This blueberry jam cake is the perfect Spring celebration cake! The cake is filled with a vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and blueberry jam, and is then frosted with a blueberry Swiss meringue buttercream. I'll walk you through how to make Swiss meringue buttercream, a bakery worthy frosting!
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Tell me about this cake!
- Flavor: this vanilla cake is filled with a vanilla buttercream and blueberry jam. The cake is then frosted with a blueberry jam buttercream. The perfect pairing for Spring!
- Texture: this soft and tender cake is frosted and filled with a creamy (and dreamy!) Swiss meringue buttercream. The cake is made using the reverse creaming method which gives you a soft crumb. Topping with fresh blueberries not only makes your cake look beautiful, but gives amazing texture
- Ease: the frosting is a bit more complex than your regular American buttercream, but is 100% worth it! The cake is very simple to make and one of my favorites!
- Time: the longest part of this process is making the frosting, which takes about half an hour. You'll also need to set aside time to assemble the cake as it will need to chill before finishing it off.
- Would I make this again? Definitely! This is the perfect Spring or Summer cake and perfect for any occasion.
Ingredients you'll need
Ingredient Notes
- Butter: I use European style butter in this recipe, this gives you a much creamier taste than regular butter. Make sure that when making the cake and the buttercream that the butter is at room temperature.
- Yogurt: full-fat yogurt makes this cake extra moist and tender. Don't sub it out for more milk!
- All-purpose Flour: this is already a very tender and soft cake, so no need to use cake flour in this recipe.
Making the Cake
This is a really simple cake to make and is used in a few recipes on my site! The reverse creaming method gives you a soft and tender cake.
First off, make sure all of your ingredients are room temperature. Take out the eggs, butter, milk and yogurt about 2 hours before baking.
Start off by mixing all the dry ingredients together in your mixer. Cube your butter, and add it to your mixer. Mix with the paddle attachment until it resembles coarse sand.
Add in your egg whites one at a time. Make sure you fully scrape the bowl after each addition! Have you ever poured your cake batter into your pan and the last bit of the batter just looks..weird? That's from not mixing your batter properly and not getting every bit mixed. Finally, add in your whole egg.
In a large jug, whisk together your milk, yogurt and vanilla extract. Pour in a third of the wet ingredients and mix. Repeat twice more. Your batter is going to be very liquidy!
Pour into your greased and lined cake pans and bake.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
This kind of buttercream is so dreamy! Forget everything you know about grainy and overly sweet buttercream, this is the frosting you'll find at fancy bakeries.
Swiss meringue buttercream is made by dissolving the sugar and egg whites together over heat before whipping into a meringue. Make sure your bowl is clean and dry before using, and don't have any egg yolks in your egg whites or it won't whip up.
Place a small saucepan over medium-low heat with about an inch of water and let it come to a simmer. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add your egg whites and sugar. Place the bowl over the water but make sure it isn't actually touching the water! Whisk constantly until the sugar dissolves. Check it's ready by lifting the whisk up and touching the mixture. Once it's completely smooth, it's ready!
Place in your stand mixer and whip with your whisk attachment for 10-12 minutes on high speed. It will become glossy with stiff peaks. By this time, your bowl should be room temperature. If your bowl is too warm, the butter that you add will melt.
Decrease the speed to low and add the butter a tablespoon at a time. Don't worry if it looks curdled! It'll come together by the end. Finally, add in your vanilla and salt.
For this cake I wanted the buttercream in the centre to stay vanilla, so I scooped out about ¾ cup worth of frosting and set to the side. I then added blueberry jam to the rest of the frosting.
Swiss Meringue Troubleshooting
There are a few ways your buttercream can go wrong though, so let's go through those:
- It looks soupy! This is either because you didn't allow the bowl to cool enough before adding the butter, or your butter is too warm. You can take ice cubes and hold them against the bottom of the bowl while it is whipping.
- It looks way too curdled and cold! Your butter was too cold. You can either keep whipping up the buttercream or use a blowtorch to warm up the bottom of the bowl.
