This Blueberry Lemon Cake is loaded with 1 pound of blueberries, and every bite has sweet pops of juicy blueberry and fresh lemon flavor. It’s not too sweet or too tangy, but just right. This is my favorite tea or coffee blueberry cake, and it’s easy, easy, easy!
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Why You’ll Love This Easy Blueberry Cake
Blueberries become juicy and jammy when baked into desserts and sweet breads. We sure love our blueberry desserts, from Blueberry Crumble to Blueberry Pie, and this easy Blueberry Cake does not disappoint.
You will love having easy and dependable recipes like this, or our easy Strawberry Cake and simple Peach Cake – they come together quickly and are perfect for unplanned company and my evening sweet-tooth cravings. Bite into this while it’s still a little warm and you’ll have no words, only sound effects… mmm.
It is moist and fluffy and tastes like a decadent Blueberry Muffin from a fancy bakery. Seriously though, it’s really good. Watch the blueberry lemon cake video tutorial to see just how easy it is.
Lemon Blueberry Cake Video
This cake is fluffy, moist, and bursting with sweet blueberry flavor. I hope you love every bite of this lemon blueberry cake. This is one of those cakes you will make on repeat.
Blueberry Cake Recipe
This lemon blueberry cake is so quick and easy to make. It is our go-to for unexpected company and it always disappears fast! You can use fresh or frozen blueberries (see my note on substituting frozen blueberries below).
Tips for Success
- Measuring Ingredients – Click here for an easy video tutorial on how to measure dry and wet ingredients correctly.
- Room-Temperature Ingredients – Ensure your liquid ingredients and even your blueberries are at room temperature for an even bake time and smoother batter.
- Don’t overload blueberries – adding more than 16 oz of blueberries can weigh down the cake and prevent it from rising properly.
- Do Not Overmix – overmixing the batter can make the cake dense.
Can I Substitute Sour Cream?
Several of our readers have reported great results using whole milk yogurt and whole milk Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.
Can I Substitute Frozen Blueberries?
If using frozen blueberries, you can add them frozen, but as I learned from King Arthur Baking, it is recommended to rinse them to help prevent your batter from discoloring and turning an ugly purple-green tint. Here’s how:
- Rinse your frozen blueberries a couple of times in cold water before you use them.
- Drain well and gently pat dry with several layers of paper towels.
- Gently toss with a full 1 Tbsp of starch, and do not add lemon juice to blueberries.
How To Make Lemon Blueberry Cake
Prep: This cake is easiest to remove when using a springform pan. Lightly butter a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. This ensures an easy release after baking. Preheat the Oven to 375˚F.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or using an electric hand mixer, beat 2 eggs and 1 cup sugar with the whisk attachment on high speed for 5 minutes or until lightened in color and thick.
- Add 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup oil, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp salt, and whisk on low speed until well combined.
- Whisk together the 2 cups flour with 2 tsp baking powder then add to batter 1/3 at a time, whisking to incorporate between each addition (DO NOT OVERMIX, or the cake will be dense). Finally, use a lemon zester to add the lemon zest then squeeze in the fresh lemon juice.
How to Assemble and Bake
- Rinse blueberries and drain well. Transfer to a medium bowl add 1/2 Tbsp corn starch and 1 tsp lemon juice. Stir until well combined and no dry white cornstarch remains. If using frozen blueberries, see the substitution note above.
- Pour half of the batter into the prepared springform pan and even out the top with a spatula. Top with half of the blueberries. Spread with the remaining batter then sprinkle the rest of the blueberries evenly over the top, pushing them about halfway into the batter.
- Bake at 375˚F for 45 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (mine was perfect at 55 minutes). Let cake rest in the pan for 15-20 minutes then remove the springform ring and cool until room temperature or just warm.
How to Serve Blueberry Cake
This blueberry lemon cake is perfectly satisfying on its own without any kind of frosting. A generous dusting of powdered sugar is all you need. It does pair well with vanilla ice cream.
If you really want things to get excited, you can also make a Blueberry Sauce for a topping.
Can I turn this into Muffins?
Because so many of you have asked, we (finally!) have a recipe for blueberry muffins.
Also, if you’d like to bake this in a loaf pan, I highly recommend following our Blueberry Loaf Recipe.
Can I Bake this in a Bundt Pan?
