This Lemon Blueberry Cake is a soft, moist, and totally delicious! It is layered with a creamy lemon frosting and a sweet blueberry filling, making it a perfect dessert for Easter or anytime you want a vegan layer cake!
Vegan Lemon Blueberry Cake
Who says vegan cakes can’t be fluffy, moist and delicious? Well, I can confidently say they can!! If you’ve been following me for a while you may have noticed that I love baking vegan cakes. Whether it’s a loaf, sponge cake, bundt cake, round cake, layered cake or whatever cake, haha! In fact, there’s no kind of cake I don‘t want to veganize! Honestly, it even makes it fun for me, I love experimenting in the kitchen. And when my experiments succeed, my neighbors are happy because they can enjoy it! Even though they’re not vegan, they often don’t notice that it’s egg-free and dairy-free.
Since my blueberry bundt cake with lemon flavor is so delicious, I wanted to make a similar cake but with a fruity and creamy filling. Also, I wanted to modify my lemon cake recipe, making it moister and juicier. So I came up with the idea to bake a vegan layer cake which has all the layers and flavors I love!
Vegan Lemon Cake
Let’s start with the moist and fluffy vegan lemon cake! Actually, it’s super easy to make because the batter comes together very quickly and there are only a few simple ingredients required. I recommend using all-purpose flour because it makes the fluffiest texture. However, if you want to make the cake gluten-free, you can substitute a good gluten-free flour blend 1:1. Secondly, please make sure not to overmix the batter or your blueberry lemon cake will get dense. It’s best to mix everything together just until combined!
Homemade Blueberry Filling
Of course, you can simply use store-bought blueberry compote or jam for the filling. But let’s be honest, anything that’s homemade is definitely better, right?! And don’t worry, this juicy blueberry filling is also very easy to make with only 3 ingredients. Simply stir together the blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a pot and bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat until the sauce has thickened up, which is about 8 minutes. Oh, and please don’t forget to stir constantly to avoid burning. Then mash it a bit and set aside to cool completely.
Creamy Lemon Frosting
Also, the creamy frosting is mixed together super quick. But before you start, please make sure that your ingredients are room temperature. Otherwise, the vegan butter and cream cheese won’t blend very well, resulting in a non-creamy frosting.
To make the lemon cream, simply mix the vegan butter until creamy. Then add the cream cheese and mix again. Lastly, sift in powdered sugar and add a squeeze of lemon juice and mix again until super creamy and well combined! If it’s still too soft, you can add more powdered sugar. And if it is too firm, you can add more lemon juice.
How to make a perfect Vegan Layer Cake
When baking the Lemon Blueberry Cake, please check the baking time and temperature because I figured out that ovens often vary. This means, if the temperature of your oven is too low, your cake may not rise very well and will need longer until baked through. And if the temperature is too high, your cake may get crumbly and dry on the outer sides quickly while it is still wet inside.
Please make a cake test!
I always recommend doing a cake test to check if your cake is ready. When you insert a toothpick into the middle of your cake, it should come out almost clean. When I say almost, I mean it’s totally fine if there a still a few crumbs because when it’s completely clean your cake will be too dry.
I hope you’ll love this Vegan Lemon Blueberry Cake. It is:
- Vegan
- Egg-free
- Dairy-free
- Soft
- Moist
- Juicy
- Creamy
- Sweet
- Fairly easy to make
- Can be made gluten-free
- So delicious!
- Perfect for Easter or any occasion!
Beautiful Cake Decoration
I love to decorate my cakes with anything I can find! Often, I make pipes on top of the layer cake with the remaining frosting and sprinkle over chopped chocolate. Also, I love using fruit, such as cherries, blackberries, blueberries or other berries. Anyways, this time I was in the mood to decorate it with flowers too because since spring started, I‘m so in love with these beauties! Choose the decorations you like, and feel free to decorate your cake however you like.
If you try this Vegan Lemon Blueberry Cake Recipe or maybe another of my Vegan Cake Recipes, please leave me a comment below sharing how it turned out for you! I’m pretty sure you’ll also like my fluffy Vegan Vanilla Cake or my Blueberry Bundt Cake. But also, my Blueberry Crumble Cheesecake or my Blueberry Babka are both very delicious.
