Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

These lemon blueberry cupcakes are perfect balance of sweet and tart. Topped with lemon buttercream and homemade sparkly sugared blueberries.

I have finally completed my first Iron Cupcake Challenge! I was excited that the theme was summer berries because I have been eating a lot of berries lately. Every time I go to market I can’t resist buying them because they are vibrant in color and sweet in scent. I’m sucker for anything in season.

I thought over recipes and finally settled on lemon and blueberry as my main ingredients for my cupcakes. What a tasty combination that turned out to be! I did jumbo cupcakes and found the cupcakes to be delicious but the cake was a little dense. I’m sure there are substitutions I can add to make the cake lighter so I’m going to work on that when I have some more time. In the mean time the cupcakes still tasted fine so that is why I decided to share the recipe.

I made a super lemony buttercream frosting to top the cupcakes and finished it with some adorable sugared blueberries. If you have never made sugared berries you have to run into the kitchen and make them immediately. It is easy and will work on most berries and some fruit.

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

These lemon blueberry cupcakes are perfect balance of sweet and tart. Topped with lemon buttercream and homemade sparkly sugared blueberries.

Yield: 5 jumbo cupcakes

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

For Cupcakes:

3/4 cup cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 large eggs
1/2 cup fresh blueberries, frozen and lightly dusted with flour

For Frosting:

1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1-2 cups powdered sugar
3 teaspoons lemon zest
Juice of half a lemon

For Berries:

15 blueberries
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water

1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

For cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake tins with paper liners.

In a bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and zest.

In another medium sized mixing bowl mix together butter, sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Mix in the eggs 1 at a time, until smooth. Stir butter mixture into flour mixture until batter is combined well.

Gently fold in blueberries and be careful not to break the berries or the batter will turn purple.

Spoon 6 tablespoons of the cupcake batter into jumbo cupcake liners and bake cupcakes in middle of oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool cupcakes before frosting.

For frosting:

In in the bowl of a stand mixer add butter and beat until fluffy.

Add powdered sugar one cup at a time and then slowly add in lemon juice and zest. If the buttercream is too thick thin out with milk and if it's too thin add more powdered sugar.

For berries:
Whisk egg white and water in bowl until combined.

Brush egg white mixture over fresh blueberries and roll in sugar. Place sugared berries on a plate and let sugar harden for at least 2 hours before handling. Sugared berries can be stored in the refrigerator.