Sunshine-sweet lemon blueberry layer cake dotted with juicy berries and topped with lush cream cheese frosting. One of the most popular cake recipes on this website!
This cake has become one of my favorite spring dessert recipes and Easter dessert recipes—and for good reason. Let’s dive headfirst into this sunshine-sweet springtime layer cake… no matter the time of year!
How to Make Lemon Blueberry Cake
- Fresh lemons: Use fresh lemon juice and lemon zest in the cake batter. None of that lemon extract stuff! How to choose lemons at the store? Make sure the lemons you choose are smooth-skinned and heavy for their size. That way you know they are extra juicy.
- Buttermilk: Known for providing exceptional moisture to baked goods, buttermilk leaves each bite tender and lush. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can use whole milk instead.
- Brown sugar & 4 eggs: I’ve found that lemon cakes can easily be dry and gritty, so add some moist-making ingredients like brown sugar, eggs, and buttermilk. Buttermilk, a little brown sugar, and 4 eggs assure the final product is as moist as it could possibly be without being wet.
- Fresh or frozen blueberries: Fresh or frozen blueberries are OK. If using frozen, do not thaw.
I love this lemon blueberry cake because the blueberries DO NOT sink to the bottom of the cake. Why not? The batter is thick. When you have a thin batter, heavy fruit or add-ins will sink to the bottom. I also recommend tossing the blueberries in a little flour too—this is extra insurance they don’t sink!
Need cupcakes instead? Use my recipe for lemon blueberry cupcakes. Or perhaps breakfast? Try my lemon blueberry muffins.
Video Tutorial
Cream Cheese Frosting
This cake is moist and soft, somewhere between a vanilla layer cake and pound cake. Silky cream cheese frosting is the perfect finishing touch—it literally tastes like spreadable cheesecake. The cream cheese frosting goes onto the cake so easily, so it’s a really simple cake to decorate. Doesn’t need to be neat—its haphazardness adds to its charm, don’t you think?
Decorate with blueberries, lemon zest, lemon slices, whatever you like!
More Lemon Recipes For You
- Lemon Bars
- Lemon Meringue Pie
- Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cake
- Lemon Blueberry Scones
- Homemade Lemon Cupcakes
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 23 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: serves 10-12
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Sunshine-sweet lemon layer cake dotted with juicy blueberries and topped with lush cream cheese frosting. You can use either fresh or frozen blueberries in this cake. If using frozen, no need to thaw.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 and 1/4 cups (250g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light brown sugar
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature*
- 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups (354g) sifted all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)*
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk*
- 2 Tablespoons lemon zest*
- 1/2 cup (120ml) lemon juice (3 medium lemons)*
- 1 and 1/2 cups (210g) blueberries, fresh or frozen (do not thaw)
- 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces (226g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature*
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 and 1/2 cups (420g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 – 2 Tablespoons (15-30ml) heavy cream*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease three 9-inch round cake pans or 8-inch round cake pans (8-inch pans produce thicker cakes), line with parchment paper rounds, then grease the parchment paper. Parchment paper helps the cakes seamlessly release from the pans. (If it’s helpful, see this parchment paper rounds for cakes video & post.)
- Make the cake: Using a handheld or stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on high until creamy—about 1 minute. Add granulated and brown sugars and beat on medium-high speed until creamed, about 2-3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until everything is completely combined, about 2 full minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Beat on low speed for 5 seconds, then beat in the milk, lemon zest, and lemon juice *just* until combined. Toss the blueberries with 1 Tablespoon of flour and gently fold into the batter. Batter is extremely thick. Do not over-mix. Over-mixing will lead to a tough, dense textured crumb.
- Spoon batter evenly into prepared cake pans. Bake for about 21-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (8 inch cakes take closer to 25 minutes.) Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pan before assembling and frosting.
- Make the frosting: Using a handheld or stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and butter together on medium speed until no lumps remain, about 3 full minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, 1 Tablespoon cream, vanilla extract, and salt with the mixer running on low. Turn mixer to high speed and beat for 3 minutes. Add 1 more Tablespoon of cream to thin out, if desired.
