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This Blueberry Crumble Layer Cake is made with layers of cinnamon brown sugar cake, blueberry filling, frosting and a brown sugar crumble! It’s like warm blueberry pie in cake form and it is SO good!
Table of Contents
Blueberry Crumble Layer Cake
I have been dreaming about using these flavors in a cake for some time now. The trick is always figuring out the best way to make and blend everything together. I couldn’t be more happy with this cake – I wanted to eat the entire thing myself! The brown sugar, cinnamon and blueberry together is pure awesome.
To start, there’s the cake layers. They are similar to the layers in this Berry Mascarpone Layer Cake that has been so well loved, but with the addition of brown sugar and cinnamon. The batter is super easy to put together. You just whisk together the dry and wet ingredients separately, then combine them together with some water. I used a mixer, but I’ve also used just a whisk and it works great.
The filling is made over the stove with just a few ingredients. Sugar, to sweeten things ups. Cornstarch, to thicken things up. A touch of water to help all the ingredients come together and not clump on the stove. And then the blueberries. While it may be tempting to toss the blueberries in with the first few ingredients, you want to be sure to combine them and let them melt together before adding the blueberries. Otherwise, they will likely clump around the berries and not fully melt the way you want them to.
Cook the blueberries until they start to soften and release juices and the juices begin to thicken up. You want enough juice that you can drizzle some over the cake layers, but you don’t need too much or you’ll have a soggy cake. Let the mixture cool in the fridge.
The frosting is my usual buttercream with some blueberry puree and a bit of cinnamon added. If you haven’t made frosting often, you might want to check out my post on getting the right frosting consistency. You want to have a good balance of powdered sugar and puree so that your frosting doesn’t end up too thick or too thin.
Once everything is layered and frosted, the cake is decorated with some additional blueberries and some crumble – one of the most fun parts! The crumble gets combined and baked so that it’s a little crispy and can be pressed into the sides of the cake. I love that final touch!
This cake really is the jam for any blueberry lover – especially lovers of blueberry pie and/or crumble. All the flavors are there in their shining glory! The combination is fabulous! 🙂
Watch How To Make It
PrintBlueberry Crumble Layer Cake
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 Slices
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Blueberry Crumble Layer Cake is made with layers of cinnamon brown sugar cake, blueberry filling, frosting and a brown sugar crumble! It’s like warm blueberry pie in cake form and it is SO good!
Ingredients
CAKE LAYERS
- 2 1/2 cups (325g) all purpose flour
- 1 cup (207g) sugar
- 1 cup (225g) brown sugar, packed
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup (240ml) milk
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup (240ml) water
BLUEBERRY FILLING
- 1/4 cup (52g) sugar
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tsp water
- 2 cups (277g) blueberries
BLUEBERRY FROSTING
- 1 1/4 cup (280g) butter
- 1 1/4 cups (237g) shortening (or additional butter)
- 10 cups (1150g) powdered sugar
- 6–7 tbsp (90-105ml) blueberry puree*
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
CRUMBLE
- 1/4 cup (33g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cold, sliced
- 2 tbsp quick-cooking oats
Instructions
CAKE LAYERS
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C) and prepare three 8 inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray and parchment paper in the bottom. These cakes can have a tendency to stick to the pans a bit, so I strongly recommend the parchment paper in the bottom.
2. Add the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt to a large mixer bowl and combine. Set aside.
3. Add the milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and eggs to a medium sized bowl and combine.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat until well combined.
5. Slowly add the water to the batter and mix on low speed until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is well combined.
6. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake for 24-28 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
7. Remove the cakes from oven and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling. These cakes can have a tendency to stick to the pans a bit so jiggle them a bit to loosen from the sides of the pan before turning the cakes out to cool.
BLUEBERRY FILLING
8. Combine the sugar, cornstarch and water in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat and stir to combine. Heat until the mixture is wet and the sugar begins to melt.
9. Add the blueberries and stir to coat with the sugar mixture.
10. Continue to cook until the blueberries start to soften and let out juice.
11. Remove from heat when blueberries are a bit juicy and the juice has begun to thicken. Pour the mixture into another bowl and refrigerate until cool.
BLUEBERRY FROSTING
12. When everything has cooled, make the frosting. Combine the butter and shortening in a large mixer bowl until smooth.
13. Add about half of the powdered sugar and mix until well combined.
14. Add about half of the blueberry puree and mix until well combined and smooth.
15. Add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until combined.
16. Add the remaining blueberry puree and cinnamon and mix until well combined and smooth.
CRUMBLE
17. Combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar and butter in a medium-sized bowl and use a fork to press the butter into the dry ingredients until it all forms a crumbly mixture.
18. Add the oatmeal and use the fork to press it into the crumbly mixture.
19. Sprinkle the mixture over a lined cookie sheet and bake at 350°F (176°C) for about 5-8 minutes, until the crumble pieces starts to brown around the edges. Remove and set aside to cool.
ASSEMBLY
20. To assemble the cake, use a large serrated knife to remove the domes from the top of the cakes.
21. Place the first layer of cake on a serving plate or a cardboard cake round. Pipe a dam of frosting around the outside of the cake. I use Ateco tip 808 for the dam so that it’s tall.
