How to Make a Moist and Tender Blueberry Cake
This blueberry cake is versatile. We love it with a dollop of whipped cream and extra fresh blueberries. It’s also lovely left plain and I don’t see any reason you couldn’t slather cream cheese frosting over the top. Since the cake has such a moist and tender crumb, it keeps very well. You can make it ahead of time without any issues. We’ve shared the process of storing and freezing in the notes section of the recipe (below). Let’s walk through the ingredients to see how they make this one of our favorite cake recipes on Inspired Taste. Melted butter: Instead of creaming softened butter with sugar, we went for melted butter. Swapping the softened butter for melted means the flour is coated with fat. This keeps water from mixing with the flour. When water and flour mix, gluten forms. So by preventing this, the cake turns out to be a bit more moist and tender. You can read more about preventing gluten formation in our pie crust recipe. Cinnamon, lemon zest, vanilla and almond extract: Nobody wants a flavorless cake. The batter for this blueberry cake has a bit of warmth from cinnamon and a little lift from lemon. The vanilla and almond extracts combine to make the cake taste like it stepped right out of a fancy bakery. Three large eggs: Eggs play an important role in cakes. Most importantly, they add structure and moisture. Three large eggs give the blueberry cake a tight-knit, tender and moist texture. Heavy cream: We wanted the texture of this blueberry cake to be more like the texture of pound cake. The added fat in heavy cream is one more step in making this cake flavorful, moist and tender. When it comes to making the cake, it’s easy! You don’t need any extra equipment, just a couple bowls, whisk and spatula or spoon. We bake the cake in an 8-inch-by-8-inch baking pan, but a tall walled round 8-inch or 9-inch cake pan will also work. For more blueberry recipes, take a look at our simple blueberry crumble recipe, these Easy Handheld Blueberry Pies, our Homemade Blueberry Pie (from scratch and with a lattice crust), these Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars, our Popular Blueberry Muffins and these Fresh Blueberry Mojitos! To minimize all the blueberries sinking to the bottom of the cake (some will anyway), we add plain batter without any blueberries added to the bottom of the baking pan first. Then we combine the blueberries with the remaining batter and spread on top of the first blueberry-free layer. 1 1/3 cups (170 grams) all-purpose flour 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons (240 grams) granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons lemon zest 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon almond extract 3 large eggs, at room temperature 1/3 cup (80 ml) heavy cream 2 cups (280 grams) fresh blueberries, about 1 pint blueberries 2In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside. 3In a large bowl, rub the sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, vanilla and almond extract together until the sugar is moist and fragrant. (We use our fingers to rub aromatics into the sugar.) Whisk in the eggs until blended then whisk in the cream. 4Switch to a large rubber spatula. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, stirring gently until they disappear and the batter is smooth. Fold in the melted butter in 2 parts. The batter will be smooth and thick. 2Layer the blueberry-batter mixture on top of the batter already in the baking pan. Smooth the top then scatter remaining blueberries over the batter. 3Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. When baked, transfer the cake, in the pan, to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the cake and place right side up on the rack. Cool completely before serving.