Anyways, whatever you do, if you take a picture of your recreation and share it on Instagram, please don’t forget to tag me @biancazapatka and use the hashtag #biancazapatka , to make sure I won’t miss your post! Happy baking!
Vegan Lemon Blueberry Cake
You do not have a fitting cake pan at hand right now? Try my new Cake Pan Conversion Calculator!
Ingredients
Lemon cake
- 1 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (360ml)
- 1/2 cup lemon juice (120ml)
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (360g)
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups sugar (300g)
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup neutral oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
Blueberry filling
- 14 oz blueberries (400g) fresh
- 1/2 cup sugar (100g) or to taste
- juice of 1 lemon
Lemon frosting
- 1 cup vegan butter (225g) softened
- 8 oz vegan cream cheese (225g) softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar (240g)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
Vegan Lemon Cake
- Combine non-dairy milk with lemon juice and set aside until it curdles to create vegan buttermilk.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and line two 8-inch (20cm) pans with parchment paper, cut to fit the pan. (I don't recommend skipping this step or the cakes could stick to the pan.)
- In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt.
- Stir the oil, vanilla and lemon zest into the vegan buttermilk. Then pour it into the flour mixture and mix everything just until the ingredients are combined. (Don't overmix or your cakes will be dense).
- Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (Don't overbake or your cakes will get dry.)
- Let cool completely. (Optionally, wrap each cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours until well chilled because this makes them easier to cut evenly.)
Blueberry Filling
- In a pot, combine blueberries, sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer and cook over medium heat until the blueberries are soft and the sauce has thickened up, about 8 minutes, stirring constantly. Let cool afterwards. (The best is to let it chill in the fridge overnight, so it can thicken up more).
Lemon Frosting
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the vegan butter with a handheld mixer until creamy. Then add the vegan cream cheese and mix again. Lastly, sift in powdered sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice and mix again until creamy and well combined. (If it’s too firm and not spreadable, stir in more lemon juice. If it is too soft, add more powdered sugar).
Assembling the Cake:
- Cut each cake horizontally in two equal layers. Place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread about 1/4 of the lemon frosting over the cake so that it’s higher around the edges (to hold the blueberry filling inside). Then spread 1/3 of the blueberry filling inside.
- Top with the next layer, another 1/4 of the frosting, followed by another 1/3 of blueberry filling and repeat for the third layer. Place the fourth layer on top and spread the remaining lemon frosting over it.
- Place a cake ring around and chill about 3-4 hours in the fridge before decorating and serving.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- For the best results, I recommend measuring the ingredients in grams and ml.
- To make this cake gluten-free, I recommend using a gluten-free flour blend 1:1. Instead of cream cheese, you can use coconut cream. Simply refrigerate a can of coconut milk overnight. Then scoop out the solid part from the can which should have the same consistency as cream cheese (this is the coconut cream).
- If you don’t want to make the blueberry filling, you can use store-bought blueberry compote or jam. Or just fold some blueberries tossed in a bit of flour into the batter. Also, other kinds of berries are fine.
- You can store leftover cake covered in the fridge, for up to 4 days, or freeze the un-frosted cake.
- If you want to make cupcakes from the batter, bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Please read the text for further information.
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I can’t wait to make this!! What size cake pan do you recommend using?
Mine was 8-inch as mentioned in the recipe! 🙂
I’m vegan and my roommates made this for me on my 21st birthday (sans cream cheese frosting and in sheet cake form instead) since everyone is on lockdown with the CoronaVirus and they still wanted my day to be special. BEST VEGAN CAKE EVER (and I’ve tried a lot of them)!!! We’re all obsessed with it and our boyfriends loved it as well. I will be making this for Easter and not even telling my family that it’s vegan. Can’t believe how incredibly moist it was. 🙂 Thank you for such a delicious recipe!
So glad you love this cake so much! Thank you 🙂 <3
I am looking forward to baking this! What non dairy milk do you suggest to use for the recipe? X
Looooved the recipe!!! My friend and I made it yesterday and even my vegan-sceptical mother loved the taste although she doubted it was gonna be good without eggs in it – how are you gonna get it fluffy right? 😅 But it turned out amazing 😍❤️ thank you for this!!
