Lemon and Blueberry Cake

If you’re looking for the easiest and best recipe for a lemon and blueberry cake, look no further as I have you covered.

As mentioned above, this cake is the easiest and best recipe for a lemon and blueberry cake. After a few tests on making this cake, I finally found one that works well. This recipe includes how to make the cake, the lemon simple syrup, blueberry jam and lemon buttercream. Although there are a few different stages to this cake, they can be done at the same time, so don’t worry if you want to make this. Don’t be put off, it’s pretty simple.

When it comes to starting this recipe, you can start with whichever stage you like, personally I do the longest process first and in this case, it’s the cake. Before I start, I do a bit of prep. I start by preheating my oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weighing up all my ingredients (this saves you a lot of time when your mixing the cake, plus it saves you from making mistakes and faffing about) and if needed, preparing your 6-inch cake tins by either buttering and flouring or lining them with greaseproof paper (whichever method works best for you. I didn’t do either method as the tins I was using are non-stick).

To make the cake, start by placing the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl of choice and beat together until well combined and lighter in colour and consistency. Once you’ve reached that stage, you’ll want to then add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Don’t worry if when you’re adding your eggs to the mixture it curdles, just add a small amount of your weighed out dry mix to fix the curdling. Once the eggs are all incorporated, sift in your dry ingredients and then mix over a low to medium speed just until the dry ingredients are incorporated. In a small bowl, place your blueberries (fresh or frozen, either works well here. I used frozen but feel free to fresh if you can get them) and add a small amount of plain flour and give it a brief mix, just to coat the blueberries, then add the blueberries into the cake batter and fold them in using a spatula just until they are well distributed. Once the cake batter is done, divide between your 2 prepared cake tins (for a more accurate measurement, use digital scales to get a more precise measurement or eyeball it, use whichever method works best for you). Once the cake batter is in each tin, you can then level them off as best you possibly can using a small offset or cranked palette knife or a spoon. Place into your preheated oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes.

While your cakes are baking in the oven, it’s the perfect opportunity to make the remaining parts for the cake. I start with the lemon simple syrup, which surprisingly is simple.

To start the lemon simple syrup, get yourself a small-medium saucepan and place the water and sugar then give a brief mix, then add in the lemon slices (I went with 4, which was perfect but feel free to adapt it to suit you). Place that saucepan on the hob over a low-medium heat until it reaches a boil, this is normally achieved in 7-9 minutes. Once it’s reached a boil, get yourself a bowl/jug and a sieve/strainer and pass the mixture through the sieve/strainer and allow the simple syrup to cool completely before using it. If you’re making this in advance, store it in the fridge.

Now that the simple syrup has been made, you can make the blueberry jam filling, which is as easy as the simple syrup. What’s not to love?

To make the blueberry jam, get yourself a small-medium saucepan and place in your blueberries, along with the sugar and give them a quick mix. Net add in the water and give a mix to quickly combine the ingredients and then place the saucepan on the hob over a low-medium heat until it comes to a simmer, mixing every now and again. You will notice as the mixture heats up, that it thickens in consistency, just remember while its hot, it’s more liquid (as it cools it thickens and the consistency will look less liquid like and more like jam). All the jam to cool completely before using it, otherwise it will melt the buttercream and ruin your cake.

Now your cakes are fully baked, you’ll want to remove them from the oven and allow them to cool in the tins until you can handle the tins, for me this was about 15-20 minutes (my kitchen is cooler, so this helps), then remove the cakes from the tins and transfer them to a cooling rack where you’ll leave them until they completely cool.

While your cakes are cooling, why not make your buttercream? The buttercream isn’t exactly hard to make nor does it take a lot of time. To start, place your butter into your bowl and beat it on its own for around 5-7 minutes, after that time you should notice a change in colour and consistency, it’ll be both lighter and fluffier. Give the bowl a good scraping down and add in all the icing sugar, seeing as I was only doing a small batch I added all the icing sugar in a single addition but for bigger batches I recommend doing it in 2 batches. Mix the icing sugar in on a low speed to start and work your way up to medium and then high over a couple of minutes, add in some lemon juice to flavour and loosen the mixture a little, feel free to use some lemon flavouring if you’d like, I found the lemon juice gave a great flavour. Beat together until it’s a smooth and spreadable, then set aside until needed later.

Now that you’ve got all the different parts done, you can start assembling your cake.

Start by getting your layers of cake and levelling off the slight domes they have, this is optional but I wanted to remove them. Onto the cake, you’ll want to generously brush over the lemon simple syrup that you made earlier on in the recipe, make sure that you are giving each layer of cake roughly the same amount (and try not to over simple syrup them). Once you’ve got the cakes coated in the simple syrup, you’ll want to apply your buttercream, you can do this a few different ways but I went with placing the buttercream into a piping bag, fitted with a plain 1cm piping nozzle and onto one of my cake layers, piped small amounts or blobs around the edge and a swirl of icing to fill the centre. Just before I sandwich the 2 cakes together, on top of the buttercream (right in the centre) I place a generous amount of the blueberry jam that was made earlier on, I then sandwich the 2 cakes together and finish the cake by spreading a good amount of buttercream on top of the cake and spread it out using my small cranked/offset palette knife and because I had a small amount of buttercream leftover, I piped 4 rosettes onto the cake and top each of them with a blueberry.

