My blueberry farm visit spurred most amazing Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake: Here's the recipe

While on a recent assignment taking photos for the Detroit Free Press at Hazen's Blueberry Farm, I put down my cameras and picked 5 pounds of blueberries to bring home to my wife, Jill, who repeated a beautiful lemon blueberry Bundt cake recipe she made last year. It’s so delicious that I have to share the recipe here.

As a nonbaker, I was curious as to why Jill was putting the blueberries she had measured for the recipe into a bowl of flour — it is a crucial step so that the blueberries stay suspended in the cake batter and don't sink to the bottom. Who knew?

Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

Makes: 12 slices / Prep time: 30 minutes / Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

CAKE

2 cups fresh blueberries

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

¾ cup (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

⅓ cup fresh lemon juice (approximately 1 lemon)

2 tablespoons lemon zest (2 lemons)

¼ cup canola or vegetable oil

1 cup sour cream, at room temperature

LEMON GLAZE

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, as needed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, place the blueberries and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of flour. Toss to coat blueberries with the flour. (This will help the blueberries from sinking in the batter.) Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar for about 3-5 minutes or until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Slowly mix in the lemon juice, lemon zest and oil.

With the mixture on low and working in batches, add the dry ingredients in three additions alternating with the sour cream, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix in each addition on low speed until just combined, making sure not to overmix the batter.

Gently fold in the blueberries until just combined.

Coat a 10-inch Bundt pan well with nonstick cooking spray. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and evenly spread it around.

Bake for 50 to 65 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the cake comes out clean. If the top of the cake is getting too brown, cover loosely with foil for the last 5-10 minutes of baking.

Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Invert the cake onto the wire rack to finish cooling.

While the cake cools, make the glaze.

In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice until well combined and no lumps remain. If the glaze is too thick, add a little more lemon juice. If the glaze is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar to thicken it up.

Drizzle the glaze over the top of the Bundt cake and allow to sit for about 10-15 minutes so the glaze can set and harden.

Adapted from livewellbakeoften.com and tested by Jill Wright, Pleasant Ridge.