When mum comes round with a bag of juicy, sweet blueberries she’s just picked from her very own blueberry bushes, you make this Blueberry Cake recipe. It’s simple and flavoursome and I love how some of the blueberries burst making this a fun, colourful cake.

This recipe was adapted from my Almond Cherry Crumb Cake and later, this Sour Cream Rhubarb Coffee Cake came along.

A slice of blueberry cake on a small white plate with blueberries around.

Baking with blueberries has never been simpler. This cake uses fresh blueberries that are both mixed through and piled on top of the cake and become all plump and soft in the oven.

Using Sour Cream in baking

The real magic in this cake, if not those gorgeous blueberries, is the sour cream. This, combined with some light brown sugar, is what keeps the cake part beautifully moist and delicate. I often use buttermilk in my cakes and cupcakes for the same reason. The sour cream also makes this batter quite thick, The brown sugar also gives the cake a lovely golden hue.

A blueberry cake on a white plate sitting on a wooden tray.

Quick and simple to make

Making the cake is a very easy process of beating together butter and sugar,  then eggs. There’s a little lemon zest for extra tang, then add the sour cream and dry ingredients, finally folding through the blueberries.

Start by making sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature and take the sour cream out of the fridge about 15 minutes before you start. It will spoil if it gets too warm but this will give it enough time to not be stone cold, which could make the butter firm up in the cake. Not what we’re going for here.

2 images showing butter and sugar being creamed together in a metal bowl. Collage of 2 photos showing how to mix together blueberry cake batter in a metal bowl. 2 photos: Blueberry cake batter in a metal bowl, then in a springform tin, ready for baking. 2 photos: adding blueberries to half baked blueberry cake, cake is finished baking.

I use light sour cream in this recipe as it’s all we have in our fridge (I have to save on calories somewhere right 🙂 ) but you could just as easily substitute it for full fat sour cream.

I’ve used 2 1/2 punnets of blueberries (about 315g). This is one punnet into the mix, one on top to bake, then the remainder sprinkled over when serving. You could cut this amount down to just 2 punnets and it would still be lovely but why not load it up and make it the blueberry blueberry cake you’ve every had?

Baking with blueberries

Another note on the blueberries; Baking with blueberries can often end in the blueberries staining the batter anything from purple to pink to blue in places. You can stop this to a certain degree but mixing the blueberries with a little flour (2-3 teaspoons) to coat them, before adding them to the batter.

If you use frozen berries, this step is a must but fresh blueberries don’t stain quite so badly so I don’t bother with this step as I quite like the little streaks of colour here and there.

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A blueberry cake slice with a piece cut out of it and a fork next to it.

Having Mum and Dad drop over their fresh blueberries has me wanting to plant some blueberry bushes. Imagine how many cakes I could make then.

Other recipes you might like

If you love baking with blueberries, you’ll love this Blueberry Cake Recipe. A simple blueberry tea cake just perfect for an afternoon tea.
4 from 4 ratings
If you love baking with blueberries, you’ll love this Blueberry Cake Recipe. A simple blueberry tea cake just perfect for an afternoon tea.

Ingredients

  • 130  1 cup / 4.6oz plain (AP) flour
  • 1/2 cup / 50g / 1.7oz almond meal (ground almonds)
  • 1 1/2  teaspoons  baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 113  1/2 cup / 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/3 cup caster (superfine) sugar
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • large eggs
  • 1/2 cup light sour cream
  • 2 teaspoons lemon zest
  • 2 1/2 punnets / 315g / 11oz fresh blueberries

For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / 160C fan forced. Grease and line an 8 inch spring form cake tin.
  • Sift together the flour, almond meal, baking powder and baking soda and set aside.
  • Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time beating well between each. Mix through the lemon zest. 
  • Fold in half of the flour mixture. Now fold through the sour cream, followed by the remaining flour mixture. Tip 1 punnet of blueberries in and gently mix through until just combined. Make sure not to over-mix.
  • Tip the batter into your prepared baking tin then spread to the edges and level out the top a little.
  • Bake for 20 minutes, before carefully piling the remaining blueberries in a single layer over the top of the cake.
  • Bake for a further 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing the outer ring, then allow to cool completely on the base of the tin.
  • Dust with icing sugar, then serve with some whipped cream or ice cream.

Notes

  1. For best results you should always weigh ingredients like flour and sugar. Kitchen scales like these  are relatively cheap but if you can’t weigh the ingredients, use the spoon and level method (don’t scoop).
  2. You can use frozen blueberries but don't take them out of the freezer until you are ready to add them to the cake batter, then bake the cake straight away. Mix the frozen blueberries with flour (2-3 teaspoons)  to stop the colour from runnning into the cake batter too much.
  3. I love this Le Creuset 20cm spring form tin
Have you tried this recipe?Don't forget to leave a rating and comment below and let me know how it was! I love hearing from you. Nutrition information is approximate and derived from an online calculator. The brands you use may cause variations.

A slice of Blueberry Cake on a white plate with some fresh blueberries.