Man, the past few weeks have been nuts. Between April break, an anniversary celebration, a fun writing assignment, back-to-back Easters (American and Greek), a memorial event and Ally’s confirmation, I have lost complete track of my usual day-to-day routine.

Despite having felt a bit overwhelmed, so many good things came out of the chaos. One of which was this new recipe for a really good lemon blueberry cake. Typically, I’m not a baker but this cake kept popping up on my Facebook feed and it looked so good, I had to try it. Have you seen it? Celebrating Ally’s confirmation seemed the perfect occasion to give this fresh and spring-like sweet a try.

A Funny Faux-Pas

I followed the directions explicitly. Right down to the parchment paper liner for each layer. But, oops! Nowhere in the directions does it say to remove the parchment after baking. I totally forgot this step and served 3 layers of lined cake to all of my guests. Guess what? It didn’t matter one bit. Everyone liked the cake so much, they ate it anyway after pulling out the paper. Guests even went back for seconds. Not my finest moment, but the cake was a huge success and I would gladly try it again – parchment free, of course!!

The original recipe for this Lemon Blueberry Cake, as seen on Facebook, can be found at delish.com –Lemon Blueberry Cake.

Here’s everything you need to know…

INGREDIENTS

• 1 box vanilla cake, plus ingredients called for on box
• Juice and zest of 1 1/2 lemons, divided, plus more zest for garnish
• 1 3/4 c. fresh blueberries, divided (I read that some folks used frozen blueberries and the end result was just as good)
• 3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3 c. powdered sugar
• 1/4 c. heavy cream
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 2 Thin lemon slices, for topping (I bought candy lemon wedges from Market Basket and used those instead – yummy and cute!)

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350º and grease three 9″ cake pans with cooking spray (I bought 3 disposable pans). Line with parchment. Prepare cake mix according to package directions, then stir in juice and zest of 1 lemon.
• In a small bowl, toss 1 cup blueberries and flour until completely coated (to keep the berries from sinking). Gently fold blueberries into the batter.
• Divide cake batter evenly among prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.
• Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack and let cool completely.
• Make frosting: In a large bowl using a hand mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, beat butter and 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar. Add remaining lemon juice and zest and heavy cream and beat until combined, then beat in vanilla and salt. (Add remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar as desired for texture and flavor.)
• Place a dab of frosting on cake plate (to keep cake in place) and place parchment strips on each side of the cake plate. Place down first cake and top with frosting, then top with second cake and frost. Repeat with third cake and frost sides.
• Garnish with remaining blueberries, lemon slices, and zest and serve.

Buon appetito!