Mixed Berry Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze - this cake is made with 3 types of berries all combined in one beautiful cake: blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. It's a perfect Summer bundt cake that can be made with either buttermilk, or Greek yogurt, or Kefir. This recipe uses 10-cup bundt pan.
Mixed Berry Bundt Cake
I discovered this triple berry buttermilk bundt cake recipe on one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. When Deb published that blog post, I found myself coming back to her site, just to look at her pictures of this mixed berry bundt cake full of blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries, and not being able to easily forget it. Deb's pictures made it look so enticing that I made this cake 3 times in the last 3 months.
And the only reason I didn't make it even more often is that there is only so much cake that one family can eat! Each time it was with different friends, and each time it was a huge success! The only change that I made to the recipe was to use Greek yogurt (once I used Kefir, too) instead of buttermilk.
While this mixed berry bundt cake is perfect when made with fresh berries in the Summer time, I've made it both with fresh and frozen berries (without defrosting them). And by frozen berries I mean fresh berries that I froze myself, so that each berry remained separate and not clumped together. So, this recipe will work great both with fresh berries and frozen berries (as long as they are separated and not clumped). This makes me very happy, because it means that I can enjoy this mixed berry bundt cake BOTH in the summer AND in the winter.
This triple berry bundt cake also makes a beautiful presentation and is VERY easy to make.
Lemon Glaze
Lemon glaze makes the cake really beautiful, plus it adds the lemon flavor which is out of this world. Here are tips to ensure that your lemon glaze is thick and not runny:
- Use slightly softened, not melted better! The butter should still be able to retain its shape! It should almost be on the firm side but soft enough for you to whisk it using the electrical mixer.
- Use electrical mixer and whisk powdered sugar, lemon juice and butter until very thick and very white.
- To make double sure that your glaze is thick enough, you can put the bowl with the glaze to the freezer for about 15 minutes to make it harder.
- Make sure the cake is completely cooled off before applying the glaze. If the cake is even a little warm, the glaze will melt and will be runny.
What is a substitute for buttermilk in baking?
Greek yogurt, Kefir and buttermilk are good substitutes for one another, so using either one will work in this recipe.
How to make bundt cake with mixed berries
Below are some helpful step-by-step photos of how I made this cake.
Once you followed the recipe (down below) and combined all of bundt cake batter ingredients (before adding the berries) - your cake batter should looks like this:
Next, in a separate bowl, mix the berries with 2 tablespoons of flour. This helps so that they don't sink to the bottom of the bundt pan and don't clump together.
Then, fold in the berries (coated with flour as in previous step) into the cake batter:
Spray the bundt pan with a special Baking Spray with Flour. Then, add mixed berry cake batter to the bundt pan:
Bake your bundt cake at 350 F in the preheated oven for 1 hour or 1 hour and 15 minutes until the toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Mid-time through the baking, turn the pan around in the oven for even baking.
How to get the bundt cake out of its pan
Sometimes the cakes get stuck to the bundt pans and it seems impossible to get them out without ruining them. So, how do you get a cake unstuck from the bundt pan? Or, how do you successfully release a cake from bundt cake to begin with? Follow the below instructions and you will be able to get your cake safely out of the bundt pan!
- Before you add the cake batter to the bundt pan, make sure to spray you bundt pan with a baking spray, preferably the one that contains flour.
- After you baked your bundt cake, remove the pan from oven, and let the cake cool in the pan for 40 minutes on wire rack.
- After your bundt pan has cooled off for 40 minutes, place the bundt pan (with the cake in it) in the freezer for 30 minutes - the bundt pan will still be quite hot to the touch (even after 40 minutes of cooling), so use kitchen gloves to handle the pan.
- Remove the bundt pan from the freezer after 30 minutes. Invert the bundt pan onto a cake plate and let it sit inverted for a bit to let the gravity do the work (it could take as little as half a minute or as long as 20 minutes, depending on your bundt pan). Then, gently lift the bundt pan and your cake should be released.
