The Story:
If there was such a thing as a nostalgic fruit, blueberries would be mine. When I was growing up we had a long row of blueberry bushes down our driveway. I just remember spending my summers roaming from bush to bush until my fingers and lips turned purple from the juice.
Lemon Blueberry Cakes:1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 ½ cups flour
¼ cup corn starch
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons lemon zest
¼ cup lemon juice
1 cup sour cream
1 cup buttermilk
1 ¾ cups blueberries + 2 tb flour
Lemon Blueberry Buttercream:
1 cup butter
¼ cup blueberries
3 teaspoons lemon juice
3 ½ -4 ½ cups powdered sugar
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with cupcake liners (yields about 32).
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Be sure to scrape down the sides of your bowl.
3. On low speed, add eggs one at a time, being sure to let fully incorporate before adding the next. Careful not to over beat.
4. In a separate bowl, mix flour, corn starch, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Sift if needed to get out lumps.
5. In another bowl, combine buttermilk, lemon zest and lemon juice.
6. Add about 1/3 of your dry ingredients to the sugar mixture, then buttermilk mixture, then 1/3 dry, sour cream, then final 1/3 dry. Making sure to let the ingredients fully combine before adding the next.
7. In another bowl, lightly toss (fresh or frozen) blueberries in 2 tb flour, then fold into batter.
8. Fill liners about ¾ full and bake for 16-22 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
9. Buttercream: Beat butter for 3 minutes. (If using frozen blueberries, microwave to room temperate.) Mash blueberries and then push through a strainer to remove all skins and clumps. Add blueberry juice and lemon juice to butter and add powdered sugar. Adjust consistency as necessary. (Add more lemon juice, blueberry juice or milk to make thinner, or more powdered sugar to thicken.)
10.Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and top with a fresh blueberry.
Hey Lizzy! I am a die hard Tiramisu fan and was wondering if there was a way to incorporate that into a cupcake?
Carrie- Yes, Brown Eyed Baker and the Cupcake Project have simple recipes for tiramisu cupcakes, I will look into it, and maybe you will see it on here soon!
These were so good…thanks so much for the fabulous recipe!!
What size tip do you use for your frosting???
Becky- I am not positive which tip I used for these, but some of my favorite Star Tips are 1M (the most basic of all), and Ateco #856, #825 and #855
These sound delicious! Do they freeze well.? I was going to frost them right before serving but bake cupcakes ahead
I just wanted to let you know that my friends and I had a little cupcake war and I used this recipe and won. Thanks for the help!
Amanda, I am so glad you came through with a victory! Keep up the baking!
Just curious. Would it be easier to just use blueberry juice (as long as its strictly just blueberry juice)? I mean would it make a huge difference in the taste or texture of the frosting?
Just add a little juice at a time to make sure the frosting doesn't get too funny.
I was wondering if you used all purpose flour or cake flour. and does it make a difference which one you use?
I use unbleached All Purpose flour. The difference is that cake flour has a little bit of corn starch in it. Cake flour is much more expensive and most bakeries don't even use it.
Hi Lizzy! I wanted to make these cupcakes but in a mini cupcake pan. Do you have any suggestions for cooking time and temp???
Same temperature, for about 15 minutes. But set it for 10 minutes and check them. Good luck!
Hi! You may have already answered this for someone else, but I was wondering what size and brand of decorating tip you used for this one? Thanks! 🙂
Saleta, i am pretty sure I used a 1M tip, you can get them from Wilton. I use that tip on everything
I want to make the cupcakes before hand, then frost and serve them 2 days later – how should I store the cupcakes and should I make and store the frosting beforehand, too? Or should I wait to make the frosting the day of? Thanks!
Bake the cupcakes, seal them and put them in the freezer. You can make the buttercream the night before, leave that out over night in a cool place, but not the refrigerator. Take the cupcakes out of the freezer 2 hours or so before serving and decorate!
I want to make these cupcakes, but I was wondering if the cupcake itself had a strong lemon flavor or just a hint? Was the cucpake dense or light? Thank you. Keep up the good work!
The cake is quite dense. Add more lemon zest if you really want to give it a kick, but it is still pretty lemon flavored with the recipe as is. Good luck!
Hi I was wondering if you could use this recipe to make whoopie pies?
Hi there! I am very curious as to what the difference is between this cake recipe and the black berry white chocolate cake recipe. Would I be able to use only one version of a vanilla cake but add the lemon for only part of it? preferably the fluffier and moistier the better. I am planning for a taste day and will have 6 different flavors. To save on time I would like to bake half of them vanilla and half chocolate cakes with 6 different frosting flavors. Please help!