Made with fresh or frozen berries and lemon-flavored boxed cake mix for a shortcut, this Lemon Blueberry Cake is equal parts refreshing and rich. Try this lemon dessert recipe as a bundt cake, sheet cake, layer cake, or cupcakes.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
Ingredient notes
- Boxed lemon cake mix: This gives you a head-start on the cake and is the secret to ultra-lemony flavor. Yes, even restaurants use boxed lemon cake mixes.
- Instant lemon pudding mix: Add the pudding mix to the batter dry (you don’t prepare the pudding separately). Even if your cake mix says “pudding in the mix,” you should still add a box of instant pudding.
- Lemon zest and juice: Zest the lemon before cutting it in half for juice.
- Blueberries: Please don’t use more than 6 ounces of blueberries. If you’re using frozen berries, no need to thaw. Have you heard the trick about tossing blueberries in flour to keep them from sinking? First, that’s a myth. Flour cannot save blueberries from gravity. Second, it’s okay here because this is a bundt cake and it’s baked upside down. When the blueberries sink, they are actually going to the top.
Step-by-step instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together cake mix and dry pudding in a large bowl. Add water, oil, lemon juice, eggs, and lemon zest. Stir to combine.
- Fold in blueberries and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 40 minutes.
- Cool the cake 15 minutes in pan. Invert on to cooling rack set over a baking sheet and allow to cool completely.
- To make the powdered sugar glaze, whisk together powdered sugar, water, and vanilla. Drizzle over cooled cake and let glaze harden for at least 10 minutes.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This Lemon Blueberry Cake makes 12 servings (or 9 if you like large slices).
- Storage: Store covered at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Lemon blueberry layer cake: Grease two 9-inch cake pans. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Skip the glaze and spread a thicker icing, such as Buttercream Frosting or Cream Cheese Frosting, between cooled layers, along with a sprinkle of fresh blueberries.
- Lemon blueberry sheet cake: Grease a 13- x 9-inch baking pan. Pour cake batter into the pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes clean. If using glaze, poke holes in the cake with a wooden skewer so the glaze can run into the holes and flavor the cake. If using Cream Cheese Frosting, allow the cake to cool before frosting.
- Lemon blueberry cupcakes: Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them ¾ of the way full. Bake at 350 degrees for 16 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cupcakes are cool, glaze or frost and decorate as desired.
More berry desserts
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Strawberry Shortcake
Lemon Blueberry Cake
Made with fresh or frozen berries and boxed lemon cake mix for a shortcut, this Lemon Blueberry Cake is equal parts refreshing and rich. Try this lemon dessert recipe as a bundt cake, sheet cake, layer cake, or cupcakes.
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 package lemon cake mix (see note 1)
- 3 ounces instant lemon pudding mix (see note 2)
- 2/3 cup water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest (see note 3)
- 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice from 2-3 lemons
- 4 large eggs
- 6 ounces fresh blueberries (please don't use more than this, see note 4)
For the glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons water or lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
To make the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously coat large Bundt pan with shortening or nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together cake mix and dry pudding in a large bowl. Add water, oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, and eggs and stir to combine. Carefully fold in blueberries.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean with a few crumbs attached.
- Cool 15 minutes in pan. Invert on to set over a baking sheet and cool completely.
To make the glaze:
- Whisk together powdered sugar, water, and vanilla. Drizzle over cooled cake and let glaze harden for at least 10 minutes.
Notes
- Boxed lemon cake mix: This gives you a head-start on the cake and is the secret to ultra-lemony flavor. Yes, even restaurants use boxed lemon cake mixes.
- Instant lemon pudding mix: Add the pudding mix to the batter dry (you don’t prepare the pudding separately). Even if your cake mix says “pudding in the mix,” you should still add a box of instant pudding.
- Lemon zest and juice: Zest the lemon before cutting it in half for juice.
- Blueberries: If you’re using frozen berries, no need to thaw. Have you heard the trick about tossing blueberries in flour to keep them from sinking? First, that’s a myth. Flour cannot save blueberries from gravity. Second, it’s okay here because this is a bundt cake and it’s baked upside down. When the blueberries sink, they are actually going to the top.
- Yield: This Lemon Blueberry Cake makes 12 servings (or 9 if you like large slices).