Reader Kelly, writes: “I did this in a tube pan and upped all the ingredients by half. I was feeding 2 families :). I used the “Baking Happy” Pam nonstick spray with flour and it popped out beautifully. It baked for 55 mins, and was perfect! Since the pan is larger, upping the ingredients by half was a perfect fit for the pan- once baked, the cake right to the top. I sprinkled with powdered sugar. Delicious recipe…everyone loved it! Thanks so much!”
More Blueberry Desserts
There’s something about cooking with blueberries, which makes them so juicy and brings out their best flavor. If you haven’t tried making Blueberry Pierogi, you should put them on your list. Here are our favorite blueberry desserts:
- No-Bake Strawberry Blueberry Trifle
- Pavlova Recipe
- Fruit Tart
- Blueberry Ricotta Cake
- Blueberry Scones
- Berry Cake
Go ahead and print a few extra copies of the recipe since you will likely receive some requests for this blueberry cake.
Lemon Blueberry Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup sour cream, (8oz), preferably at room temperature for 1 hour
- 1/2 cup light olive oil , or vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, *
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 medium lemon, zest and juice, divided
- 1/2 Tbsp corn starch
- 16 oz fresh blueberries, **
- Powdered sugar to dust the top, optional
Instructions
Prep:
- Lightly butter a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment. Preheat Oven to 375˚F.
How to Make Lemon Blueberry Cake:
- Beat 2 eggs and 1 cup sugar with whisk attachment on high speed 5 min, or until light in color and thick.
- Add 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup oil, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp salt and whisk on low speed until well combined.
- Whisk together the 2 cups flour with 2 tsp baking powder then add to batter 1/3 at a time, whisking to incorporate with each addition (DO NOT OVERMIX). Finally, add 1 Tbsp lemon juice and 1/2 Tbsp zest.
- Rinse blueberries and drain well. In a medium bowl, toss blueberries with 1/2 Tbsp corn starch and 1 tsp lemon juice, stirring until well combined and no dry white cornstarch remains.
- Pour half of batter into prepared springform pan and spread evenly. Top with half of the blueberries. Spread with remaining batter then sprinkle the rest of the blueberries evenly over the top, pushing them slightly into the batter (about halfway). Bake at 375˚F for 45 to 55 min (mine was perfect at 55 min), or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cake rest in the pan 15-20 min then remove ring and cool until room temp or just warm. Serve dusted with powdered sugar.
Notes
or they weigh down the cake.
*Measure flour by spooning it into measuring cup then scraping off the top.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Mine came out very dence, 😔 What did I do wrong, I did substitie Greek yogurt instead of sour cream ..
Hi Tanya, I haven’t tried with Greek yogurt so I can’t say for sure. It might affect the recipe if it was a fat free yogurt. Also, was your baking powder fresh and did you make sure to measure the flour the way I recommended at the top and not use more than 16 oz of blueberries? I hope that helps to figure it out! It should be a soft blueberry muffin-like consistency.
I just redid it, I had to 🙈Wow super soft! Yum I over beaten the batter the 1st time around!
Oh awesome!! I’m so glad to hear that and thank you for reporting back 🙂
Prepared exact, with exception I used organic Coconut flour – which is gluten free & healthier than white flour.
My batter was so thick I had to add 1 cup of Almond milk.
What did I do incorrectly ??
Looks delish – it’s in the oven this minute.
Hi Lorraine, it may be your flour you used. I haven’t tested it with that kind of flour but if everything else was the same, that was likely the cause. I hope it bakes up well with the coconut flour!
Hi I don’t have a spring form pan, can I just use a oblong 9×13 pan?
Hi Annie, I think that would work fine, but you may need to bake for less time since the cake will be wider and shorter than if you were to bake in a 9 inch round pan. Also, it might be a little more difficult to spread the batter into layers since you are covering more surface area.
Can this be made with raspberries instead?
Hi Karen, I haven’t tried adding raspberries but a few of my readers have reported great results with raspberries. I hope you love the cake! 🙂
can you use splenda for this cake? I am a diabetic
Hi Karen, I haven’t experimented using any other kind of sweetener so I can’t really advise on that. I actually don’t have any experience with artificial sweeteners so you might do some research on how much to substitute. If you test it out, let me know what you you think!
Hi, I noticed I do not have the sour cream you used but I do have the Russian sour cream… do you know if that would work, or even make a difference?
Hi Irina, I haven’t tested that but I think it would work. If you try it out, let me know how you like it 🙂
Do you think it would turn out just as good with gluten free all purpose flour?
