This moist and light Lemon Blueberry Cake is a favorite whether you're eating breakfast, brunch, or dessert! I love to make a few loafs for potlucks and holiday parties. It's so simple you don't even need a mixer!
I'm so excited to share this cake recipe as the first official post of CoinedCuisine.com! Welcome to all my Coined Crew - you'll learn a lot of new recipes and cooking techniques while keeping your grocery budget in check. It's time to experience the intersection of food and finance!
The Coined Breakdown
- Total Cost per serving: $0.41
- Total Cost (about 10 slices): $4.09
- Those Other Guys: $5.99 per serving
Ingredients
- Lemons - Trust me... fresh lemons are your friend for this recipe! We're going to get our money's worth by juicing the lemons as well as zesting the peels for an extra pop of citrus flavor.
- Blueberries - You can use fresh or frozen (unthawed) berries. Be sure to wash and dry the fresh ones thoroughly; and distribute them through the batter as evenly as possible.
- Homemade Lemon Glaze - We're going to make a quick homemade glaze using lemon juice, lemon zest, and confectioner's sugar. It's super easy, and adds a great texture and flavor to the top of our cake!
Variations and Substitutions
Lemon Blueberry Muffins: This batter can cook up in muffin tins instead of a loaf pan! Bake for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
Crumble Topping: Instead of the glaze, top the batter with a crumb topping before baking. This makes a true bakery-style loaf.
Berries: If you're using fresh, be sure to wash and dry the blueberries thoroughly. If you're using frozen, don't thaw before mixing in. Frozen berries tend to bleed a little more during baking, but it still tastes fine.
How to Make Lemon Blueberry Cake with a Lemony Glaze
Step 1: Start out by mixing together your milk and fresh lemon juice in a small container. It will curdle, but this is fine.
This is essentially making homemade buttermilk.
Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, cream together sugar, softened butter, and lemon zest until smooth and fragrant.
Step 3: Mix in 2 eggs and vanilla extract thoroughly.
Step 4: Add in your dry ingredients and milk, in alternating batches, a little at time until you have a light fluffy cake batter.
Step 5: Gently fold in blueberries tossed in flour (so they won't all sink to the bottom.)
Step 6: Add the thick batter to a greased loaf pan and bake at 350°F for about an hour.
Let cool completely. Finally, pour on your glaze (simply powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest mixed together) and enjoy!
Recipe Pro Tips
- Don't forget to add the lemon zest into the sugar and butter mixture. It's important to mix and crush the lemon zest into the sugar. This allows the oils from the lemon peel to infuse into the sugar, creating an even flavor throughout your dish.
- Grease the pan thoroughly. So the cake can pop out easily!
- Use foil if it's cooking too quickly. Add a loose tent of aluminum foil to the pan if you notice it's getting too brown in the oven. Because the batter is so thick, it takes awhile to fully bake.
- Let it cool completely before adding the glaze. Otherwise, your warm cake will absorb all of the glaze.
Recipe FAQs
Nope, you can definitely mix everything by hand!
However; if you are using a stand or hand mixer - make sure to mix on low when it's time to add the dry ingredients. And fold the blueberries in by hand.
It's a really thick batter - similar to pound cake - so it takes awhile to bake all the way through. No need to worry, just continue to check on it after the recommended baking time every 5 minutes or so.
Yes you can! Wrap slices or the entire loaf in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil, and store in a freezer-safe container. It will keep for up to 3 months.
Let the cake thaw overnight in the refrigerator before consuming.
Other Brunch Meal Ideas You'll Enjoy!
If you tried this Lemon Blueberry Cake Recipe, or any other recipe on my website, please leave a star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you! Thanks for visiting!
Lemon Blueberry Cake
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
- 2 Small Mixing Bowls
- Wooden Spoon or whisk
- Citrus Squeezer
- Microplane
- Loaf Pan
- Parchment Paper
- Aluminum Foil
- Toothpick or knife, to check for doneness
Ingredients
Lemon Blueberry Cake
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice about 2 lemons, juiced
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (280g) plus 1 tablespoon, see below
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 count eggs large
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (8g)
- ¾ cup blueberries (225g)
Lemon Glaze
- ½ cup powdered sugar (60g)
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice about ½ lemon, juiced
- ½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray and line with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, stir together the milk and lemon juice. Set the bowl aside while you work on the remaining parts of the recipe. The mixture will curdle - that's okay! This is creating homemade buttermilk.½ cup milk, ½ cup fresh lemon juice
- In an another small bowl, combine the flour (save the 1 tablespoon for later), baking powder, and salt. Set aside.2 cups all-purpose flour, ¼ teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt
- Cream the butter, sugar, and lemon zest in a large bowl using a wooden spoon or electric mixer. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.½ cup unsalted butter, 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
- Add in the vanilla and the eggs. Mix until combined.1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 count eggs
- Alternate pouring in the flour mixture and milk mixture, until both are fully combined into the batter.1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- Take the bowl that contained your dry ingredients, and add in the remaining cup of flour and blueberries. Toss until combined.Pro tip: this keeps ingredients from sinking to the bottom of whatever you are baking - I use this trick for any type of berry I'm adding to a baked good!¾ cup blueberries
- Gently fold blueberries into the batter. It will be thick.
- Pour the cake batter into your prepared loaf pan and bake on the bottom rack for 45 minutes.If your cake is getting really brown on top, tent the pan with some aluminum foil and bake for another 15 minutes.A knife or toothpick in the middle should come out clean.
- Let the cake cool for 10 - 15 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack.
For the Glaze:
- Mix the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest until the consistency is similar to honey. Add any additional liquid or powdered sugar as needed.½ cup powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, ½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
- Pour the glaze over the completely cooled cake, then let it set for 5 minutes. Slice and enjoy!
Maddy Jackson says
Absolutely delicious
Shani H. says
Thanks so much Maddy!
Henry says
The ingredient list says baking soda and the instructions say baking powder. Which one is it? I already made it and it’s baking .hoping I used the correct one
Shani W. says
Whoops! It's baking powder. Thank you for pointing that out - I just fixed the ingredient list!
levanilla says
Very good recipe of yummy lemon blueberry cake.
Shani W. says
Thank you so much for commenting!