Hi Julia, so glad you love this recipe! Thank you so much! 🙂
Could not get the frosting to thicken for the life of me even with mounds of confectioner sugar. Ended up making it more an icing. I added chia seeds and blackberries to my fruit later so it would be thick like a compote so it evened out. I’m in Florida so it is a bit humid here, could’ve affected the icing. Still came out delicious. Thank you!
Hi! Could I substitute the vegan ingredients with non-vegan? For example just cream cheese and normal butter for the lemon filling, and regular milk for the cake?
Yes, sure! 🙂
Good Day,
Is it possible to substitute the the sugar for monk fruit or a healthier sugar substitute? Also, may you please offer directions for substituting the flour with almond flour or another healthier flour in lemon-blueberry cake recipe?
Apologies for all the questions, as this is my firs time attempting to bake a “low sugar-dairy free-flour free” birthday cake for my boyfriend whom has strict diet restrictions. ANY help is welcome please.
Thank you!
Hi there, unfortunately, I haven’t tried this recipe with almond flour or other sugars yet. But feel free to give it a try! Let me know how it turned out! 🙂
Could i use frozen blueberries for the filling, or would it change the taste/texture?
Hi Grace, I recommend using fresh ones to be sure the filling won’t get too wet. If using frozen, make sure to drain them well, or dust them with a little flour or cornstarch which helps to absorb their liquid. Hope you’ll enjoy it!
Made this for my daughter’s birthday. Hands down one of the best cakes I’ve ever had! I doubled the recipe and made 3 layers. Made a vegan buttercream because my little town doesn’t have vegan cream cheese. Had extra blueberry compote which we spooned onto our slices. Can’t wait to make it again for my birthday! Thank you so much for the recipe 🙂
Hi Laura, so glad you love this blueberry lemon cake! Thank you for your amazing feedback! 🙂
I made this cake today and I can confirm it’s an excellent recipe! I was so pleased with the result 😀 It was my first try making a vegan cake and I honestly couldn’t tell the difference between this cake and a non-vegan cake.
So glad you enjoyed this vegan cake! Thanks for your feedback! 🙂
Could you switch out the blueberries for blackberries???
Yes, sure! 🙂
I really enjoyed the flavors (my children weren’t fans of the lemon frosting) and that it’s vegan, but my cake was soo dense. After we all tried a slice, I had to toss it out. 🙁 I tried to combine ingredients until they were ‘just mixed’ but I think I need a tutorial on that. :/ When I mix everything together there are usually little clumps of dry ingredients. Therefore, I continue to mix those in and then I think that’s where I have problems. Thanks for your diverse vegan recipes!
Hi Vicky, I suggest to use a sifter to sift the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl before adding the wet ingredients. It is important to stir until just combined but there should not be any clumps. Do you have a sifter? Or maybe a fine-mesh sieve? Anyway, I’ll work on making a video showing how I stir cake batter 😀 so maybe I can upload it soon here on the blog. Hope this will help! Happy new year to you! <3
I won a bake off with this cake- A big win for vegan baking! I split the batter in 2, and baked each half for 30 minutes. Additionally, I only did one blueberry layer. I didn’t do the frosting because I didn’t have cream cheese. I did a simple glaze with powdered sugar and almond milk instead, and added some lemon juice as this recipe recommends. This was such a crowd pleaser! Thanks for the great recipe.
Hi Nicole, so glad you enjoyed this lemon blueberry cake! Thank you for your feedback and for sharing your version! 🙂 Lots of love, Bianca <3
Super tasty! Everyone loved it. Perfect balance between the zesty punch of the lemon and softer sweet tastes. Will definitely make this again!
Hi Jesy, so glad to hear that you enjoyed this blueberry cake! Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback! Lots of love, Bianca <3
Loved this cake! I could not put my hands on vegan cream cheese but the icing was amazing even without it. I made this for my daughter and friend who is a vegan they both loved it so much that my daughter has asked that I make this in cupcake form for the vegan dessert option at her wedding, everyone who tried them loved them thank you for a simple recipe without too many things I couldn’t find.