- Assemble and frost: First, using a large serrated knife, trim the tops off the cake layers to create a flat surface. Place 1 layer on your cake stand. Evenly cover the top with cream cheese frosting. Top with 2nd layer, more frosting, then the third layer. Top with frosting and spread around the sides. The recipe doesn’t make a ton of frosting, just enough for a light frost. Top with blueberries or lemon garnish if desired. Refrigerate for at least 45 minutes before cutting or else the cake may fall apart as you cut.
- Cover leftover cake tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Prepare cakes and frosting 1 day in advance. Keep cakes at room temperature, covered tightly. Refrigerate prepared frosting in an airtight container until ready to use. Bring frosting to room temperature before spreading as it will be quite stiff after refrigerating. (Add a splash of cream or milk to thin, if needed.) Frosted or unfrosted cakes may be frozen up to 2 months, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature if desired before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9-inch Round Cake Pans or 8-inch Round Cake Pans | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Cake Turntable, Cake Stand, or Large Serving Plate | Straight Icing Spatula | Offset Icing Spatula | Cake Carrier (for storage) | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester
- Sheet Cake: The batter makes a perfect sheet cake! Simply spread into a 12×17-inch half sheet/jelly roll pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until cooked through. It also fits nicely into a 9×13-inch cake pan. Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until cooked through.
- Bundt Cake: I haven’t tested this as a bundt cake but it will likely be a bit denser than the original layer version since it’s one tall layer. It will take significantly longer to bake. I also have a lemon poppy seed Bundt cake recipe. You can leave out the poppy seeds and add 1 and 1/2 cups blueberries. I also have a lemon berry yogurt cake recipe. You can use all blueberries.
- Cupcakes: Here are my lemon blueberry cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting.
- 6 Inch Cake: Use my lemon blueberry cupcakes batter and follow my 6-inch cake baking instructions. You can use regular lemons instead of meyer lemons (like the cupcakes call for) if needed.
- Eggs: Room temperature eggs are recommended because they mix easily and quickly into the cake batter, reducing the risk of over-mixing (and an overly dense cake!). Place eggs into a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes before using or set the eggs out when you set out your cream cheese/butter for the recipe.
- Flour: Be careful not to over-measure your flour. This will result in a heavy cake.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk helps produce a supremely moist cake. If you don’t have buttermilk, use whole milk instead. You can use lower fat or nondairy milks in a pinch, but the cake won’t taste nearly as rich and moist.
- Cream Cheese: Use brick-style cream cheese, not cream cheese spread.
- Cream: Heavy cream with 30% or more milk fat preferred in frosting for the creamiest texture. Milk works in a pinch!
Here’s my recipe for lemon cupcakes with blackberry cream cheese frosting—a reader favorite!
This is my favorite of all your cake recipes. I made this for Easter a year ago, and my in-laws are still talking about how moist and delicious it was.
I want to make this today but I only have 2 mine inch pans. How long should I bake them? Thanks for your help.
Hi Marcia, You can bake two layers and leave the batter for the third layer covered at room temperature to bake when the first two are finished.
This cake turned out great I loved it! Well worth the effort. Mine came out a little dense also, but I’m chalking that up to a leaning curve and 10 years of making only box cakes. No matter the reason, this cake was 100x better than any box cake, and I made it all by myself . I’m so proud of myself. It was an accomplishment. I love your website and all of the help you offer. I can’t wait to make something new next week after I run off all of these calories. Thanks again. Happy baking!
Hi! I love your recipes! I’m planning to make this for my fathers birthday and I was wondering how I can make the cake fluffier and lighter? He hates dense and dry cakes, so I want to make sure I am doing the best I can to stay away from that. Would adding sour cream or using cake flour instead work?
Hi Rachel, Be careful not to overmeasure your flour. This will result in a heavy cake. For a lighter crumb, you can use the same amount of sifted cake flour instead.
I’m making this right now! Mine is in the oven. I only had 3 eggs, so hopefully that doesn’t have too much of an impact. I also only have 2 9 inch round pans, so once cooled, I plan on cutting each one in half to have 4 layers. I only have tub of cream cheese (not the brick) so it’s going to have to do. If it isn’t stiff enough, I’ll compensate with extra butter and/or sugar. I have also been doing an insane amount of quarantine baking, so I’ve had to increase my home workouts to compensate lol. Luckily I had 2 bags of frozen blueberries to use for the cake and I think for decorating, I’m going to put blueberries on top and lemon slices on the sides. If I’m feeling really feisty, maybe I’ll try to candy some lemon peel for an additional garnish on top.
