Blueberry cake layered with blueberry cream cheese buttercream and homemade blueberry compote.
Our niece just turned 9 years old and we were so happy to make a birthday cake for her. We are in the midst of the Covid quarantine right now so sadly she won’t get to have a party with all her friends, so we wanted to do something special for her birthday. Her request….a blueberry cake with sprinkles, lollipops and ice-cream. We had numerous ideas of how we wanted to execute the design for this cake, but one thing was certain and that was we wanted to create the ultimate blueberry cake.
If you search the internet for “blueberry cake”, your search will come back with a lot of the same thing results, a vanilla cake with fresh blueberries. Another popular is lemon-blueberry cake, which we have an amazing recipe for. However, we know our niece and she was not asking for a lemon or vanilla cake sprinkled with blueberries, she wanted a full on blueberry cake and that is what we were going to give her.
To achieve the blueberry flavor for the cake layers we used fresh blueberries and freeze dried blueberries. We used a spice blender to grind the freeze dried blueberries into a powder like consistency. This not only gave the cake a great blueberry flavor, but the perfect color.
The filling for this cake is absolutely devine! We made a blueberry cream cheese buttercream by using blueberry cream cheese in place of plain cream cheese. We couldn’t just stop there since we wanted this to be the ultimate blueberry cake so we made a blueberry compote to layer with the cream cheese filling. The blueberry cream cheese filling and compote are sooooo good you’ll catch yourself eating them by the spoonful. When filling the cake apply a layer of cream cheese buttercream and then create a dam of buttercream around the edge of the cake before adding the compote. The dam will keep the compote from oozing out when you stack the cake. The compote will need to be cooled before you add it to the cake so we suggest you make it while the cakes bake. We chilled ours in the frig before we stacked the cake. Extra compote can be served with the cake when you slice it. We used some of the leftover compote to top our pancakes the next morning.
To decorate the cake like we did you will need ice-cream cones, sprinkles and lollipops. We broke off the back side of the cone then pressed them onto the cake. We found that the best way to break the cone in half is to use your fingers and carefully break off a little piece at a time. We used Wilton tip 1M to create the ice-cream swirls on top of the cake. The outside of our cake was frosted with a Swiss meringue buttercream. Since we were going for a specific look we chose not to frost the outside of the cake with the cream cheese buttercream since it’s not as stable and not the best for decorating.
We are so happy with how this cake turned out! It was absolutely delicious. We hope you love it as much as we do. If you make this cake we would love to know what you think. Comment below and feel free to tag us on Instagram. Happy baking!
Blueberry Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1.2 ounce package freeze dried blueberries ground
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2/3 cup egg whites
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups frozen blueberries
- 1 tbsp flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray three 6 inch pans with cooking spray and line bottom with parchment.
- Using a spice grinder or something similar, grind up the freeze dried blueberries until a powder like consistency.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, freeze dried blueberry powder, baking powder and salt until combined.
- Cut butter into one inch cubes. With the mixer on low speed add the cubes of butter one at a time. Mix until combined and no large chunks remain.
- Add the egg whites and continue to mix on low until incorporated.
- With the mixer still on low speed slowly pour in the buttermilk.
- Add the vegetable oil and vanilla and mix until fully combined.
- Coat the blueberries in the 2 tbsp of flour then fold the blueberries in the batter.
- Divide the batter evenly between the three prepared pans.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completly.
Blueberry Compote
Ingredients
- 2 cups blueberries fresh or frozen
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Add sugar, water, lemon juice and one cup of the blueberries to a small sauce pan and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Add the remaining blueberries and cook for another 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Transfer to a heat proof bowl to cool completely. Store any leftovers in the frig.
Blueberry Cream Cheese Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 22.5 ounces blueberry cream cheese (three 7.5-ounce containers)
- 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip the blueberry cream cheese on medium speed until creamy and smooth. This shouldn’t take long and there will still be chunks of blueberries. Transfer to another bowl and set aside.
- In the same stand mixer cream the butter on medium speed until it is light in color and smooth. This can take anywhere from 1-2 minutes depending on how soft your butter was.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Scrape down the bowl as needed. Mix until fully combined.
- Add the vanilla and mix at low speed until combined and then increase the speed to high and beat for 5 minutes.
- Add the whipped blueberry cream cheese and mix for about 30 seconds on medium speed.
Notes
Thanks for this recipe! It’s the only true blueberry cake I could find. It’s in the oven right now. My daughter wanted a frozen cake and a blueberry cake on the inside so this is what we’re using! I had 8 inch cake pans, so I decided to 1 and 1/2 the recipe. I used a food scale and put 636 grams in each pan. Baking at 350 for 25 minutes. Excited to see how it turns out! I’ll post a photo when it’s done!
Hi Ashlee! So glad we can help. We hope you love the recipe as much as we do and can’t wait to see the finished cake!
What is the icing on the outside?
We frosted the outside in a vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream dyed blue. The blueberry cream cheese buttercream can be used on the outside, but since it’s not as stable it wouldn’t give us the look we wanted.