Blueberry Lemon Layer Cake
Almost three years ago, I married someone who is the best partner I could possibly imagine. And we had a tiny, beautiful wedding in Sedona, AZ with the most delicious food and three-tiered blueberry and lemon gluten-free cake. I’m not going to lie, most wedding cake is pretty gross and clearly made for quantity over quality, which I’m 100% against. I would much rather have less of something that’s super high quality than a lot of something that’s low quality. But that’s me - you do you. We got lucky, and our cake was amazing.
In trying to think of a good dessert for Easter Sunday (or as us non-religious folks call it, Sunday), I wanted to find something sweet and beautiful that doesn’t overdo it, and I remembered our wedding cake. Now, I’m not about to do three tiers of layer cake, because I’m not a huge cake baker, and honestly don’t want to spend that much time on it. But I know I can do one tier with 4 layers. The conundrum now is how to make it gluten free and amazing.
Anyone else that’s gluten free will know the trials and experimentations of flour combinations. There are so many different gluten free flours—tapioca, brown rice, almond, corn, coconut (only just getting started naming these)—and they all bake up differently, so I usually try to find different combinations of those flours that work for other people in various recipes from all over the internet. It’s a huge pain in the ass, and it still doesn’t guarantee that it’s going to bake correctly. We also have to add this stuff called xantham gum. Xantham gum is a powder that’s added, along with other leavening agents like baking soda or powder, to help give gluten free baked goods rise. Most of the gluten free flours are much heavier than traditional wheat flour, so they need a little help. Otherwise you end up with cupcakes that can double as hockey pucks. You can typically buy it at any store nowadays, or order it online in packets, which is how I have it.
But wait! I’ve discovered a product that crosses out all that work, all that time spent in front of my digital scale weighing out different flours and looking like a drug dealer (so many jokes), all that time scouring the internet for the best baking flour combos—GONE! Gluten free Measure for Measure flour, from King Arthur Flour, is designed to simply replace wheat flour in any recipe you choose. To be clear, I’ve not performed the ultimate test with this flour yet (fried chicken and biscuits), but I did make soda bread a couple of weeks ago, and it was delicious. So I decided to make this cake with it, and it worked out. Perfectly. It is slightly more dense than regular cake, but I actually prefer that in a layer cake, because I believe it provides a bit more stability. Hope you love it, too!
***For reference, I’m using a basic vanilla cake recipe from the food network. Like I said, I am not a pastry chef. The original recipe can be found here.
Ingredients:
For the cake:
- 3 cups measure for measure gluten free flour (plus more for the pans)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups whole milk (seriously, WHOLE milk)
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
For the frosting and filling:
- 3 cups blueberries
- 1 small jar lemon curd
- 1 package (8oz) cream cheese
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 teaspoons vanilla
Kitchen tools that will seriously help you out:
- 2, 9” round cake pans
- parchment paper
- shortening
- vegetable oil
- pastry brush
- flat cake plate (if you have one that rotates, that’s amazing and I’m jealous)
- pairing knife
- palette knife
- hand or stand mixer
- dental floss
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut your parchment into two rounds that will fit the bottom of each cake pan. The best way to do this is to fold your square of parchment in half, then in half again, and then diagonally so you have a point. Place the point in the middle of the cake pan and then fold it where it meets the edge of the pan. Cut along that fold, and then unfold the parchment into a circle. If that doesn’t make sense, you can watch a tutorial about it here.
In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons shortening, and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Stir these together to make a paste, and using your pastry brush, paint the insides of the 2 cake pans. This is seriously the best way to grease a pan. Nothing will stick to it; it’s fucking magic. Place the parchment rounds inside the bottoms of the greased pans, and set them aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, add two stick of unsalted butter and the sugar. Cream these together on medium high-speed for 2-3 minutes until it’s light and fluffy.
On medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, waiting until each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one. Then add the vanilla and mix together on medium speed. The mixture is going to be noticeably separating, and that’s ok!
Alternate adding the flour and then the milk in thirds, mixing on medium speed until everything is combined. The batter will be thick and fluffy.
Put half the batter into each cake pan. I actually used my digital scale to make sure this would be even, to ensure even cooking time. Take a toothpick or a butter knife and swirl it around in the cake pan to make sure there aren’t any major air bubbles, and then smooth the batter evenly in the pan. Drop it a few times onto the counter for extra air bubbles, and then place both pans into the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then slide a butter knife around the rims of the cakes to remove them from the pans. Remove the parchment, and let the cakes cool completely on wire racks.
Prep your filling by pouring the lemon curd into a bowl, and slicing the blueberries in half horizontally. I suppose you could just chop the blueberries, but then they’re not as pretty, and it’s a damn holiday, so let’s be classy about it. You can choose to reserve some whole blueberries for the top if you want to.
In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, add the stick of unsalted butter and the cream cheese. Whip them together with the mixer, and then add 2 teaspoons of vanilla. You could also use vanilla bean here if you want; I think that would be super pretty with the little black flecks in the white buttercream.
Add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, and mix on the lowest setting so that you don’t get sugar all over your kitchen. Once it’s mixed in, turn the mixer up to high, and whip it together for about a minute. Then add another 2 cups and repeat the process, only this time, whip the frosting for about 2-3 minutes. Taste the frosting, and add an additional teaspoon of vanilla if you want to. You could also add another cup of powdered sugar if you don’t think the frosting is the right consistency—I find this varies every time I make frosting.
Cut each cake horizontally into 2 layers, so that you have 4 layers, total. If you want, you can trim the tops of each cake using a serrated bread knife. TIP: use the dental floss to cut the cakes horizontally—here’s a video that shows you how. Seriously, watch it and learn. You don’t want to sit with a serrated knife hoping you don’t slice a finger or totally fuck up your cake.
Take 1/3 of the frosting and fold it into the lemon curd. I like to leave swirls of frosting and lemon curd, though you can’t really tell when you’re eating the cake.
Place your first cake layer on the cake plate, and spread the lemon curd mixture over it, keeping it about 1/4-1/2 inch from the edges (the weight of the cake and the blueberries will push it closer to the edges). We're not necessarily going for an exact 1/3 of the lemon mixture; I add a few spoonfuls to the center, and then use the back of the spoon to spread it out, adding a little more as needed. The flavor of lemon curd is super strong, so I make it a thin layer. Then place the blueberries cut side down on the lemon curd. I find it’s easiest to start on the outside and work your way in. It takes a long time to do this, and I agree that it’s a huge pain in the ass, but it’s worth it.
Add the next layer of cake on top of the blueberries and repeat with the lemon curd and the rest of the blueberries until you’ve added the top layer. Once the cake is assembled, make any adjustments you need to make sure it’s standing straight and not leaning to a side. Then, using your palette knife start scraping the rest of the frosting onto the sides, being sure to seal the lemon curd filling into the cake. I like to push the frosting into the spaces between the layers, but then leave the rest of the sides sort of naked, where you can see some of the cake through the frosting.
When you’ve evenly sealed the sides of the cake with frosting, add the rest of the frosting to the top of the cake. Smooth it out across the top, making sure it evenly goes down the sides. If you want, you can garnish the cake with extra blueberries, but I prefer to keep it bare.
Put the cake into the refrigerator to set up for at least 2 hours.
30-45 minutes before serving, remove the cake from the refrigerator and let it come up in temperature. This should serve about 12 depending on how large the slices are.
It tasted just like our wedding cake. Enjoy!