Pour the lemon glaze over your cooled bundt cake and you're done! And you don't even need the lemon glaze. This cake is good as is!
Other amazing bundt cake recipes:
Ever since I made this mixed berry bundt cake, I've been on a bundt cake obsession and made quite a few more bundt cakes (apple cinnamon, chocolate, etc.).
Apple Cinnamon Buttermilk Bundt Cake - this cake is made in a beautiful rose shaped bundt pan, and it makes a perfect coffee cake for breakfast!
Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake - this is really one of the best chocolate cake you'll ever try, and it's made in a bundt pan!
Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake - one of my most popular recipes around the holidays! Save this recipe for the holiday season!
Cranberry Apple Pecan Vanilla Buttermilk Cake - another great dessert for the holidays!
Banana Buttermilk Bundt Cake - if you love bananas you'll love this recipe!
Can you tell I love bundt cakes?!
Mixed Berry Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze
Ingredients
Mixed Berry Bundt Cake
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- 3 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup Greek yogurt (or Kefir, or buttermilk)
- 3 cups mixed berries (I used 1 cup raspberry, 1 cup blackberry, 1 cup blueberry)
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (softened, not melted! the butter should still be able to retain its shape!)
Instructions
Bundt cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Use 10-cup bundt pan.
- In a medium bowl, mix 2 ½ cups flour, baking powder and salt and combine thoroughly.
- In a separate large bowl, add together the softened butter, sugar and lemon zest and mix, using mixer, on high setting for about 5 minutes until even consistency is reached and the mixture reaches lighter color.
- Add eggs, vanilla to the butter-sugar mixture and continue beating until well-incorporated.
- Now we’ll be adding flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture in 3 gradual steps, instead of dumping all of flour at one time. If you dump all of flour mixture into your butter mixture at one time, it will be more difficult to stir and you won’t get a smooth texture. So, we’ll be adding flour and Greek yogurt (or buttermilk) in 3 additions:
- With your mixer on low speed, add ⅓ of flour mixture to butter-sugar mixture, beating just a little until all is well combined. Then follow by ¼ cup of Greek yogurt (or buttermilk). Add second ⅓ cup of flour mixture, beating with mixer just to combine. Follow by ¼ cup of Greek yogurt (or buttermilk), beating just to combine. Finally, add third ⅓ cup of flour mixture, followed by final ¼ cup of Greek yogurt (or buttermilk). Again, beat just enough to combine.
- Make sure to have your mixer on low speed while adding flour, otherwise flour might fly around your kitchen. Make sure to not overmix or overbeat, use mixer just to combine the ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, combine berries with 2 tablespoon of flour. This is supposed to prevent berries from clumping together and sinking.
- Note about using frozen berries: I did make this cake with frozen berries without defrosting them. It's important that, if using frozen berries, they should not be clumped together, each berry should be separate (I freeze fresh berries by lining them on a cookie sheet). So you can use both fresh and frozen berries, and in either case you toss them with flour before adding to the batter.
- Using spatula, fold berries into the cake batter, trying not to squish the berries.
- Use 10 cup bundt pan. Spray your cake pan with a Baking Spray with Flour (which works great for bundt pans). Pour batter gently into prepared pan.
- Bake for at least 60 minutes (depending on the oven, it could be as long as 1 hour 15 minutes), until the toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Mid-time through the baking, turn the pan around in the oven for even baking.
- Remove the pan from oven, let it cool for 40 minutes on wire rack.
How to release the cake from the bundt pan:
- After your bundt pan cooled off for 40 minutes, place the bundt pan in the freezer for 30 minutes - it will still be quite hot to the touch (even after 40 minutes of cooling), so use kitchen gloves to handle the pan.
- Remove the pan from the freezer after 30 minutes, invert the bundt pan and let it sit inverted for a bit to let the gravity do the work (it could take as little as half a minute or as long as 20 minutes, depending on your bundt pan). Then, gently lift bundt pan and your cake should be released.
