Introduction: Blueberry Cupcakes With Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting

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Makes 30 cupcakes

This blueberry cupcake is so striking, people will take notice.  The special magic ingredient is freeze dried blueberries, available at Whole foods, Trader Joes, or Amazon.  There are no artificial colors or flavors to make this cupcake and instead it relies on the gorgeous natural color of blueberries.

WARNING:  Most freeze dried fruit comes with a packet of silica gel in it.  DO NOT pulverize it.  Remove the tiny white packet before pulverizing.

Step 1: Blueberry Cake

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
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
1.2 oz (34 grams) freeze dried blueberries, pulverized in a mini food processor
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup pureed fresh blueberries
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with liners.

Mix together flour. baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In a large measuring cup or bowl, mix together buttermilk, blueberry puree and vanilla extract.  Set aside until needed.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, granulated sugar, and lemon zest in a mixing bowl until pale, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in pulverized blueberries.
Mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two batches of buttermilk mixture. Mix until just combined, scraping down bowl as needed. (I like to mix the last bit by hand using a spatula to make sure I get all the stuff at the bottom.) Scoop batter into cupcake tins.

Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 21 to 24 minutes.  Allow cupcakes to cool in tins for 10 minutes, and then remove cupcakes and place them on a cooling rack.


Step 2: Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes enough to frost 30 cupcakes

1 cup of butter, softened
8 oz of cream cheese, softened
1.2 oz (34 grams) freeze dried blueberries, pulverized in a mini food processor
3-5 cups of confectioners sugar

In a large mixing bowl, mix butter until it is softened and uniform. Add cream cheese and beat together until it is uniform. Add pulverized blueberries. Add 3 cups of sugar to the mixture and mix. Add more sugar if necessary.  Mix again until mixture is creamy and spreadable. Add more sugar if necessary, otherwise prepare to frost cake.

Step 3: Frosting

You can use a pastry bag and a Wiltons 1M tip to pipe the rosettes, but the pulverized blueberries can clog the piping tip making piping hard.  Another option is to simply ice the cupcakes using a knife, which looks lovely as well.  Garnish with fresh blueberries if desired.

Enjoy!

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