I am a huge fan of breakfast and brunch. Seriously, HUGE. Omelets, hashbrowns, mimosas…yum, yum, and more yum! What’s not to love about starting the day surrounded with good food and laughs? What I’m not a big fan of is waking up super early to start prepping for brunch so I take every shortcut possible to make my morning and life easier. One of my best shortcuts is everyone’s favorite new kitchen appliance, the Instant Pot! I originally got it to make super easy beans and stews but quickly realized that it can do so much more, including this Lemon Blueberry Breakfast Cake. It took a few tries to adjust the recipe to work in the Instant Pot but now it’s perfect for any brunch table!
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There are a few things you’ll need to make this Instant Pot Lemon Blueberry Cake recipe work. First things first, you’re going to need a pressure cooker (highly recommend the Instant Pot) and a baking dish that is small enough to fit in it. A 1 1/2 qt CorningWare round dish fits perfectly in my pressure cooker! The original recipe I used from Saving Room For Dessert called for fresh blueberries but I only had frozen on hand so I just made do. Feel free to substitute fresh blueberries back into the recipe if you’ve got them!
Do you guys know about the hot glass/room temp butter shortcut? Ok, so this is the best life hint ever. If you’re working with a recipe that calls for a stick of butter at room temp but totally forgot to leave one out, just fill a drinking glass with hot water and let it sit for five minutes. Empty the water, place over a stick of cold butter for another five minutes, remove and voila…room temp butter! We use this shortcut all the time when we run out of soft butter for toast too. Such a time-saver!
Add butter, lemon zest (save rest of lemon for buttermilk and glaze), and sugar to your handy Kitchenade mixer (I love mine in Empire Red) and mix, scraping down the sides when necessary. I highly suggest taking a few seconds to thoroughly enjoy the smell while you zest the lemon (This zester works well for me). The kids could be screaming, the dog’s throwing up, and the house is a mess but for just one fleeting moment, everything is perfection when you’re surrounded by the amazing aroma of a fresh lemon zest. Ok, back to reality…let’s finish this recipe!
As I mentioned above, the amazing original recipe from Saving Room For Dessert called for fresh blueberries but since I didn’t have any on hand, frozen blueberries worked just fine for me. Want to know how to prevent thawed berries from dying the entire batter purple? Just run water through the blueberries in a colander until the water is clear. Place the berries on some paper towels to soak up as much of the moisture as possible and then add to the recipe just as you would fresh. Lightly coating the blueberries with flour will also help prevent the dreaded “Purple Cake Syndrome!” 
Originally, I put all the batter in my Instant Pot and set it to manual for 30 minutes but it was having a hard time cooking all the way through. The next time around, I split the batter, baked it for the same amount of time, and it came out perfectly moist and solid. If you have the right supplies, you can either bake two at the same time, one after another, or save the batter for later when you need a quick dessert to serve friends that just dropped in.
One last little change I made to the original recipe was to add a lemon glaze over the entire Instant Pot Lemon Blueberry Breakfast Cake. This is a totally optional and decadent step because the cake is great without it but who doesn’t like a yummy lemon glaze?!
I absolutely love how solid and dense this cake is for breakfast or brunch. My boys seriously couldn’t wait to get their little hands on a slice! Remember, this recipe makes enough for two small cakes. Totally helpful when you’re planning a brunch for a larger group of people! Hope you enjoy making this in your Instant Pot!
Instant Pot Lemon Blueberry Breakfast Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 lemon zest
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temp
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk or any milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
- 1/2 lemon juice (optional)
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar optional
Instructions
- Grease and flour an appropriately sized dish for Instant Pot.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Reserve 2 tablespoons for Step 6.
- Add zest, sugar, and room temperature butter to mixer and beat until thoroughly combined, scraping down the sides when necessary.
- Add egg and vanilla to mixer and combine.
- Working 1 cup at a time, add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the sugared butter in the stand mixer. Incorporate completely before adding another cup one at a time. Remove mixer bowl.
- Lightly toss the blueberries with reserved flour and gently fold into batter.
- Pour 2/3 cup of water in Instant Pot with rack. Spoon half of batter into greased/floured dish and transfer to pressure cooker.
- Set Instant Pot to High Pressure and Manual for 30 minutes.
- When done, quick release the pressure and immediately remove the cake. Allow condensation to dissipate completely before transferring to a serving dish.
- (Optional) Mix the juice from 1/2 a lemon with 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and pour over cake.
- Serve and enjoy! Visit Tried & True (triedandtrueblog.com) for more great recipes.
Looks delicious! Can you freeze the half batter ?
The cake was shorter and denser than I thought.Is it the recipe? Or is this how all cakes turn out in the Instant Pot ?
This was my first cake.The lemon zest makes all the difference.Tastes wonderful.
Could I use a bundt pan and use the whole amount of batter?
I haven’t tried that with this recipe but it sounds like that may work!
I just tried whole recipe in 6C bundt, with paper towel draped on top then foil as per other recipes, with 10 min NPR, and it was NOT done. I checked a few of my other similar recipes that say cook for 50-60 min, so I added another 10 with NPR and crossing my fingers.
Lisa, did you try the bundt pan? If so, how did it work? Thanks!
Would this work in a crockpot, if you cooked it all night on low?
Has anyone tried this recipe with soy milk and egg replacer? My daughter is allergic to dairy and egg.
Could I make these as cupcakes? What temperature and bake time would you estimate?
Are you able to cook this in the inner pot, if you do not have a baking dish that will fit inside the instant pot?