This Blueberry Layer Cake is made up of the lightest, fluffiest white cake with wild blueberry jam filling and a stunning blueberry ombré buttercream finish. This recipe, plus so much more, is from America's Test Kitchen's latest book, The Perfect Cake.
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The cake itself might just be the most fluffiest piece of heaven to ever enter your mouth. If you need a light and soft white cake, look no further.
By using the reverse-creaming method, this cloud-like cake is ever so heavenly!
I recommend going heavy on the blueberry jam (⅔ cup per layer, as instructed). Paired with an ombré of blueberry jam spiked cream cheese frosting, the flavors end up balancing each other out perfectly.
Ingredients
- Whole milk
- Egg whites
- Cake flour - cake flour has a lower protein percentage than all-purpose and will yield a softer cake
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Baking powder
- Blueberry jam - store-bought is fine
- Confectioners' sugar
- Cream cheese
- Vanilla extract
See recipe card for quantities
Tools and Equipment
Here are some of the baking tools and cake decorating utensils that will help you achieve this blueberry layer cake:
- Electric mixer
- Three, 8-inch cake pans
- Large rubber spatula
- Offset spatula
- Rotating cake stand
- General kitchen tools (measuring cups, spoons, etc).
Ombre Buttercream Frosting
Supporting articles:
The blueberry icing starts tinting buttercream various shades of purple using strained blueberry jam. From there, ice the cake using my ombre cake technique.
For the wave effect, place the tip of a small offset spatula near the very bottom of the cake. As you rotate the cake stand, gradually bring the tip of the spatula up the side of the cake using a gentle wave motion - similar to the stripe cake here. Stop once you reach the top.
To finish off the top of the cake, use the edge of an offset spatula to drag any excess frosting that was pushed over the top edge towards the center of the top of the cake.
Finally, hold the tip of the offset spatula on the top of the cake, near the outer edge. Spin the rotating cake stand while gently pulling the spatula toward the center of the cake to create a spiral.
Steps for Making Blueberry Layer Cake
Mix together the dry ingredients - include sugar
Add the butter - mix until sandy
Pour in half the milk - be sure to scrape down the bowl after mixing
Slowly stream in the eggs and milk - like really slow
Bake!
Mix the frosting
Stack and Fill the cake
Decorate!
Substitutions
Cake Flour - For every cup of cake flour, measure out 1 cup of all-purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons. Add back 2 tablespoons of either corn starch or arrowroot powder to get 1 cup of cake flour.
Other Fruit Spreads - This would no longer be a blueberry cake, but you may use the same white cake and frosting with other flavors of jam.
Blueberry Buttercream - this fluffy frosting is made with fresh or frozen blueberries to make a sauce that's added to blueberry buttercream.
Serving and Storage
Serve the cake at room temperature. If making in advance, keep the cake in the refrigerator until about 20 minutes before slicing.
Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
If you need a cake that can sit longer at room temperature, use this Blueberry Buttercream recipe instead of the cream cheese frosting.
Recipe FAQs
Choose a good quality aluminum cake pan with at least 2-inch tall sides.
You can bake this in two or three 9-inch cake pans. Do not fill more than ¾ of the way full. Bake times will vary. To bake as a 6-inch cake, try multiplying the ingredients each by .66
You don't have to use cake flour, but cake flour has a lower percentage of protein compared to all-purpose flour that makes the cake softer. See Substitutions for making your own cake flour alternative.
A big thank you to America's Test Kitchen for sending me a copy of their beautiful book!
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Recipe
Blueberry Layer Cake
Ingredients
White Cake
- 1 cup whole milk at room temperature
- 6 large egg whites
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoon unsalted butter diced and softened
Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 tablespoon unsalted butter softened
- 1 ½ cups confectioners' sugar
- 8 oz cream cheese diced and softened
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoon blueberry jam strained
Assembly
- 1 ⅓ cup blueberry jam
- 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp blueberry jam strained
- gel food coloring as needed
Instructions
White Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans.
- In a bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the milk, egg whites, and vanilla. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir on low speed to just until combined. Increase the speed to medium and add in the softened butter - a few pieces at a time. Continue to mix until the butter pieces are the size of small peas. Pour in half of the milk mixture and mix on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
- Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl. With the mixer on low, stream in the remaining milk mixture. Mix on medium-low no longer than about 30 seconds or until incorporated. If the batter looks a little lumpy, resist the urge to over-mix. Instead, stop the mixer and give it a few stirs by hand.
- Evenly distribute the batter between the prepared pans. Bakes for 22 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Place the cake pans on a wire rack and let cool for about 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from their pans and continue to cool completely on a wire rack before filling and frosting.
Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes
- Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl. With the mixer on medium, add the cream cheese, a couple pieced at a time, and mix until smooth.
- Add the vanilla and the strained jam. Mix until combined.
Assembly
- Place one layer of cake on a cake board or serving dish. Spread about half of the blueberry jam on top with an offset spatula, leaving a small margin around the edges.
- Top with the next layer of cake and repeat with the remaining jam.
- Place the last layer of cake on top. Crumb coat the cake with the frosting and set in the refrigerator to chill for about 15 minutes.
Melissa Hudson
For the cake..is it okay to make ahead and freeze? That is what I usually do and wondering if that's okay for this one..