The Backstory…
This gluten-free Lemon Dream Blueberry Cake recipe is a remake that I created for one of the members of my Gluten Free Baking Secrets Tips & Tricks Facebook group.
Juana Patterson wrote to me asking for help converting a favorite family recipe to gluten free. She told me that her husband got it out of the newspaper some years ago, and traditionally he would fix it on the Fourth of July. She said that her husband and son were always more of the bakers, while she does the cooking. I was happy to hear that even though their son is now an adult, the guys still make cookies together at Christmas time. I love hearing that families cook and bake together.
Making It Gluten Free
For the most part, converting recipes to gluten free doesn’t require much other than a little math and a few tweaks to the actual process. In this recipe, the biggest change was letting the batter rest for 30 minutes before folding in the egg whites. This step is crucial to getting a great texture and avoiding a gritty outcome.
This gluten-free Lemon Dream Blueberry Cake is different than the usual recipes I post, because it contains a couple of premade ingredients — instant pie filling mix and powdered whipped topping mix. I know that not everyone will be able to find these ingredients, so I am working on creating a scratch verion of this recipe that does not include them.
This recipe will work with most commonly available 1:1 gluten-free flour blends including the ones you can make yourself from my recipes.
Ingredients
Cake
- 585 grams 1:1 gluten-free flour blend
- 448 grams sugar
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 box instant lemon pudding mix*
- 2 packets Dream Whip powder mix (1 box) (2.6 ounces)
- 205 grams shortening
- 6 large eggs
- 2 medium lemons -- zest and juice (4 ounces/ 112 grams of juice)
- 560 grams crushed pineapple, drained (20-ounce can)
- 224 grams milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 6 large egg whites
- 12 ounces fresh blueberries, rinsed & dried
- Blueberry jam (optional)
Lemon cream cheese icing
- 224 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
- 448 grams cream cheese, softened (two 8-ounce packages)
- 518 grams confectioners' sugar (4½ cups)
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
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Grease three 9-inch cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper circles, and dust with 1:1 gluten-flour blend.
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In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, pudding mix and Dream Whip mix. Add shortening, and mix on low- to medium-speed until it is the texture of coarse sand.
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Add the whole eggs, lemon juice and zest, crushed pineapple, milk, vanilla and lemon extract. Mix until eggs are fully incorporated. Scrape down bowl. Let this rest for 30 minutes.
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Preheat oven to 325 degrees while the batter is resting.
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In another bowl, beat the egg whites until firm peaks form. Fold whites into batter along with eight ounces of the blueberries.
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Divide batter between three 9”-inch cake pans. Bake 40 minutes or until the edges pull away from the sides of the pans and a toothpick comes out clean.
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Turn out of the pans immediately onto a parchment-lined cooling rack, and let cool completely.
Frosting
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With an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese together until light. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar and the lemon juice.
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Fill and frost your cake with the cream cheese frosting. I like to pipe frosting around the edge of each layer to create a dam, and then fill with a thin layer of blueberry jam before topping with more cream cheese frosting. Repeat with the next cake layer.
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Decorate with the remaining four ounces of the fresh blueberries (and candied lemon slices if desired).
Recipe Notes
*Instant lemon pudding boxes vary in weight by brand, so just look for a box that makes four servings (usually a 2.75-ounce to 3.5 ounce package).