Don’t you just love how this cake looks?!  The Heritage Bundt Pan by Nordic Ware has to be my favorite bundt pan to use.  I purchased it from Sur la Table sometime last year and use it pretty often.  It makes any cake look pretty – especially when I use it for this Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake.  When I use a lot of blueberries in the batter, you can really see the berries popping through.

I first made this cake for a friend of mine who was celebrating her son’s birthday.  I hadn’t made a cake for anyone in a while, like for a party where I will not be in attendance, and I was super nervous. I even thought I put too  much icing on top and that it looked sloppy.  Turns out, the guests loved the extra icing in the middle and over the edge.  They were scraping it off the cake board and asked for more. Ha! I’m learning to just trust my gut feeling… I’ve been making it ever since.

The cake has just enough lemon flavor and paired with the lemon vanilla glaze, it is just amazing!  It balances each other out and is not overwhelming with lemon at all…the blueberries are just an added touch without interrupting the integrity of the cake.  If you’re not into blueberry, you can easily swap it for raspberries, blackberries, or a mix of berries… your choice. You couldn’t go wrong either way.

The key to getting this lemon flavor is using lemon zest and fresh lemon juice.  Not lemon extract or the store bought kind in the little plastic lemon bottle you can find in the produce section.  Fresh squeezed lemon juice.  Thank me later!  I incorporate the lemon in 2 ways: 1)  combining the lemon zest and sugar, then creaming it with the butter, 2) mixing the lemon juice with greek yogurt.

Here’s another thing, this recipe calls for greek yogurt, however, it can easily be swapped for regular milk or buttermilk.  I personally like greek yogurt and it balances out the sourness of the lemon while keeping the cake moist.

Once the batter is ready, I scoop the batter into the bundt pan in two layers, adding fresh or frozen blueberries in between, and then a few more on top. Then I push them down in the batter like the picture below.

Lastly, I tap the pan lightly on the counter a couple of times to release any air bubbles and then pop it in the oven.  Once the cake is done and cooled completely, I pour the glaze over the cake and sprinkle some lemon zest on top for some Jazz appeal.

Here’s a picture of the inside.  Nice and moist! I could have put a few more blueberries in there but no one complained. Now, the family is requesting I make this cake more often.  I’d be glad to. =)

What is your favorite cake to make during the holidays?

Peace and Love!

Yasmin