This blueberry cake gets its natural violet color from freeze dried blueberries. This cake is sure to wow even your most jaded guest
Once upon a time, I made these blueberry-blackberry cupcakes. Three years later, these cupcakes remain a popular post on my blog that continues to bring in comments, likes, and emails.
It’s the first post I wrote where I felt that people (besides my mom, Alex’s mom, and my best friends) were looking at my work.
Asides from my rainbow cake, those blueberry cupcakes have generated the most interaction between me and you.
I received many emails regarding those cupcakes. My favorite came from a mother that sent me photos of the hundred or so blueberry cupcakes she made for her daughter’s wedding.
It’s moments like that, that keep me sharing recipes.
Blueberry Cake
With berry season upon us, I can’t help but take advantage of all fresh berries available. I redid those popular blueberry cakes into a layered cake.
I used the same blueberry cream cheese frosting that is oh so addicting. If I didn’t use all the frosting on the cake, I would totally smear this stuff all over my morning bagel.
Freeze Dried Blueberries:
The secret to this cake is the use of freeze dried blueberries. It provides the frosting with that natural blue-violet hue that is hard to replicate with imitation food coloring.
I used a combination of fresh blueberries and freeze dried blueberries to create the very flavorful blueberry cake.
I love, love, love this cake. I can’t find the words to explain how delicious it tastes. After photographing the cake, I had to wrap up 2/3’s of it to give away.
If left alone with this blueberry cake, who knows how much of it I’ll eat in one sitting. It’s much safer for Alex and me to have only a small amount around.
Less cake means less exercise and cardio- which makes me a whole lot happier.
Blueberry Cake with Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Blueberry Cake:
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1.2 oz package freeze dried blueberries, unsweetened, ground*
- 8 oz unsalted butter, room temp
- 1 ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspon finely grated lemon zest
- 4 large eggs, room temp
- 6 oz buttermilk
- 7 oz blueberries, pureed and strained
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste, or pure vanilla extract
Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 oz unsalted butter, room temp
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla paste, or pure vanilla extract
- 1.2 oz package freeze dried blueberries, unsweetened, ground*
- 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Blueberry Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line four 6-inch cake rounds with parchment paper. Lightly butter cake rounds and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and blueberry powder. Set aside.
- Cream together butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add lemon zest. Add eggs one at a time and mix until fully incorporated.
- In a measuring cup, combine buttermilk, blueberry puree, and vanilla paste.
- Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk mixture into creamed butter. Mix until just incorporated. Scrape down bowl as needed to ensure thorough mixing.
- Divide batter into prepared cake rounds. Level batter using a mini offset spatula or the back of spoon. Bake for 30-35 minutes until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.
Blueberry Frosting:
- Cream together butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Scrape down bowl as necessary to ensure mixture is smooth.
- Add vanilla paste, blueberry powder, powdered sugar and salt. Mix until throughly blended and smooth.
Notes
- Use a food processor to grind freeze dried blueberries into a fine powder.
- I used four 6-inch cake pans and sliced each cake into two layers. I didn’t use all the layers. You can also use this recipe to bake in four 8-inch cake pans.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
I made this cake for my daughter’s 5th birthday this past Sunday(yes, her birthday fell on Mother’s Day lol) and it is DELICIOUS!!! Even my picky husband likes it!! Thank you for posting the recipe!!
Happy belated birthday to your daughter! I hope she had a wonderful celebration. I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for giving it a try! :)
I made this cake last month and it was incredible. Perfect recipe! I’m so happy I stumbled across your blog. Can’t wait to try more recipes!
Thank you for trying out the recipe! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Happy baking! :)
The recipe says to use 4 cake pans in the picture there looks to be five layers. Should 5 pans be used or did you cut a layer in half? I am making this for a party of 20 people so I’m trying to figure out how much to increase the recipe.
Hi Allison, I baked the cake using four 6-inch cake pans and then sliced each cake into two layers. However, I didn’t end up using all the cake layers (as photographed). You can also bake this recipe using four 8-inch cake pans.
Thank you for this awesome recipe! Though the flavor was great it turned out quite dry. The only thing I could think that might have been wrong was the amount of blueberry puree. Is it 7oz before or after pureed??? I will be trying this again.
Just wanted to thank you for this recipe! I made it for my blueberry-mad son’s 4th birthday party today.. with gluten-free baking mix (Pamela’s) and it turned out GREAT! One dad said it was the yummiest cake he’d ever had.
Maryanne,
Thank you for the cupcake recipe referral. I made them for my Grandson’s birthday & they were spectacular. Not only did they look beautiful, they were scrumptious. Everyone wanted to know how I made them. Thank you. I will definitely use this recipe again.
Katy
My Grandson has requested blueberry cupcakes for his 6th birthday party. There are going to be 60 attending. How many cupcakes does your recipe make? I’m trying to figure out if I should triple it????? Let me know what you think. It looks & sounds delicious & I’m sure will be a hit!!
The cupcake version of this blueberry cake can be found here: https://www.thelittleepicurean.com/blueberry-blackberry-cupcake-with/
The cupcake recipe makes 1 dozen. For 60 guests, I suggest making at least 6 dozen cupcakes.
Can this be adapted for a sheet cake? Not nearly as lovely but I have to feed 30 people.
Sorry, I haven’t tried using this recipe for a sheet cake. I’m not sure how it will turn out.
I made the cake and used an alternate frosting recipe. I followed the recipe exactly and I am an experienced baker, but I was disappointed. The flavor of the cake was good, but I disliked the texture. It was dense and kind of gummy. I have had the same experience trying to adapt a cake recipe to incorporate powdered freeze-dried strawberries and I can never seem to get a cake with a nice texture.
I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve made this cake several times with consistent results. I have found that it makes a difference whether you use freshly ground freeze dried berries versus freeze dried berries that have been ground into a powder earlier. As the ground freeze dried berries sit out, it does absorb moisture and humidity- which could lead to the gummy texture.
Beautiful cake! I am planning on making this for my daughter’s birthday, can I make it a day before the party? How do you suggest storing it?
Yes, you can make it the day before. Keep it in the fridge overnight. Allow the cake to come to room temperature before serving. (A few notes about keeping cake in the fridge: make sure the fridge is free from any strong odors from other foods (leftovers, open containers, garlic, pickles, etc.). The frosting WILL pick up and absorb all those flavors. You could protect the cake by keeping in a cardboard cake box.)