Assembling the Cake
This is a part of cake making that intimidates some people, but I promise there are no fancy steps and you can come out with a beautiful (and delicious) cake. Before we get started, make sure your cakes are completely cool before starting. I make my cakes the night before then wrap them in clingfilm.
- Place the first layer down. Pipe out a dam of frosting around the edge of the cake. This will stop the jam from seeping out. Dollop frosting in the middle of the cake, then use a small offset spatula to spread the frosting in an even layer.
- Use another offset spatula or spoon to evenly cover the frosting with jam. Make sure it isn't touching the dam that you piped out earlier though!
- Place your other layer on top and press down gently. Scoop out frosting and apply a very thin layer across the top and sides of the cake. Make sure there are no empty spaces, you can basically spackle those areas. Place the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes to set.
- Take the cake out and frost the whole cake! I like to use a small spoon to create swoops and swirls. With this cake I used a cake scraper to make the sides of the cake smooth and left the top swirly.
Other Cake Recipes to Try:
Make sure to tag me on Instagram @alpineella and leave a review below if you've made this cake! If you want more baking ideas, you can follow me on Pinterest.
Recipe
Blueberry Jam Cake
Equipment
- 2 x 8" cake pans
Ingredients
Cake
- 285 grams (2 ½ cups) all-purpose flour
- 170 grams (12 tablespoon) unsalted butter room temperature
- 333 grams (1 ⅔ cups) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 egg whites room temperature
- 1 egg room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 240 ml (1 cup) whole milk room temperature
- 120 ml (½ cup) yogurt room temperature
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- 5 egg whites room temperature
- 400 grams (2 cups) granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 678 grams (3 cups) unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 35 grams (⅓ cup) blueberry jam
Assembly
- 85 grams (¼ cup) blueberry jam
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C. Grease and line two 8-inch cake pans.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix all of the dry ingredients on slow speed until blended. Add in your butter and mix on low until it looks like damp sand
- Add your egg whites one at a time, and then your whole egg. Beat well after each addition, making sure you scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- In a small jug, whisk together the vanilla extract, yogurt and milk.
- Slowly pour in one-third of the milk mixture into the mixing bowl. With the speed on low, mix together. Be careful as it may spill! Pour in the rest of the milk in two more additions, mixing slowly after each addition. Beat for 2 minutes. Your batter will be liquidy.
- Pour the batter into your pans, it's about 650g per cake tin.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the cake will come out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Take the cake out of the tin and let it cool completely.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Fill a small saucepan with about an inch of water, bring to a simmer
- In a stand mixer bowl, stir the egg whites and sugar until combined. Place the bowl over the saucepan. Make sure you're constantly whisking the sugar mixture until the sugar dissolves. Feel the mixture between your fingers to check if there are granules
- Once it is smooth, remove the bowl from heat and place it in your stand mixer, with a whisk attachment. Whisk on medium high until you have stiff, glossy peaks, about 10-12 minutes. Touch the bowl, at this point it should have cooled down.
- Reduce speed to low and add the butter, a tablespoon at a time, and beat until combined. Add the vanilla and salt
- Remove about ½ cup of frosting and set aside. Pour the jam into the rest of the frosting and mix to combine. Use immediately
Assemble
- Take about ½ a cup of blueberry frosting in a piping bag and pipe a dam around the edge of one of the cakes. Scoop out the vanilla frosting and use an offset spatula to spread the frosting evenly inside the dam. Take your jam and use a spoon to spread the jam on top of the vanilla frosting.
- Gently press down your second layer on top. Crumb coat the sides and top of cake by spreading a thin layer of frosting, then chill the cake in your fridge for about 30 minutes.
- Take the cake out and frost it with the rest of the buttercream.
- Keep your cake in the fridge for up to 4 days.
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Nicole says
Wonderful sponge. Thank you for all the advice on making the buttercream. Love it when bakers pass on their tips.