This recipe was a family favorite growing up, and I’m now passing it along to my own children with the help of my mom and grandma. It is quick and simple, perfect for picnics in the summer. Additionally, the young ones are enthralled when I explain that the “mystery” of the cake is actually the boiling water. Adding a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top is also fantastic!
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup boiling water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Place blueberries in a deep 8-inch pie pan; drizzle lemon juice over blueberries.
- Beat 3/4 cup sugar and butter together in a bowl using an electric mixer until creamy. Sift flour, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt together in a bowl. Mix milk, alternating with flour mixture, into creamed butter mixture until batter is just combined. Pour batter over blueberries.
- Combine 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, and 1/2 teaspoon salt together in a bowl until thoroughly mixed; sprinkle over batter. Pour boiling water over sugar mixture.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.
- If top begins to brown too much, lower heat for last 15 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 249 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 50 g |
| Cholesterol | 13 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 302 mg |
| Sugars | 36 g |
| Fat | 5 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I’ve made this recipe several times and just love it. Instead of a pie dish I use a cake pan. It’s guaranteed not to spill over in the oven. I usually add a few more berries or even other soft fruit I have on hand. The recipe should say ‘scoop’ rather than ‘pour’ the batter over the berries.
I will make this again, it’s wicked unusual!
I have made this Mystery Cake 5 times in the last week and half! My husband loves it! I made it with blueberries the first two times, blueberries and blackberries the next two times, and right now it’s in the over with peaches! It’s really really good and really easy to make! most ingredients you would have in the house except maybe the fruit. It cooks up beautifully with a nice crust and I would consider this more of a cobbler type recipe than a cake. During the summer we have access to beautiful marion berries which will be wonderful with this recipe! I highly recommend this, have posted photos on FB and given the recipe out to several people already! It’s going to be a staple dessert in my house!
To be fair, this is more of a cobbler than a cake. But I can tell after making it once, I will be making this regularly. I followed directions exactly, except I used my frozen berries from last year. I can’t wait to try it with blackberries and may even try strawberries. 🙂
Tasty & easy but not much different than other fruit cobbler type recipes. No one jumped up for seconds.
2.5.15 … https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/233342/blueberry-mystery-cake/ … I’ve been in the overflowing blueberry syrup situation before – & having homegrown, very juicy blueberries nearly ensures a mess – soooo to minimize, I used an 8×8 glass dish. It was fine. I added 2T cornstarch to the berries (very juicy ones) & reduced sugar in the cake part to 1/3c. ‘Done in 35- 40 minutes. Done = it bubbles five minutes. The cake part reminded me of a sugar cookie. It’s crisp on top, but soft on the blueberry side. A bit too much sugar. ‘Not the prettiest dish, but you want to eat it, not just look at it.
this is quite good. i was looking for a recipe to use the last of my blueberry crop and this fit the bill. the only one thing i would change is to add a bit of cornstarch to the berries before putting in the pan. it is a bit soupy when serving. other than that, no complaints. delicious, quick and easy to make. thanks for the post yogurt4k, i will make again!
This was easy and was a big hit at my spinning group. I wish I read the first review, I didn’t protect my oven and it over flowed. Otherwise, I loved it and will make this again.
We really liked this cake. I would say it is more like a cake-like pie. I guess my pan wasn’t deep enough because it overflowed. . .thank goodness I had the pan on top of a cookie sheet.