blueberries and cream cupcakes.

So, I've had 2 bags of frozen blueberries in my freezer for the past couple of months and I am determined to get them out of there. I think my original intent was to make smoothies and then I realized that I don't really like blueberry smoothies...so what better way to use them than to make cupcakes?! I adapted this recipe from howtoeatacupcake.net. Her site is amazing by the way, check it out if you haven't already. My idea for the 'cream' in these cupcakes, believe it or not came from Strawberry Shortcake. My mom made it for Easter last night and it got me thinking about that doll from the 80's, you know, the tv show and those cute little dolls where their hair supposedly smelled like their names? Ah, the joys of being a child of the 80's.

Okay, I just checked and the name is actually Blueberry Muffin, I thought her friend's name was Blueberries and Cream so my idea came from a figment of my imagination, neat. Anyway, enough chatter and onto the recipe:

blueberry muffins:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
1 Cup Sugar
1 tbsp canola oil*
2 Eggs (room temp)
1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup of milk.
1 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line cupcakes pan with papers. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar and oil* together until light and fluffy (its okay to over beat here, if you are feeling up to it, beat away, now is the time).
Add eggs one at a time until thoroughly incorporated into the butter/sugar mixture.
Sift (I don't sift, I whisk and this works fine) flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
 Alternate adding flour mixture and and milk, beginning and ending with flour until fully mixed. This is where you do not want to over beat. As soon as the flour is mixed in, stop beating unless you want tough cupcakes (whatever that exactly means, I'm not sure but I don't want it to happen).
 Fill cupcakes liners 2/3 full and bake for about 18 minutes. The original recipe apparently says 22-24 minutes but howtoeatacupcake.net said hers took 18 minutes and mine did as well. I got 18 cupcakes. Let cool completely.

*I add a tbsp of oil to all my cupcakes. I don't know why. For whatever reason, it gives me peace of mind. You don't have to do this and I'm not sure I ever have seen any recipe add oil to a butter cupcake. In my head, it keeps the cupcakes from coming out dry. I definitely could be making this up in my head, but I haven't had a dry cupcake since I started adding it.

whipped cream filling (from food network)
1 Cup heavy or whipping cream
2 tsp confectioners sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla paste or extract

Chill the bowl that you will be mixing the ingredients in. Make sure cream is very cold.
With a whisk*, or an electric mixer beat the cream and vanilla until loose peaks form. (If you lift up the beater, it should hold a "lazy curve".
Add the sugar and mix until soft peaks form. Be sure not to over beat the cream or it will start to look lumpy (I think these are actually little chunks of butter forming).
 After cupcakes have cooled completely, either using the cone method (cut a cone shaped hole in the center of each cupcake and then slice the top of the cone off so you have sort of a lid) or using a cupcake injector tip, however you decide, get the cream into the center of the cupcake. Replace "lid" if you used the cone method.

In hindsite, this whipped cream tasted terrible. It was almost bitter, like there was too much vanilla and not enough sugar. I kept adding more confectioners sugar (about 4-5 more tsp) until it tasted good to me. Also, the cone method was slightly stupid as it was a little bit messy (blueberries = messy). It wasn’t horrible but if you have one, maybe use the injector thing.

*The original recipe says you can hand whisk this but I'm not sure I would recommend it. Call me lazy but I feel like my hand would fall off if I tried to make whip cream without a mixer.

blueberry swiss meringue buttercream (from howtoeatacupcake.net)

4 egg whites
1 Cup granulated sugar
1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but cool
1 cup of blueberry preserves
2 tsp vanilla extract

Put egg whites and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is hot (about 160 degrees).
Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff peaks.
Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7* minutes.

*For whatever reason, and pardon my language, but I had to beat the shit out of the egg whites and sugar until I got stiff peaks. I'm not sure if I did something wrong but it ended up beating for about 45 minutes on high until I got stiff peaks. If anybody has any idea why this happened, please feel free to let me know.

While mixture is beating, bring the blueberry preserves to a simmer in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the pulp.
Set aside the blueberry liquid to cool to room temperature. Switch to the paddle attachment.
With mixer on medium, add cool butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition.
 Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes.
Reduce speed to low; add cooled blueberry liquid and vanilla extract and continue beating about 2 minutes to combine. If in doubt, just keep beating. She warns of this going through a "soupy curdled phase" which it really does but hang in there. It really does work in the end.

These cupcakes, entailed a lot of work (not gonna lie) BUT, let me tell you, they are seriously amazing. Well worth the work.

Like these? Try my Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes