When life gives you lemons make lemonade, or if you’re like me make a lemon blueberry buttermilk loaf cake. This lemon blueberry buttermilk cake is filled with blueberries, has a blueberry swirl, lemon simple syrup, and uses buttermilk for an extra tanginess.
I love baking with fresh fruit, I probably go through two boxes of strawberries of week. But during the winter, it’s so much harder to bake with fruit because less of them are in season. Most people associate lemons as a summer fruit, but they’re actually perfect in the winter. The zest is full of flavor and their bright lemon color brightens up any snowy DC winter. Blueberries are year-round so the two are a match made in heaven. Put together, they make the perfect lemon blueberry buttermilk pound cake.
What is a Pound Cake?
To be completely honest, when I first started writing this recipe I had no idea what made a pound cake a pound cake. After consulting with friends, I realized that no one knew what makes a cake qualify as a pound cake. So I did some deep digging for y’all and heres what I discovered.
- Pound cakes are called pound cakes because of they originally used 1 pound of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. Now they’re just made with high proportions of each.
- They are almost always baked in a bundt or loaf pan and have high and deep caramelized sides.
- They are heavier than most cakes and have a close crumb.
Now that we know the basics of what we’re baking, let’s get into the lemon blueberry buttermilk cake process.
Lemon Blueberry Cake Ingredients:
The majority of the ingredients for this cake are pantry staples, but here a few to take note of.
Butter: It has to be room temp in order to properly cream. Melted or chilled butter will drastically change the crumb.
Eggs: Eggs also have to be room temperature, room temperature eggs lower the risk of the cake batter curdling. If you forget to leave them out the night before try this- microwave a mug of water until steaming, dump the water out of the mug, and place the warm empty mug over of the eggs for five minutes.
Lemon Juice: Most recipes call for lemon extract, but I don’t want to make anyone buy special ingredients for this recipe. We make a quick simple syrup with lemon juice and sugar to up the lemon in this cake.
Buttermilk: Don’t have it. Make your own by thinning out sour cream with milk. Don’t try that silly lemon juice/milk method with this cake.
Making Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Cake:
This recipe follows a similar method to most cakes, but be sure to read all the way through it before you start baking to ensure success.
Start by creaming the butter, sugar, and lemon. Cream them for at least 4 minutes until very pale yellow and smooth. Go further than you think you need to, it will make your end cake fluffier. Then add in your eggs, adding one at a time and fully scraping down the bowl between additions. Cake batter curdles easily because you are creating an emulsion. By adding the eggs in one at a time you are easing the mixing process and lowering the chance of a curdled cake batter..
Then alternate adding the dry ingredients (pre-mixed) and the buttermilk. Mix until just combined as to not overdevelop the gluten. Start and end with the dry ingredients to create a smooth batter. It will be very very thick. Toss the blueberries in flour to ensure they don’t sink to the bottom and gently fold them into the batter.
Pour the batter into a 9×5 loaf pan that has been greased, floured, and lined with parchment. Then drop tablespoon sized drops of blueberry jam on top of the batter. Use the tip of the offset spatula to swirl the jam around. Be sure to not overswirl, you still want distinct lines of jam. Draw a deep line through the center of the batter with a pairing knife so the loaf cracks evenly down the center. Finally bake for 1 hour at 350 until only a moist crumb remains on a toothpick. If the top browns too quickly, place a baking sheet on the rack above it to shield the top from the oven light. Immediately soak with lemon simple syrup, let cool, and enjoy!
How to make Lemon Simple Syrup:
Knowing how to make simple syrup, is a game changer for cake bakers. Simple syrup is a 1:1 ratio of sugar and a liquid that is heated on the stove until the sugar dissolves. You do not want to take it to a caramel stage, rather just a clear syrup. For lemon simple syrup, the traditional water is replaced with lemon juice to add a lemon flavor.
How to make Easy Lemon Glaze:
Make a tart lemon glaze by combining 2 teaspoons lemon juice with 1/3 cup powdered sugar and slowly drizzling it on top of the cake once cooled.
More Blueberry Recipes:
if you made these cookies, don’t forget to leave a review and tag me on instagram with your finished product. i love seeing what you create in the kitchen!
Print
Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Cake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 75 minutes
- Total Time: 95 minutes
- Yield: 12 slices 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: British
Description
This lemon blueberry cake is filled with blueberries, has a blueberry swirl, lemon simple syrup, and uses buttermilk for an extra tanginess.
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
- 1.5 cups granulated sugar (300g)
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 3 large eggs (room temperature)
- 3 cups all purpose flour (360g)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
- 3/4 cups blueberries (tossed in flour)
- 1/4 cup blueberry jam
Lemon Simple Syrup
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Glaze
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
Instructions
Cake Batter:
- Preheat an oven to 350F and line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a large bowl with a hand mixer beat together butter, sugar, and lemon zest together until very pale yellow and smooth, roughly 5 minutes.
- Add in eggs one at a time and mix until combined.
- Alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk into the batter, starting and ending with the dry ingredients (dry-wet-dry-wet-dry). Fold in the blueberries that have been tossed in flour until evenly dispersed.
- Pour the batter into a 9×5 loaf pan and smooth down with an offset spatula. Add tablespoon sized globs of blueberry jams]. Swirl with a knife to create loops of jam.
- Draw a line down the center of the batter with a knife to give the cake a place to split and bake at 350º for 75 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Immediately brush with lemon juice and let cool for 15 minutes.
- Whisk the remaining lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl and spoon over the cake.
- Enjoy!
Lemon Simple Syrup
- While the cake bakes, heat the lemon juice and granulated sugar together on the stove in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Pour into a heat safe bowl.
- Once the cake has baked, spoon simple syrup on top of the cake.
Lemon Glaze:
1) Whisk powdered sugar and lemon juice together. Once the cake has cooled, drizzle it on top of the cake.
Notes
This cake is best kept at room temperature stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 390
- Sugar: 28.9g
- Sodium: 132mg
- Fat: 16.5g
- Saturated Fat: 9.9g
- Carbohydrates: 55.7g
- Fiber: 1.1g
- Protein: 5.4g
- Cholesterol: 87mg
Keywords: cake, lemon loaf, Pound cake, blueberries, lemon, buttermilk
Recipe inspiration:
http://www.erinjeannemcdowell.com/the-fearless-baker
https://www.averiecooks.com/best-lemon-loaf-better-starbucks-copycat/
Candice made the lemon blueberry pound cake. Yummy!
I’m so glad y’all liked it! Thanks