Ever find yourself with some blueberry jam and in need of ideas to use it? Well, this blueberry jam cake is for you! An easy yoghurt cake recipe flavoured with lemon, vanilla and blueberry jam, frosted with an easy blueberry buttercream and filled with more delicious fruity blueberry jam.
Ingredients for Lemon Blueberry Jam Cake
The base of this cake is a simple moist lemon vanilla yoghurt cake with added blueberry jam. You'll need the following ingredients:
- Butter - unsalted butter, softened at room temperature.
- Sugar - superfine granulated sugar or caster sugar will work best in this recipe.
- Eggs - at room temperature for best results.
- Yoghurt - I use plain yoghurt in this recipe, but you could also use Greek style yoghurt or substitute with buttermilk or soured cream.
- Lemon extract
- Vanilla extract
- Lemon zest
- Blueberry jam - use store bought or my quick and easy small batch lemon blueberry jam.
- Flour - all purpose or plain flour will work in this recipe.
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
Making Easy Zesty Jam Cake
This recipe is pretty straightforward. Begin by creaming the butter and sugar, adding the eggs one at a time and then the rest of the wet ingredients (yoghurt, extracts, jam and lemon zest). Finally add in the dry ingredients - the flour, leavening agents and salt - stirring through to ensure you have no patches of unmixed flour.
Once you have your batter, pour this into your baking trays, smooth with a spatula and bake in a preheated oven.
You can make this recipe in one large (10" or 12") cake tin or in two smaller ones. I made mine in two 7.5" silicone tins. You can opt for other sizes or shapes - round cakes, square cakes, even blueberry jam loaf cake! But take care, because the baking times will vary dependent on the pan used.
Easiest Ever Blueberry Buttercream
For this cake, there's no better frosting that my cheat's buttercream with blueberry jam. This recipe makes a gorgeous naturally purple buttercream that will taste delicious, plus it will crust up to hold the blueberry jam filling in place.
Ingredients
- Powdered icing sugar
- Unsalted butter - melted
- Milk - I like to use whole milk (full fat), but you can also use 2% (semi-skim).
- Vanilla extract
- Blueberry jam - again either store bought or homemade will work in this recipe just fine!
Making Blueberry Buttercream
When I say this is the easiest frosting, I mean it - simply add it all to a large mixing bowl and stir. You don't need to sift the powdered sugar (though you may want to if yours has any hard lumps). You don't need to beat or whisk. Just stir it all together with a large spatula.
The consistency of the frosting can be controlled by adjusting the milk and powdered sugar. If you find you'd like a looser/more liquid frosting, carefully add a bit more milk. If you want a stiffer frosting, add a bit more powdered sugar. Heat and humidity can impact the frosting, so being able to adjust will help you achieve the desired frosting for you. Just be sure to add small amounts at a time.
Assembling Blueberry Jam Layer Cake
To assemble this cake, you'll want your lemon blueberry cake layers, blueberry buttercream and blueberry jam filling.
Begin by levelling off your cake layers - this is not 100% necessary for the home baker, but definitely provides a neater finish when stacking cake layers.
Use the buttercream to frost the levelled top of the base layer, then pipe a ring around the edge. You can use a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off. Depending on the size of the cake, give yourself about an inch thick ring around the edge. This will help control the blueberry jam filling and keep this from leaking out onto the sides of your cake.
Once you've got your boundary, fill the inside with blueberry jam. Then top this with the second layer of cake. For the most even finish, I like to invert my top layer so that the part I have cut in levelling is actually sandwiched against the blueberry jam. This means the baked base of the cake is now on top. This is usually the smoothest and cleanest way to stack a cake.
Use the rest of the buttercream to frost the top and sides. If you find your frosting sliding or melting, allow to chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes - this will help firm up and crust the buttercream. You can then continue to smooth the cake however you would like.
Top with more blueberry jam and some lemon zest.