Hi Christine, thank you so much for your great feedback! So glad your daughter and her friend enjoyed this lemon blueberry cake! I totally love that you turned this recipe into cupcakes too. Feel free to check out also my other vegan cake recipes here on the blog so maybe you can get inspired trying another one as well! Lots of love, Bianca 🙂
May I use vegetable oil instead of butter?
Hi Roshi, you can try using just vegetable oil, however, I’m not sure how it will turn out. Let me know if you tried it 🙂
This cake was incredible. Easy to make, assemble, and absolutely delicious! I had so much fun preparing and decorating and even more fun sharing it.
I totally love assembling and decoration cakes! So glad that you liked this lemon cake and that you had fun too! Thank you so much <3
Can’t wait to make this! What kind of oil did you use and how many lemons?
Also, I don’t have a cake ring. Do you think it’ll be ok in the fridge overnight without one?
Thank you!
Hi Cassie, I used canola oil but you could also use grapeseed oil or sunflower oil. Of course, you can make it without a cake ring. This would be just a little help. You’ll need 1/2 cup lemon juice for the cake batter and the juice of 1 lemon for the filling + 2 tbsp lemon juice for the frosting. There are often lemons which are super juicy but there are also lemons available which are pretty dry, so I’m not sure how many fruits you’ll need exactly. Anyway, I used 3 and 1/2. Hope that helps 🙂
Thank you!
<3
First attempt at a vegan layer cake! It was perfect, everybody loved it!
I followed the recipie thoroughly and it worked out wonderfully!
So happy to read that! Thank you so much 🙂
Is this sweet? If it is, how sweet is it?
I find it’s perfectly sweet but you can adjust the amount of sugar to taste 😉
How to you prevent the frosting from curdling??
Just make sure the ingredients are room temperature so they combine better.
I made this delicious cake for meeting family (none of whom are vegan) with great results!
I did make a few substitutions:
• Instead of oil I used melted vegan butter in the same quantities
• I made a lemon buttercream rather than vegan cream cheese
• I used a bigger cake tin and made a two layer cake so I could transport it in the car!
These worked well and created a very moist, well risen cake that everyone enjoyed and did not realise it was vegan until I told them which created incredulous looks and no plate was left empty. I replaced the cream cheese frosting with lemon buttercream as my local store didn’t stock vegan cream cheese and this worked really well also.
Will definitely make again! Have my eyes on the strawberry lemon cake with blackberry jam too as think that sounds like another beautiful combination!
So glad that you liked the recipe! Your version sounds super good to me! Thank you for sharing! Will try it too 🙂
I just made this recipe and it is so delicious 😍 thank you for sharing with us all this amazing stuff ❤
So glad that you liked the recipe! Thank you 🙂
Great , great and great. Easy to make.all the flavors came through making each bite delicious. I loved watching the faces while people were eating it…savoring each morsel. THANKS AGAIN, another Bianca hit in my house.
So glad that you liked the recipe! Thank you 🙂
Very good cake. I will definitely make it again. I added a little bit more lemon juice, cream cheese and lemon zest to the icing and the blueberries. Everybody loved it!
So happy that you liked it! Thank you 🙂
Oh! This cake is delicious. My partner doesn’t stop saying that this is the best cake that I have baked so far and my friends ate it twice. No even a bit was left behind for my own enjoyment so I have to bake it again. I have to get better at putting together all the ingredients as the blueberry sauce came out. Also I found that I made too much blueberry sauce, but it wasn’t a problem as my partner enjoyed it with scones, I spread it on top of a marble cake and I mix it with my regular overnight oats! Now I am looking for another recipe for my sister birthday.
I think this is misleading as it says vegan but then butter and cream cheese. Maybe it should say “vegan cream cheese” and “vegan butter”. Either way, I would love to try this!!
Hi Jenna,
In the recipe ingredients, it says “vegan cream cheese” and “vegan butter”, so I thought it was clear. But I will change it in the instructions too! 😉
Hi, could you recommend a vegan butter and cream cheese?
Hi Helen, I am based in Germany so I don’t know which products are available in your country. Hope you’ll find a good one.
Lots of love,
Bianca <3
Hi,
I was wondering if you could substitute the vegan cream cheese with whipped coconut cream?
Thank you?
You could try it but I’m not sure if it’ll be firm enough. Let me know how it turned out when you try it.
Lots of love,
Bianca <3