Love your recipes!!
Update:
Cake came out great with the 3 eggs instead of 4 and the frosting came out good using the tub of cream cheese instead of the brick. I did end up making candied lemon slices for the outside of the cake. I was worried about not having enough frosting, so I had an extra bag of frozen blueberries. I boiled them down with some sugar and lemon juice to make a blueberry filling and used that between each layer of my cake and used the cream cheese frosting for the outside of the cake…I sliced my 2 cake rounds in half to make a 4 layered cake. Super good!!
Thank you so much! My family and I loved this cake! Made for my mother-in-law’s birthday today and it was perfect! She even loved it so much ( which is rare). I honestly thought it wouldn’t turn out so well being I only had frozen blueberries but I was wrong!
I’m planning to make this for my daughter’s birthday. From past experience, cream cheese frosting doesn’t pipe very well. I was thinking of using the cream cheese frosting as a filling between the cake layers, and possibly the outside of the cake? And pipe with lemon butter cream? Would that work? Or should I use just vanilla buttercream for piping flowers. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Hi Jenn, you’re right that cream cheese frosting doesn’t hold a piped shape as nicely as buttercream. You can use cream cheese frosting as the filling in the cake and lemon buttercream or vanilla buttercream on the outside. However, if you chill cream cheese frosting in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes, it pipes much better.
Made this cake for my mother’s birthday and it came out wonderful 🙂 Followed everything as stated, but I decided to use Sally’s lemon cream cheese frosting recipe which is posted with her lemon layer cake. We love the lemon flavor. This cake won’t last long!!
Hi Sally,
Made this cake this past Easter and my whole fam loved it!
Now my 12-yo daughter has been bugging me to make it again!
Question: although very delicious, the cake was very dense and didn’t really rise, Is there a modification I can do to the recipe? Perhaps add baking soda?
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.
Anne
For a slightly lighter cake, feel free to reduce the baking powder to 2 and 1/2 teaspoons and add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. I do this with my lemon cake.
The best!!!
This cake was delicious, dense and super moist. I substituted milk for buttermilk and used raspberries instead of blueberries since I had neither on hand. It was more the consistency of pound cake but absolutely delicious. Loved it!
I’m making this cake for the second time tomorrow morning. It was so delicious. I can’t wait to have some!
This was delicious! I made it today as a Bundt cake and baked for 1 hour. I read her recipe that she linked for the Lemon Poppy Bundt Cake and copied the lemon simple syrup to drizzle over the cake. The cake turned out so moist! I cut the cream cheese frosting recipe in half since I was only frosting a Bundt. It was a perfect frosting recipe that really complemented the tartness of the lemon! Perfect crumb, perfect taste!
Sally,
I just finished making the cake for my wife’s birthday and it is beautiful! Picked the blueberries yesterday and used everything as per your great instructions. I can’t wait to serve it.
Mike
This cake was amazing! So moist and flavorful! Like other readers, we’ve used many of Sally’s delicious recipes, but this is the first time I’ve felt led to comment. Besides being possibly the best cake I’ve ever had, my husband posed a challenge. He is not a fan of the blueberries…has anyone made this with strawberries or raspberries instead?
Hi Sally,
Is there a way for me to alter the recipe if I am only making this cake for 3 people. I don’t need as big of a cake., or maybe a way for me to only use half of the batter and freeze the rest for another time? Thank you!
Hi Haley! I recommend using my lemon blueberry cupcakes recipe to make a 6 inch cake. (Directions to do so are in the 6 inch cake post!) Or you can try halving this recipe for a 9-inch square baking pan. Same oven temperature, but I’m unsure of the exact bake time.
Hi! I love this cake so so much and have made it many times. I wanted to know if I could use this same recipe for just a lemon cake. I don’t have blueberries but have a ton of lemons.
Hi Gianna, Yes you can simply leave the blueberries out. I have a separate post for my Lemon Layer Cake which was adapted from this recipe without the blueberries 🙂
Made this today as I had lots of blueberries.
Absolutely gorgeous cake. It was easy to make although I only made half of the frosting to go between the layers.
Will definitely make again.
