Lemon Blueberry Cake

My mom loves lemony desserts so for her birthday I made a Lemon Blueberry Cake which may just be one of my favorite desserts I’ve ever made. It’s super lemon-y so if that’s not your thing, stay away from this!

Cake Ingredients:

• 2 cups plus 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour, sifted


• 2 teaspoons baking powder


• 1 teaspoon  salt


• 3 cups fresh blueberries


• 1/2 cup  sour cream


• 1/2 cup whole milk


• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract


• 1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract


• 1 teaspoon lemon zest


• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened


• 1-1/2 cups white sugar


• 4 large eggs, at room temperature

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened


• 2 teaspoons lemon zest


• 5 cups icing sugar, sifted


• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice


• 1/4 cup whipping cream


• 1/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract


• a pinch of salt


• yellow food gel, optional

Lemon Curd Ingredients:

• 4 lemons (or 6 Meyer lemons)


• 2 whole eggs plus 4 egg yolks


• 1 cup sugar


• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into small even cubes

Instructions

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare your round cake pans with parchment paper, butter, and flower. I personally used only 2 layers, but I have seen versions of this cake done with three. Sift dry ingredients into medium bowl. Transfer 1 tablespoon flour mixture to larger bowl. Add fresh blueberries and toss to coat them with flour. Set remaining flour mixture and blueberries aside.


2. Stir sour cream, whole milk, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon zest in small bowl.


3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar, until pale yellow and very fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, until well combined.


4. Mix in flour mixture alternately with milk mixture, starting and ending with flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Gently fold in blueberries.


5. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Bake cakes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks for about 10 minutes, then invert onto racks until completely cool.

Frosting:

1. Cream butter and lemon zest in bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, about 3 minutes. Slowly add icing sugar, mixing on low speed for about 2 minutes.


2. Add remaining ingredients and beat on med-high for 3-4 minutes until very fluffy. If using color gel, add a drop or two (really, no more than that, because too much sunshine really can be a bad thing!), then beat until blended.

Lemon Curd:

1. Wash citrus really well (with a bristled brush under cold water) and zest the citrus until you have 2 teaspoons of zest.


2. Slice the citrus in half and extract as much of the juice as you can using a citrus reamer.  Repeat the juicing until you have 2/3 cup of juice.


3. Get a double boiler ready by filling a saucepan with 1″ of water, then placing a metal/glass bowl on top of the saucepan. You will need to ensure the bowl fits snugly into the top of the saucepan and that the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water (important, or your eggs will cook!).


4. Whisk the juice, whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar in the bowl until smooth. Add the butter cubes to the bowl, but don’t stir.


5. Heat the water in the saucepan over low heat until it simmers (not boils) and place the bowl atop the rim. Stirring gently, but constantly, using heatproof spatula or wooden spoon, cook until the curd has thickened and all of the butter has melted and is incorporated, about 10 minutes (this can vary). To test if the curd is thick enough, remove the spatula or spoon from the curd and check that it’s coated.


6. Strain the curd over a bowl using a fine-mesh sieve and then stir in the zest. Cover with plastic wrap pressed directly against the curd (to prevent a skin from forming) and chill for at least 3 hours (I like to chill it overnight). It also thickens up a bit more while chilling.

Assembly:

1. Transfer 1 cake layer to your board/plate/carrier.


2. Create a dam around the perimeter of the layer using frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a coupler, then spread lemon curd (apprx 1 cup) inside the dam--this prevents the curd from reaching out over edges.


3. If you have 3 layers, you will need to repeat the same steps above one more time.


4. Top with last cake layer, face-down (brown smooth side up). Spread thin layer (crumb coat) of over top and sides of cake, using offset palette knife and bench scraper for smooth finish. Place cake in refrigerator for about 30 mins to chill.


5. from refrigerator and using same method, frost cake with generous layer of frosting, smoothing again. For ruffled border, add frosting to your liking, garnishing with lemons and blueberries.

Due to the lemon curd filling, keep cake covered and refrigerated (for up to 2 days) but serve at room temperature.



A few notes:

You do NOT have to make your own lemon curd as this takes this cake to a whole new level- you certainly can buy it pre-made, but I like a challenge so I opted to make it .

Also, there are lots of tricks to getting a level cake layer, but what I have found to work most consistently for me personally is to lower the temperature by 50 degrees and bake for one-and-a-half times as long, so for instance with this cake, I baked it at 300 degrees for 45 minutes (keep in mind to still do the toothpick test as this bake time can vary based on the thickness of your levels).



We went to eat at TacoLu’s and enjoyed our dinner and cake, we even shared some with our server .



Try it soon if you love lemons- you will not be disappointed!