Pinned There, Done That - Blue Birthday Cupcakes

Blueberry Cupcakes for Braelin's First Birthday

Braelin LURVES blueberries and I thought that blueberry cuppycakes would be just the thing for her birthday treat... what I didn't count on was the scarcity of blueberries in early October.  Never fear, frozen berries worked just fine.  

RECIPE: (modified from http://weekofmenus.blogspot.com/2011/04/bluebery-cupcakes-with-blueberry-cream.html)

2 sticks unsalted butter (um... I was a crazed shopper and bought salted, I can't taste 'em, but they still looked alright to me.)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
4 large eggs
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup pureed fresh blueberries
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  *The original recipe called for freeze dried blueberries and because our local market didn't have any, neither do my cuppycakes, but I'd bet they would add a lil' special something.  So, if you've got 'em, use 'em.

Oven to 350 degrees.  I used foil liners so no cupcake pan was necessary.

Mix together flour. baking powder and salt. I set this aside for over an hour - it was primo shower time, you gotta take it where you can get it.  The mix was fine.

I pureed the frozen blueberries after nuking them for a minute to get them mooshey.  I used my immersion blender and just left the berry juice in the mashing cup then added the buttermilk and vanilla.

I finally broke out the KitchenAid Mixer and beat the butter, sugar and lemon for a while. The original recipe suggests 2 minutes, but Braelin wanted to read Bisquit, so that's how long the mixer was going. The eggs were added one at a time and then two games of peek-a-boo were played while each egg incorporated into the mix.

The flour was supposed to be added in three batches, but Avery "helped" so it was added in one big batch and one teensy batch.  I added the berry-buttermilk mix in-between the two batches of flour.

I then had a brilliant idea:  My cuppycake batter always goes EVERYWHERE... so I took a cue from my frosting experience and scooped the batter into a large plastic baggy and squirted the mix into the liners.  It looked so stinking cute that I even took a picture of the pre-cooked cupcakes... but I'll spare you.

My dinosaur of an oven took about 25 minutes to cook the cupcakes through, but if you have one that wasn't from the discount rack (stinkin' home flippers) then it might take less time.  

I was going to get fancy with the frosting, but the girls were ready for a nap and I was ready to be done, so I used some store bought buttercream frosting, mixed in the left over blueberry juices and called it naptime.