I absolutely love lemon desserts and this is definitely a great recipe! Loved by the whole family, my 11 year old said it’s her new favorite cake (which is HUGE cause she prefers cookies and cream over anything else) and my 3 year old ate it up (which is also a big deal since he normally just eats frosting, not cake).
Very easy to make and even easier to eat haha! Wish I could post a picture, my 11 year old helped decorate, to help celebrate spring and Easter. We colored the frosting a light blue and mixed some vanilla and cocoa powder to splatter on to make it look like a robins egg!
Is there a variation to make this a “boozy” cake? What type of alcohol would you recommend me to use and about how much?
This cake is PERFECTION!! My boyfriend said it was the best cake I’ve ever made!! The cake is so moist and the cream cheese frosting compliments it perfectly!
can this be put in a 9×5 loaf pan, like you would use for banana bread?
Thanks!
Hi Raquel, If you would like to try making cakes in different size pans you will find my guide to Cake Pan Sizes and Conversions helpful!
this is the first ever cake I have made from scratch and it turned out amaaazzinggg it was soooo insanely good-lemon and blueberry is the best combo. everyone who tried it gave me such props and was very impressed, we ate it all, and because of the fruity flavor it was very refreshing. The recipe was easy to follow and I loved the outcome, thank you!
This is the send year I have made this cake, last Easter my family loved it, took it to my in laws they loved it. This year I made it I’m memory of my mothers birthday, but I did a bunt cake instead of the round pan. I baked it exactly 1 hour. It came out perfect. Thank you for the recipe. Its the perfect introduction into spring.
Hi Sally!
Just wondering if I could use ricotta cheese in this recipe… and substitute with what ingredient?
Thanks! 🙂
Hi Jazz, You could make a ricotta and cream cheese frosting, but using it in the cake would require further recipe testing.
I swear by a ton of Sally’s recipes although this is my first time leaving a review. THIS CAKE IS AMAZING. It definitely takes a few steps (looking at you, 3 cups of sifted flour with an ancient, rickety sifter) but it was completely worth it. Really moist and decadent, almost like a cake/lemon bar hybrid, which is perfectly balanced out by sweet blueberries and cream cheese icing.
Thanks for another banger sally!!
Hi Sally,
I am getting ready to bake this cake now and I will be making a sheet cake. It doesn’t specify in the directions, so I was just wondering if I need to grease and flour the pan? I can’t wait to try this cake tomorrow for Easter. Thank you!
Hi Erika! Yes, use a greased baking pan. I don’t normally flour my baking pans– I line them with parchment paper rounds instead. For a sheet cake, there’s no need since you usually serve out of the baking pan.
I first tried this recipe about 5 years ago, and it was amazing! It was my entry into baking from more than a box, and your detailed explanations and instructions have been invaluable in my journey to be a better baker. I’m making this for Easter since we’re self-isolating and can’t be with my family who has the traditional cast iron lamb cake mold, which is heartbreaking in several ways, but I’m so grateful for this cake and the newer memories it has for us too. Thanks, Sally!
Hi Sally I’m making this cake but I don’t have a nine inch pan can I use a 7 inch and if I can how many do I bake and how long should I bake it?
Hi Kayla, I have not ever baked this in a 7 inch pan so I’m unsure of the exact bake time needed. Only fill the pans 2/3 full and you will either have extra layers or you can use the leftover batter to make cupcakes.
As luck would have it I had all the ingredients on hand. This is an amazing cake for sure.
Even my partner (who is not the biggest fan of traditional frosted cakes gave it a ten.)
It is a simple recipe that requires some ‘do ahead’ busy work but comes together very
quickly and the results are just perfect. Thank you so much Sally. This will be a repeat cake for sure! (Partner went to bed and I stay up much later and that cake is just about 15 feet away – NO – he would notice in the AM and this ‘stay at home’ is causing enough baking and cooking! There is always tomorrow. And the buttermilk biscuits are next!
I made this recipe and it was delicious. I used a scale to measure all the ingredients and the cake was still not as light and airy as I had hoped…much more dense so perhaps I over mixed the batter. Is this accurate…mix flour for only 5 seconds?
n a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Beat on low speed for 5 seconds
Delicious and I will make again…I did add lemon zest to the frosting as well which added an extra kick.