You can then leave the cake for a short while at room temperature so the buttercream firms up a bit or you can enjoy it straight away. This cake is perfect for this time of year, the end of summer and the start of autumn – so I hope you get to make this cake soon!

Ingredients –

Cake:

250g Butter.

250g Granulated sugar.

4 Eggs.

250g Plain flour.

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder.

1/2 tsp Salt.

Zest of 1 large lemon.

150g Blueberries (fresh or frozen).

Small amount of flour (for the blueberries).

Simple syrup:

150ml Water.

150ml Granulated sugar.

4 Slices of lemon.

Blueberry jam:

150g Blueberries (fresh or frozen).

50g Granulated sugar.

50ml Water.

Buttercream:

200g Butter.

400g Icing sugar.

A few teaspoons of lemon juice.

 

 

Method –

Cake:

Start by doing some prep work. Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weigh up your ingredients and prepare your cake tins if needed with some parchment or by buttering an flouring them.

To make the cake, place the butter and sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat together until well combined.

Once well combined, add in your eggs. One at a time and beat well in between each addition. If you notice the mixture curdling, add a small amount of your weighed out flour to prevent the curdling. Repeat until all your eggs have been fully incorporated.

Next add in the dry ingredients, so your flour, baking powder and salt but pass them through a sieve first, this is just to remove any lumps. Then mix the flour in on a low-medium speed just until the flour is incorporated, being careful not to over-mix at this stage (otherwise your cakes will turn out tough).

Into  small bowl add your blueberries and a small amount of flour, just enough to give them a good coating. By coating the blueberries in flour you will prevent them from falling to the bottom while baking.

Divide the batter between your 2 prepared cake tins (I did this by using digital scales but feel free to eyeball it) and then level them off as best you possibly can using a small offset/cranked palette knife or the back of a spoon will also work.

Place them into your preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes (or until risen and golden brown).

Simple syrup:

Get yourself a small-medium saucepan and place the water an sugar into it and give it a brief mix, then add in your lemon slices and place on the hob over a low-medium heat.

Keep your eye on the mix, it should reach a boil before you remove it from the heat. It will be noticeably thicker in consistency and very hot, so don’t touch or taste it.

Get a medium bowl/jug and a sieve/strainer and pass the simple syrup through it, collecting the liquid in the bowl/jug below. Set it aside and allow it to cool completely before using it.

Bluberry jam:

Get yourself another small-medium saucepan and place your blueberries and sugar into it and give it a quick mix, then add in the water and give it a quick mix to combine it a little.

Now transfer the saucepan over to the hob and place on a low-medium heat and allow to come to a simmer, stirring it every now and again. You will notice that the mixture thickens up as it gets hotter and the ingredients combine.

Once you can tell its thickened, remove from the heat and transfer to a jar. Although it looks quite runny at the moment, don’t worry, as it cools it will thicken and look more like jam.

Buttercream:

While your cakes are cooling, its best to make your buttercream. Into your mixing bowl, add your butter and beat it on its own for between 5 and 7 minutes. You’ll notice that in this time its become lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl.

Add in all the icing sugar and start beating it on a low speed to start, working your way up to a medium then onto a high speed to make sure its all fully combined.

Add in some lemon juice, a little at a time. This will help flavour and loosen the mixture, feel free to use lemon flavouring if you’d like too.

Beat that in, then scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl again. Then set aside until needed later on.

Assembly: 

Just before you get into assembling your cakes, you’ll want to level your cakes as best you can. To do this you can use a cake leveller (which is what I recommend) but if you don’d have one, don’t worry. You can also use a knife (but I dont trust myself with a sharp knife), use whichever method works best for you.

Check that you’ve got all your bits: the cakes, simple syrup, blueberry jam and buttercream.

Take your levelled cakes and give them a generous soaking with the lemon simple syrup. Make sure you give each layer of cake roughly the same amount of simple syrup and most importantly, don’t over do the simple syrup.

Next, you’ll want to place your buttercream onto one of your cake layers. I put my buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain piping tip, but feel free use what you have or what you like. I pipe small blobs around the edge of the cake, then a swirl of icing in the middle, don’t worry too much about the middle.

Into the middle of the buttercream, you’ll want to add a generous amount of then blueberry jam you made. Make sure its completely cool before using, otherwise it’ll be a big mess…  I add a few tablespoons of the blueberry jam and it move into the grooves of the buttercream and some seeps out the side (oops).

Sandwich the cakes together, using a little firm push.

You could leave the cake like this if you wanted, but I recommend using some of the left over buttercream and putting it on top the cake and spreading it out using a small cranked/offset palette knife and with the last bit, I pipe some rosettes on top of the buttercream and top each of them with a blueberry. Feel free to customise the cake to suit you, its really up to you how you decorate it.

I now recommend leaving the cake at room temperature for a while, so the buttercream firms up but if you can’t then don’t worry, have a slice straight away.

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.