Hi Laura, Unfortunately I haven’t tested this as gluten free so I can’t really give any advice on that. There have been a couple other readers that asked about making it gluten free. I do think it’s worth an experiment. If you try it out, let me now how it goes! 🙂
Made this cake last night. I followed the recipe exactly but instead of just powdered sugar I made a glaze with powdered sugar, heavy cream, a splash of milk, lemon juice, and some vanilla extract and sprinkled the top with leftover zest. It was amazing.
Yum! That sounds amazing Valentina! Thanks for sharing your review 🙂
CanI use a Bundt pan?
Hi Sally, I haven’t tried it in a bundt pan, but a couple of my readers have with great results. One of my readers shared a picture of their bundt version on my Facebook page and said they used the recipe as is and baked for 47 minutes 🙂
Thank you. I will let you know, how it turns out. Making it for my Soul Line Dance class for tomorrow. It looks so scrumptious.
My pleasure Sally! Please do 🙂
The blueberry cake is out of this world. Finished it all by myself.
Hi Madina, that is quite a compliment! 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful review. I’m so happy you loved it!!
My springfoam Pan is broken….what could I use instead
Hi Tess, If you have a deep 9″ cake pan, that would work fine, or a 9×9 square baking pan. I would recommend using non-stick for easier release. As long as you’re using a baking pan with at least 2″ walls, it will be ok. It rises pretty well so you don’t want to overflow the pan.
Just made this and had it for dessert topped with Fussell’s cream. Turned out perfect!!
I’m so glad you liked it!! Thanks for sharing your great review 🙂
It turned out good, but I don’t taste lemon at all and I would add some more sugar next time, it’s not as sweet as I expected.
Hi Ana, did you use the powdered sugar on top? I thought it added just the right amount of sweetness at the end without being overly sweet, but you definitely can add more sugar to taste 🙂
I used another reviewers idea of going 1 1/2 times the recipe for a bundt cake. Turned our wonderful. My second cake I again used the bundt cake adaption, but used vanilla yogurt in place of sour cream, left the oil at 1/2 cup, added almond flavoring in place of vanilla and lemon. Layered with a small amount of batter, blueberries, and repeated, ending with batter only. Excellent!
Yum! That sounds great Debra! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review 🙂
Made this cake it was excellent. Was wondering do you think it would be good with raspberries
Hi Tammy, I haven’t tried it myself, but a couple of my readers reported good results with raspberries 🙂
I made this cake last night and it was awesome. Everyone loved it.
That’s great Yolanda! Thank you for sharing your review 😀
I am not a skilled baker but this cake turned out so good! I didn’t have sour cream and used plain yogurt instead. I will surely make it again. Thank you!
That’s a great alternative! Thank you for sharing Joanna 🙂
Just made this and it was really good! However, there was no lemon taste to it. Do you think I could use all the lemon zest and juice without compromising the consistency? I was a little on the dry side but was perfectly done in 50 minutes.
Hi Meagan, it’s normally has a fairly moist and tender crumb. I think it’s worth experimenting with more lemon juice and zest. I think the cake could handle more. If you try it, let me know how you like it! 🙂
Just put mine in the oven. Used coconut flour and not as much sugar. Hoping it turns out.
I hope you love it!!
I made this cake today and used coconut oil instead the olive oil just because i think coconut oil goes better with cakes .When i slowly added the 2 cups of flour i already noticed the batter being thick and heavy and not very creamy. I cooked it for 55 min and let it cool. Toothpick came out clean.Once i cut in it the cake, the batter was heavy and not fluffy. So i am not sure if the coconut oil made that much of a difference.The cake is yummy, i just hope next time the batter wont be so heavy and thick. I will cook this cake again next time with Rasberry’s and will use the olive oil to see if this changes anything for me.
Hi Jessica, without trying it with coconut oil myself, I really can’t say if that was the cause but if everything else was the same, it might have been the culprit. Did you use the same proportions of ingredients and measure liquid ingredients in a liquid measuring cup and dry in dry ingredients measuring cups? Did you measure your flour the way I suggested – spoon it into a measuring cup and scrape off the top for an exact measurement? I hope that helps!! Oh also, if you use more than 16 oz blueberries, it does weigh down the cake. I’ve tested this and even 2 oz more (I tried 18 oz instead of 16 oz) and it was notably too much for the cake.