Sour Cream Lemon Blueberry Cake
This cake. This sour cream lemon blueberry cake. It has so many things I adore: bright, tangy lemon flavor. Fresh, tart, sweet, juicy blueberries. Rich, buttery flavor. A moist, tender, light crumb.
But honestly. Mainly. This blueberry cake signifies something even more exciting. It signifies the end of a cold winter season and the start of a (*fingers crossed* COVID-19-less) warm spring. Because this is the first berry/spring dessert recipe on the blog since before the fall.
I mean YO. It’s the end of March. It’s just about time for all the berries and spring and summer fruits to rock up to the party.
I AM SO THRILLED.
Here’s why I love sour cream in a cake: it adds moisture and richness and fat and flavor to the cake, without thinning out or diluting the batter and making it too light and airy and spongy.
Here’s why I much prefer fresh blueberries to frozen in a cake: you don’t get any of that ugly bleeding, and you get all that fresh, juicy, succulent, bursting blueberry flavor.
And here’s why butter is the bomb in a cake: BUTTERY FLAVOR AND RICHNESS (okay yeah, this one was pretty self-explanatory).
This sour cream lemon blueberry cake is so soft. And moist. And tender. And fluffy. And sweet. And tart. And tangy. And bright. And delicate. And sophisticated. And rich. And lemony. And buttery. And easy. And appealing. Etcetera.
This blueberry cake has also got a glossy, lemony glaze that gets drizzled over it for bonus presentation points and even more tangy flavor.
Aside from the hot, bursting blueberries in every bite of this sour cream cake. There’s also bold lemon flavor going down. I’m not talking a hint or an undertone or a subtle kick. I’m talking FULL ON TARTNESS.
There are two teaspoons of lemon extract in the sour cream cake batter. And a teaspoon of freshly zested lemon rind. And two tablespoons-full of fresh lemon juice.
And. The glaze is simply confectioners sugar diluted with lemon juice. So you know it’s got some bold lemon taste as well.
Also. This lemon cake utilizes one whole egg and two egg yolks. The extra egg yolks provide so much richness and flavor and moisture to the batter, without the hindrance of egg whites that could thin or fluff things up too much.
Soft and tender. Moist and fluffy. Sweet and tart. Lemony and buttery. Bursting with fresh blueberries. Topped with a tangy lemon glaze.
Sour cream lemon blueberry cake — you best believe imma March into April witchuuu.
Sour Cream Lemon Blueberry Cake
Yield: 9’’ cake/8 servings
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg + 2 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup packed flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 heaping cup fresh blueberries
Glaze:
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1-3 tablespoons lemon juice
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line the bottom and grease sides of a 9” round baking pan.
2. In an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for a few minutes till light and fluffy.
3. Add in the egg + egg yolks, extracts, and lemon zest and beat till light and fluffy again. Batter may look curdled — that's okay.
4. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, stir together the sour cream and lemon juice.
5. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and sour cream mixture to your machine running on low-medium speed, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix till just combined.
6. Spread batter into prepared pan. Bang pan against counter a couple times to remove air bubbles. Sprinkle batter with blueberries (if you mix them into the batter, they’ll all sink to the bottom).
7. Bake for 24-29 minutes, until cake springs back when touched and a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Don't over bake.
8. Let cake cool a bit before running a knife around its edges and flipping onto a cake rack. Peel off parchment paper and let cool completely before glazing.
9. Whisk together glaze ingredients until a thick yet pourable consistency forms. Drizzle over cooled cake.
