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Blueberry Poppy Seed Lemon Cake

lemon blueberry poppy seed cake on a cake stand with drinks and plates around it.
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This blueberry poppy seed lemon cake has three layers of blueberry poppy seed cake sandwiched with lemon curd and cream cheese frosting.

  • Author: Claire of The Simple, Sweet Life
  • Prep Time: 2 hours
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
  • Yield: 16 slices 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Units Scale

For the cake:

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 cup blueberries
  • 1 1/2 tsp poppy seed

For the lemon curd:

  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp lemon zest
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed

For the frosting:

  • 8 oz cream cheese, at room temp.
  • 8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp.
  • 2 lbs powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • Blue, yellow and green food gel coloring

Instructions

  1. For the lemon curd filling, whisk together the granulated sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and egg yolks and place over a pot of boiling water.
  2. Cook, whisking occasionally, until the mixture thickens to a pudding-like consistency.
  3. Remove from heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
  4. Whisk in the butter until smooth. Cover and allow the curd to cool completely in the refrigerator.
  5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the eggs and granulated sugar for the cake until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).
  6. In two separate bowls, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and poppy seeds) and the wet ingredients (vegetable oil, milk, sour cream and almond extract).
  7. Add half of the dry ingredients to the egg/sugar mixture, whisk until just combined.
  8. Add all of the wet ingredients, again whisk until just combined and lump-free.
  9. Finally, add the remaining dry ingredients and whisk until just combined.
  10. Fold in the blueberries.
  11. Divide the batter between three greased and parchment paper-lined 6" round cake pans.
  12. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly clean.
  13. In a stand mixer, cream the butter, cream cheese and almond extract until smooth.
  14. On low, slowly add the powdered sugar until all the sugar has been added.
  15. Turn the stand mixer up to high and beat until smooth.
  16. Spread a 1/2" of frosting over your first layer of cake.
  17. Using the side of an offset spatula, carve about half of the frosting out of the center and fill it with the cooled lemon curd.
  18. Fill the center with lemon curd.
  19. Repeat for the second layer of cake.
  20. Top with the final layer of cake and give the whole thing a thin crumb coat.
  21. Allow to chill in the refrigerator until the frosting crusts.
  22. Frost the cake with a 1/3" layer of frosting around the sides and on the top.
  23. Divide the remaining frosting into three bowls.
  24. Tint one bowl light yellow, one bowl dark blue and the final bowl a dark green.
  25. Using an offset spatula, dab the yellow frosting onto the cake and gently spread it until smooth.
  26. Pick up a little green frosting using the back of a small palette knife and drag it across the cake to create leaves.
  27. Spoon the dark blue frosting into a piping bag with a small round tip and pipe blueberries at the ends of the leaves.

Notes

  • Measure your batter: Making even layers of cake start with measuring your batter. For this recipe, that means about roughly 14oz of batter per pan.
  • Testing for doneness: Although tempting to wait until the toothpick comes out clean, doing so will likely lead to over-baking your cake. Instead, you want your toothpick to come out without any raw batter and with some cooked crumbs still clinging to it.
  • Chill your cake: Cool cake is easier to cut and handle, so chilling your cake for a short while before use will make this process easier.
  • The trick to bubble-free frosting: Although this frosting whips up relatively smooth, you can beat out any air bubbles that might have worked their way in by beating the frosting on low for about 5 minutes.
  • Crumb coating: Crumb coating a cake means spreading a thin amount of frosting over the sides and top of an otherwise unfrosted cake in order to lock in the crumbs so they don’t get into the outer layers of the frosting. I recommend doing that for this cake.
  • The trick for smooth frosting: You’ll need a rotating cake stand and a bench scraper. Place the small end of the bench scraper on the cake stand, long end against the frosting and turn the table. Once excess frosting is removed, heat the scraper in hot water, wipe and drag around the outside of the cake.
  • Storage: This cake will keep in the refrigerator, uncut, for 2-3 days.
  • Storing cut cake: Once your cake is cut, you’ll want to protect the exposed cake area. The easiest way to do this is with a piece of plastic wrap or two.

Lemon curd recipe adapted from Miette's
Cream cheese frosting adapted from Sugar Geek Show

Nutrition

Find it online: https://thesimple-sweetlife.com/blueberry-lemon-poppy-seed-cake/