- Storage: Store covered at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Lemon blueberry layer cake: Grease two 9-inch cake pans. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Skip the glaze and spread a thicker icing, such as Buttercream Frosting or Cream Cheese Frosting, between cooled layers, along with a sprinkle of fresh blueberries.
- Lemon blueberry sheet cake: Grease a 13- x 9-inch baking pan. Pour cake batter into the pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes clean. If using glaze, poke holes in the cake with a wooden skewer so the glaze can run into the holes and flavor the cake. If using Cream Cheese Frosting, allow the cake to cool before frosting.
- Lemon blueberry cupcakes: Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them ¾ of the way full. Bake at 350 degrees for 16 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cupcakes are cool, glaze or frost and decorate as desired.
Nutrition
Serving: 1sliceCalories: 374kcalCarbohydrates: 65gProtein: 4gFat: 12gSaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 62mgSodium: 375mgPotassium: 61mgFiber: 1gSugar: 40gVitamin A: 98IUVitamin C: 4mgCalcium: 101mgIron: 1mg
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Recipe doesn’t say how much lemon zest or juice to use
Hi Carol, the amounts are listed in the recipe card. Here they are for you: 1 teaspoon lemon zest and 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice from 2-3 lemons. Take care – Meggan
My daughter asked for a blueberry cake for her 5th birthday. I decided on this recipe and am so glad!! It was so good!! I had to adjust a bit to make it gluten free. I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free vanilla cake mix, but followed the recipe after that. I cooked it in a Bundt pan and it was done exactly at 40 minutes. And frosted it with cream cheese frosting (attached recipe). There wasn’t a disappointed party goer!! Delicious 😋
This was a very tasty cake, and also very forgiving of the adjustments I made. I didn’t have lemon-flavored cake mix or pudding, but I had lots of lemons on hand. I used regular yellow cake mix and vanilla pudding, 1T of lemon zest, 2/3 C lemon juice and 1/3 C water. It had just enough lemon flavor and was very moist.
Best recipe I’ve found and there’s a great deal of them out there. Came out perfect. Absolutely delicious, moist and flavorful. Thank you.
Best recipe I’ve found and there’s a great deal of them out there. Absolutely delicious, moist and flavorful. Thank you.
What if the lemon cake mix already says it has pudding in the mix, do you still add the dry lemon pudding to it?
Hi Fabre, I would think so. I haven’t personally tested this, but I imagine there wouldn’t be enough pudding mix in that cake mix to get the nice moist consistency of this recipe. Let me know how it works out! Thanks! Meggan
So easy to make and it comes out delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
LOVED the cake….but it needed more than 40 minutes to bake. Only after adding extra time (Twice), which in turn caused the cake to fall and sink slightly did I see in the pre-amble that cook time was 1 hour.
Please correct!!!!
Hi Susan, I’m sorry about that! Mine has always been done in 40 minutes, but I know oven times vary so I really need to put that in the recipe (a range for the time). Thank you for the feedback! Sorry again. -Meggan
Yeah, so I completely missed the part about not adding too many blueberries. My cake was a total failure. It looked good in the oven, and it seemed done, but as soon as I took it out, it fell severely and looked awful. The blueberries had all sunk to the bottom and stuck to the pan and the cake around them was still moist and gooey. I was so heartbroken. I hate wasting ingredients. And making stupid mistakes.
In this case, more was absolutely NOT better.
So the glaze is a very simple recipe that would be very hard to mess up I would think. So I’m not sure why making the glaze based on your recipe came out extremely thick and paste like. There was no possible way to drizzle something that only had 3 tablespoons of water and half a teaspoon of vanilla. Not with 2 cups of sugar added. Luckily I had a tub of cream cheese frosting in the pantry. I haven’t officially eaten the cake yet, but I know it will be good because I licked the bowl after I poured the batter out. LOL
Hi Kati, the recipe says to add 1 or 2 more teaspoons of liquid if you need it, to get your desired consistency. That’s really all it takes – 3 tablespoons of water and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla IS just about the amount of liquid you need for the glaze. But, after making it 8 times last weekend with different liquids and substitutions, I ended up changing it to 1/4 cup of water and 1 teaspoon vanilla for the 2 cups of powdered sugar. It’s super runny at that consistency, but I think that’s probably what most people will want. So thank you for helping me fix it up! I am glad I took the time to try a bunch of variations and stuff. I haven’t tried it with cream cheese but I definitely need to. Thank you Kati! -Meggan