Inspired by pound cake, this blueberry cake has a tender, rich and buttery crumb.
Related: We love this cinnamon streusel swirled coffee cake.
How to Make a Moist and Tender Blueberry Cake
This blueberry cake is versatile. We love it with a dollop of whipped cream and extra fresh blueberries. It’s also lovely left plain and I don’t see any reason you couldn’t slather cream cheese frosting over the top. Since the cake has such a moist and tender crumb, it keeps very well. You can make it ahead of time without any issues. We’ve shared the process of storing and freezing in the notes section of the recipe (below).
Let’s walk through the ingredients to see how they make this one of our favorite cake recipes on Inspired Taste.
Melted butter: Instead of creaming softened butter with sugar, we went for melted butter. Swapping the softened butter for melted means the flour is coated with fat. This keeps water from mixing with the flour. When water and flour mix, gluten forms. So by preventing this, the cake turns out to be a bit more moist and tender. You can read more about preventing gluten formation in our pie crust recipe.
Cinnamon, lemon zest, vanilla and almond extract: Nobody wants a flavorless cake. The batter for this blueberry cake has a bit of warmth from cinnamon and a little lift from lemon. The vanilla and almond extracts combine to make the cake taste like it stepped right out of a fancy bakery.
Three large eggs: Eggs play an important role in cakes. Most importantly, they add structure and moisture. Three large eggs give the blueberry cake a tight-knit, tender and moist texture.
Heavy cream: We wanted the texture of this blueberry cake to be more like the texture of pound cake. The added fat in heavy cream is one more step in making this cake flavorful, moist and tender.
When it comes to making the cake, it’s easy! You don’t need any extra equipment, just a couple bowls, whisk and spatula or spoon. We bake the cake in an 8-inch-by-8-inch baking pan, but a tall walled round 8-inch or 9-inch cake pan will also work.
For more blueberry recipes, take a look at our simple blueberry crumble recipe, these Easy Handheld Blueberry Pies, our Homemade Blueberry Pie (from scratch and with a lattice crust), these Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars, our Popular Blueberry Muffins and these Fresh Blueberry Mojitos!
Buttery Lemon Blueberry Cake
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This blueberry cake recipe was inspired by pound cake. Thanks to melted butter, eggs and heavy cream, the texture is tight-knit, moist and very tender. We make this in a square baking pan, but a tall (at least 2 inches) round 8-inch or 9-inch cake pan will also work.
To minimize all the blueberries sinking to the bottom of the cake (some will anyway), we add plain batter without any blueberries added to the bottom of the baking pan first. Then we combine the blueberries with the remaining batter and spread on top of the first blueberry-free layer.
You Will Need
8 tablespoons (115 grams or 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/3 cups (170 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons (240 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup (80 ml) heavy cream
2 cups (280 grams) fresh blueberries, about 1 pint blueberries
Directions
1Center a rack in the oven and heat to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-by 8-inch square pan. Place the pan on an insulated baking sheet or on two regular baking sheets stacked on top of the other (this helps even baking).
2In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.
3In a large bowl, rub the sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, vanilla and almond extract together until the sugar is moist and fragrant. (We use our fingers to rub aromatics into the sugar.) Whisk in the eggs until blended then whisk in the cream.
4Switch to a large rubber spatula. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, stirring gently until they disappear and the batter is smooth. Fold in the melted butter in 2 parts. The batter will be smooth and thick.
- Bake Cake
1Spread about 1/3 of the batter in the bottom of the prepared baking pan. Fold in all but a handful of the blueberries to the remaining batter left in the bowl.
2Layer the blueberry-batter mixture on top of the batter already in the baking pan. Smooth the top then scatter remaining blueberries over the batter.
3Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. When baked, transfer the cake, in the pan, to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the cake and place right side up on the rack. Cool completely before serving.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Make-ahead and Storing: Bake the cake as directed and cool completely. Wrap the unfrosted cake tightly with plastic wrap or place into a resealable plastic bag. Keep at room temperature up to 5 days. If you have added whipped cream to the cake, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
- Freezing the Cake: Bake the cake as directed and cool completely. Add to a baking sheet and freeze (uncovered) until hard, about 4 hours. When frozen, wrap tightly with plastic wrap then wrap again with foil. Freeze.
- Using Frozen Blueberries: You can use thawed and drained frozen blueberries for this recipe. To prevent the batter from turning greenish blue, try rinsing the thawed blueberries with water then patting dry.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values. We did not include additional whipped cream in the calculations. For reference, 2 tablespoons of whipped cream is about 50 calories.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
You May Also Like...
Nice and detailed recipe of blueberry cake. well done!
Thank you for share this recipe. I love your site. Can I make cupcakes using this recipe?
Hi Mara, We have not made cupcakes with this batter before, but it should work fine. The bake time will be shorter, though, so keep an eye on them as they bake.
I want to double the recipe and make a larger cake as this disappears quickly! If I double it, can I just put into a 9×13 sheet pan and bake for the same amount of time as in the original recipe?
Hi Toni, the bake time should be pretty similar. I’d just stay close by the oven and check on doneness every once in a while.
It was so easy and quick to make this delicious cake. We ate it with the whipped cream. My family love it. The blueberry did not sink at all. I mixed a table of flour mixture with blueberries.
I made this today and its a gorgeous looking cake and a big hit! Can you please share the recipe for the cream cheese frosting you have mentioned? I cant imagine it tasting any better but would love it try it!
Hi Nina, If you take a look at our carrot cake recipe, you will see our go-to cream cheese frosting.
To keep the blueberries from sinking, cut it half and make sure they are dry. That’s what I do. Hope that helps
Yes, I have seen a very popular chef toss the blueberries with a dusting of flour so they do not fall to the bottom. Give it a try!
Hi, can i use canned blueberries in syrup instead of fresh blueberries?
Hi there, we have not done this ourselves, but we recommend removing the blueberries from the syrup before adding to the cake.
Hi to you both! I recently followed your recipe for trout. It was freshly caught in the lake where we live and I stuffed it as you suggested. It was absolutely fabulous. Looking forward to trying the blueberry cake as we have taken to fattening up our friends and ourselves for afternoon tea in the garden while the sun shines. I’ll look forward to trying more of your recipes. Many thanks, Sylvia Kennedy (I live in Brittany, France)
I really like the combination of flavor so for this cake. Please help with some substitutions to make it less fat. I usually use bananas instead of the butter and how about the heavy cream could I use Greek yogurt. Thank you for any other suggestions. Eileen
Hi Eileen, We’re glad you love the flavor combinations. As for the substitutions, you may need to do some testing in your own kitchen since we have not tried them in ours. Greek yogurt should be a nice substitution for the cream and adding a banana for some of the butter should work well, too.