you like the Creamsicle-style flavor, use the vanilla. If you prefer a brighter, tangier lemon taste, leave it out. Either way, be judicious about how much lemon juice you add for consistency. You won’t need much, and the lemon zest gives it plenty of lemon flavor.
All-Natural Lemon Blueberry Cake (below 3,000 feet)
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups Cake Flour
- 1 3/4 cups Sugar
- 2 3/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 3/4 cup Butter softened
- 1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 4 lg Egg Whites
- 1 lg Egg Whole
- 1 cup Yogurt or whole milk not low-fat
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups Blueberries
- 1 tbsp Flour for dusting berries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare baking pans by greasing and flouring (2, 8" X 2" rounds; 2, 9" X 2" rounds; 1, 9" X 13" or 24 cupcakes)
- Whisk together the yogurt or milk, vanilla and almond extract and set aside.
- Clean the berries and remove any stems. In a medium bowl or plastic bag, dust the berries with the tablespoon of flour to keep them suspended better in the batter. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or mixing bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. Place in the mixer. Cut the butter into 1" chunks and add to the dry ingredients. Mix on low speed, adding the oil slowly until the oil and butter are incorporated and the mixture looks like wet sand.
- Add egg whites and blend one at a time – then the whole egg. Scrape down the bowl at least twice during this process.
- Add the yogurt or milk mixture in thirds, blend after each addition.
- Fold in blueberries gently.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes for the rounds and oblong, or 20 minutes for the cupcakes. Do not overbake, or the cake will dry out. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch of a finger. If using the toothpick test, you should see just a few moist, but defined crumbs on a toothpick inserted in the center, and the cake should be beginning to brown along the edges. If you see liquid batter, give the cake one more minute and test again.
- Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, invert to remove, and cool on a rack. Frost when completely cool.
All-Natural Lemon Blueberry Cake (3,000 to 6,000 ft)
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups PLUS 2 tbsp Cake Flour
- 1 3/4 cups LESS 2 tbsp Sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 3/4 cup Butter softened
- 1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 4 lg Egg Whites
- 1 lg Egg Whole
- 1 cup Yogurt or whole milk not low-fat
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups Blueberries
- 1 tbsp Flour for dusting berries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 365° F. Prepare baking pans by greasing and flouring (2, 8" X 2" rounds; 2, 9" X 2" rounds; 1, 9" X 13" or 24 cupcakes)
- Whisk together the yogurt or milk, vanilla and almond extract and set aside.
- Clean the berries and remove any stems. In a medium bowl or plastic bag, dust the berries with the tablespoon of flour to keep them suspended better in the batter. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or mixing bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. Place in the mixer. Cut the butter into 1″ chunks and add to the dry ingredients. Mix on low speed, adding the oil slowly until the oil and butter are incorporated and the mixture looks like wet sand.
- Add egg whites and blend one at a time – then the whole egg. Scrape down the bowl at least twice during this process.
- Add the yogurt or milk mixture in thirds, blend after each addition.
- Fold in blueberries gently.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes for the rounds and oblong, or 18 minutes for the cupcakes. Do not overbake, or the cake will dry out. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch of a finger. If using the toothpick test, you should see just a few moist, but defined crumbs on a toothpick inserted in the center, and the cake should be beginning to brown along the edges. If you see liquid batter, give the cake one more minute and test again.
- Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, invert to remove, and cool on a rack. Frost when completely cool.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 8 oz Cream Cheese room temperature
- 1/4 cup Butter room temperature
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Vanilla optional
- Zest of one lemon
- Juice from one lemon
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar
Instructions
- Beat cream cheese and butter until well blended. Add lemon zest, salt and vanilla (if using).
- Beat in powdered sugar. I use a tea towel over my mixer to keep the sugar dust down!
- Once the sugar is blended, check the spreading consistency. If you need to thin it, add a teaspoon of the lemon juice and blend again. Repeat to desired consistency.