Alternative Frostings and Finishing Touches
If you're wanting to try something a bit different with this cake, you can also pair this with a cream cheese frosting. My easy cream cheese icing with spreadable buttercream compliments the blueberry jam deliciously!
Maybe you're hoping for more zest in this lemon blueberry cake. If you want to accentuate the lemon, you can add lemon extract to the frosting or extra lemon zest. If adding lemon flavouring, take care to go light on this! Lemon as an extract can be extremely strong, so you don't want to overdo it - take a sample to taste test as you go.
FAQs
Yes! I hope this recipe has helped to prove you can certainly make cake with blueberry jam! This post gives you guidance on how to make cake with blueberry jam and how to add jam to every single layer of this dessert.
This jam filled layer cake can keep well in the refrigerator for about 4 days. Once sliced, the refrigerator will cause the cake to stale more quickly.
Absolutely! Though I would recommend freezing this before assembly. If you are intending to make this cake in advance and freeze, you'll have best results by freezing the blueberry lemon cake layers once baked and before frosting. When nearer the time of serving, allow to defrost, make the icing and assemble.
You can freeze once assembled, but you may find the jam seep into the icing or run a bit when defrosting.
Looking for more cake inspiration? Try one of these:
- Pistachio Cardamom Cake
- Thrifty Pound Cake
- Lime Curd Cupcakes with Pisco
- Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes
Blueberry Jam Cake
Equipment
- 2 7.5 inch round cake pan
Ingredients
Ingredients for Lemon Blueberry Cake Layers
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 1½ cup granulated sugar or caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup plain yoghurt
- ¼ cup blueberry jam store bought or use my recipe for small batch homemade blueberry lemon jam
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest of one lemon
- 2½ cups all purpose flour or plain flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Ingredients for Blueberry Buttercream
- 4 cups powdered sugar or icing sugar
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoon blueberry jam store bought or homemade
- 3 tablespoon milk or more, added slowly until you reach a spreadable consistency
Ingredients for Assembly
- ¾ cup blueberry jam store bought or homemade
Instructions
Instructions for Cake Layers
- Begin by preheating your oven to 350°F (175C/155C Fan) and preparing your cake pans. If using traditional cake pans, grease and flour these. If using silicone, no preparation is needed.
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the sugar and softened butter. Cream together on a low setting until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
- Then add the yoghurt, blueberry jam, lemon zest and extracts. Beat lightly to combine in a smooth batter.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the liquid mixture and beat or stir until smooth and just combined.
- Pour evenly into prepared cake tins and smooth the tops.
- Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for about 45 minutes, checking until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Once done, remove from the oven. Allow to cool in the cake pans for about five minutes before carefully turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Instructions for Blueberry Buttercream
- When ready to assemble, make the easy blueberry buttercream by mixing together the powdered sugar, melted butter, vanilla and blueberry jam. Add a few tablespoons of milk and stir. Add more slowly as necessary until you reach your desired consistency. (see note)
Instructions for Assembly
- For best presentation, level your cake layers by trimming any domed tops off as evenly as possible to create flat tops to the layers.
- Using about ¼ of your frosting, spread a layer of blueberry buttercream over the top of your base cake layer. Then pipe a border around the outer edge of this about 1" thick.
- Add about ¼ cup of blueberry jam inside this icing border and spread out. This will be your blueberry jam cake filling.
- Invert your top layer so that the side you have trimmed and levelled is facing down. Sandwich this onto the blueberry jam. This means you will have a smoother top to frost with fewer crumbs.
- Use your remaining blueberry buttercream to frost the top and sides of the cake and top off with remaining blueberry jam.
Monika
What would you recommend if someone wanted to make this cake, but didn't have two 7.5-inch cake pans. I have three 6-inch cake pans and two 8-inch cake pans...
Liz Mincin
You could certainly make this in different cake pans. Based on your options, I would probably go for the two 8-inch cake pans, though you may want to keep an eye on them as the layers may cook slightly more quickly than described in this recipe. Do let me know how it turns out for you!!