How to make Lemon Glaze:
- Whisk powdered sugar, lemon juice and butter until very thick and very white. Spread this lemon juice frosting over the top of the cooled cake like shown on the photos.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
This recipe was originally published on October 3, 2012 and republished with updates, baking tips in May 2018.
A keeper! I made this with a frozen blueberry/blackberry/raspberry mix I had on hand, following your directions to be sure each fruit was separate, and that worked beautifully. The cake came right out of the pan. 😀 I make bundt cakes a lot and I'd never seen the freezer trick before; I'll have to try that on my Nordic Ware castle pan! My only caveat is that the glaze was very runny. I tracked back to the Smitten Kitchen original (thank you!) and saw it called for two cups of sugar instead of one. That was perfect.
Thank you, Barbara, for your wonderful review! Glad the cake turned out well, and that the frozen berries worked just fine! 🙂
We really enjoyed this cake with fresh strawberries and blueberries and a few raspberries. I’m keeping this recipe for other variations, like rhubarb. Yum!
Becky, I am so glad you enjoyed this cake, thank you for your review! 🙂
Fantastic recipe! I am a baker and I did not know the freezer tip for helping to release the cake from the pan. Worked within seconds! Turned out magnificently! I glazed it with a mixture of blackberry jelly, powdered sugar and whipping cream....for a purple finish. Wish I could share the photo!
I am so glad that you found this recipe helpful! Love your glaze - sounds like it was not only delicious but really pretty, too! Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing such a wonderful and positive comment! 🙂
5/10 rating. I should of bake 45 min instead of 1 hour. . Looked well done. ,not enough berries. Your tech to remove cake from Bundt pan failed. I should of done it the way i always had done in the past. I doubt I will try cake again
Easter dessert accomplished. The cake preparation in itself was a little involved. The presentation is beautiful. I can’t wait to try it tomorrow with my family
Ashley, what a great idea to make this for Easter! Thank you for taking the time to share this wonderful feedback!
Made this for my husband's birthday and it was .....hands down the best cake!
Wow - I am so flattered to hear that! 🙂 Thanks! 🙂
Fantastic cake! Turned out just as described! It will become a family favorite!
This recipe became part of my holiday baking experience this year and will likely reappear because it was fool proof for me. The cake is divine, holding the fruit well. I used frozen fruit: blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, cranberries. My bundt pan is traditional yet the flour spray worked it's magic with an easy release after the 40-minute cooling period. The kitchen smelled wonderfully lemon-scented. The cake is s beautiful and moist with a tiny tang from the buttermilk I used. Thank you for your adaptation and thank you to the original recipe creator.
Rhonda, thank you for your thoughtful feedback. ❤️ Glad you enjoyed this recipe as well. This cake is my favorite to make during the Summer months.
Followed the directions for the glaze. Butter was not melted. Still came out runny even after adding more powdered sugar. There was no instructions to put it in the freezer to thicken it. Not too happy about the glaze.
Cake turns out VERY dense. Why did this happen??
Can this be frozen? Looks a great recipe but too much for us to use in time. Would it defrost OK or would the fruit make it soggy?
Love it! Had extra frozen berries to use, great recipe!
Help! I made this with Greek yogurt .. it tastes great but is like a blueberry cake donut a real big one . I didn't rise .. my baking powder is new as well . Your thoughts ?
Excellent recipe! I add 1/4 tsp almond extract and it makes it even better in my opinion. My 8 yr old twins think this is the best cake ever!
So glad your family enjoyed this recipe! 🙂
does this need to be refrigerated or can I leave out on counter for 2 days?
I prefer to refrigerate this cake. Make sure to cover it air-tight (or place it in an air-tight container).
Very tasty .
Thank you!
I tried all the tricks for the glaze, and even added more sugar to thicken it up and it was still runny....suggestions?
Use only slightly softened butter (not melted!). Also, place the container with the glaze in the freezer for 5 or 10 minutes so that the butter in the glaze solidifies and thickens the glaze.
Hello can I use frozen red fruits.
Thank u so much
You can use frozen berries.
Can I use the same amount of milk if I use whole milk instead of buttermilk?