22. Spread half of the blueberry filling evenly on top of the cake layer, inside the dam.
23. Add some additional blueberry frosting to the top of the blueberry filling and spread into an even layer.
24. Add the second layer of cake and repeat the filling layer with the remaining blueberry filling and additional blueberry frosting.
25. Add the final layer of cake on top, then smooth out the frosting around the sides of the cake.
26. Frost the outside of the cake. Feel free to use my tutorial for frosting a smooth cake.
27. Finish off the cake by pressing the crumble into the sides of the cake, then top with some swirls of frosting, fresh blueberries and additional crumble.
28. Refrigerate cake until ready to serve. Cake is best for 2-3 days.
* I used about 1 cup (135g) of blueberries for the frosting. Just pop them in a food processor and puree. Between the filling and frosting, I used about 3 pints of blueberries.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice
- Calories: 883
- Sugar: 109.5 g
- Sodium: 351.1 mg
- Fat: 37.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 134.4 g
- Protein: 6 g
- Cholesterol: 33.6 mg
Enjoy!
When you say Blueberry Puree, are you referring to the berries you cooked on the stove top?
The blueberry puree is for the frosting. I used about 1 cup (135g) of blueberries and just pop them in a food processor and puree.
So sorry! I missed that note about pureeing the blueberries in a food processor for the frosting. Going to try again tomorrow Thank you so much for your wonderful recipes
No, I used separate blueberry puree for the frosting. There’s a little note at the bottom of the recipe – just pop some blueberries in a food processor. I hope that helps!
Hi Lindsay,
I tried this recipe yesterday, however, it turn out very dense, but it taste good with the hint of cinnamon :). Will definitely try this cake again.
Can i use 3 6inch round pan?
I haven’t baked it in 6 inch pans. I’m not sure how thick the layers would be but I think it’d be ok.
I don’t know why but this cake batter was really liquidy when done. It also had a raw flour/kind of gummy texture when done. Darn it. It looked so good too. I don’t understand the adition of the water at the end, that really took it over the top. Must’ve done something wrong, my cake had more of a brown color…
It’s supposed to be a pretty thin batter with the water at the end – that’s normal. This is a modified cake version of this vanilla cupcake, which seems to be hit or miss for people and I’m really not sure why. I’m sorry you had that experience with the cake. If you feel like trying again, the layers of this cake are very similar is taste, but it’s a butter-based cake.
This cake sounds like a dream! I was wondering, with the amount that you cook the filling is that enough to make the blueberries go from fresh tasting to baked tasting? Sort of a weird question, but I LOVE blueberries after they’ve been baked but really dislike the taste of fresh blueberries. I hope that makes sense lol. I was thinking of using freeze dried blueberries for the frosting instead of fresh for that same reason. Thanks!
It would probably be hard for me to say, since it’s a personal preference, but I do think they taste cooked. Probably not as cooked as if they’ve been in the oven though.
My niece has requested a blueberry cake for her 4th birthday…so i’ll be sourcing some blueberries here in March, haha. Just want to double check: The crumble specifies unsalted butter, does this mean all other instances of butter in the recipe (frosting) should be salted? Thank you Lindsay! Can’t wait to try this cake!!!
Yes, I use salted butter in the frosting with half shortening. If you were to use all butter for the frosting though, I’d suggest half salted/half unsalted, or just adding some of your own salt and using unsalted butter. The salt adds some flavor and cuts down on the sweetness.
Ohhh…love the cake plate….i am a collector of those….dont have one like that
Hi Lindsay, this cake looks lovely..
Quick question: I intend to bake this cake for my husband’s birthday coming up soon. I tried to half the recipe of just the cake to try it out. Eg: 2 1/2 cup flour I used 1 1/4 cup n so on..unfortunately the cake did not come out as expected..the skewer came out clean but when I cut into the cake, the inside was not crumbly but it seemed gummy instead..Are u able to advise me what could have gone wrong? Should I weigh the dry ingredients instead of using the cup measurements ? Or is there a chance I could have over mixed it?
Look forward to hearing from u.thank u so much..
This cake recipe base is one that some people seem to have trouble with and others don’t. I honestly don’t know why. This cake though has very similarly flavored cake layers, but are butter based and seem to give people less trouble. You could try swapping out the cake layers.
Thank u Lindsay
Hi Lindsay! I’m thinking about making this for my boyfriend’s birthday. It looks wonderful! Quick question though, and this applies for all of your amazing cakes: when you measure flour, do you spoon flour into the measuring cup and then level? Or do you just scoop and level? Measuring flour is something I’m always a bit unsure about whenever I try a new recipe–one too many dry cakes will do that to you. ????
I actually weigh my dry ingredients to be sure they are accurate. If you don’t have a scale though, I’d say scooping into the measuring cup, then leveling is going to be more accurate.
Does it matter if you use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar?
I use light brown sugar.
Delicious! What a lovely cake. 🙂
I loved it!!!!
Una vera meraviglia per gli occhi e per il palato, una presentazione impeccabile!!
Adoro tutto!!!
Complimenti
Looks lovely, as always. These flavors look like they would taste so good together!
Thanks OJ!
Wow this looks amazing!
This cake sounds incredible! I love the idea of pie cake!!