I told you this morning that when Jay's niece was last at our house, we made cupcakes to try to impress her.
Kids are tough, man.
It worked though. I think the key to this particular baking experience was that we made Roasted Blueberry Cupcakes.
Blueberries are her favorite!
The batter was purple!
There were glitter sprinkles!
Ok, maybe she wasn't that tough.
I don't bake, as you know, so I stole this recipe from the very pretty Jessica over at How Sweet Eats. She's, like, really cool and funny and her blog is mucho famous and I wish she knew who I was. Jessica? Jessie? Jess? Are we best friends yet?
I wish anyone knew who I was....
Ok, moving on. I'm over it.
Jess's recipes are really great - the flavor of these Roasted Blueberry Cupcakes was GREAT.
But, um, the texture was....spongy. Really spongy. The cupcakes rose beautifully, and I tried my darndest to not get too distracted by the kid, two dogs, boyfriend, and dinner that I was trying to make at the same time.
The dinner, by the way, was this caprese pasta with this cafe salad, and they both turned out quite well.
So, I'm not a total failure.
Anyway, though, the cupcakes. I think the issue was that the recipe calls for milk, and I used heavy cream because it was all I had.
Whatevs. Slightly weird texture, totally delicious flavor from the blueberries. These were perfect for summer with the fruity flavor, and I totally cheated and bought chemical-laden frosting ALREADY IN A TUBE for easy 4-year old maneuvering and less clean up for me.
The chemicals were totally worth it.
I made half of the batter in a mini-muffin tin and the rest in a regular pan and we had just the right amount of batter. The little ones were so cute! The flavor was so great that I'll definitely be trying these again with one or two fewer distractions - until I get better at baking I need to try a little harder.
Try these, love them, and let me know what you think I did to make them the consistency of pound cake. Please. I need to be better at baking. My butt isn't big enough.
Syke.
Here's the recipe, if you were too lazy to click the link above. Buttheads.
From www.howsweeteats.com
Roasted Blueberry Cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes
1 cup white sugar
½ cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries + a few additional ones rubbed with sugar for garnish
2-3 tablespoons milk, if needed (I used 2.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spread blueberries on a baking sheet (with sides) and roast for 10-15 minutes, or until berries start to burst. Remove from oven and let cool.
Beat butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix until combined, another 2-3 minutes. Add flour, baking powder and salt with the mixer on low speed, then gradually increase speed. Scrape in blueberries and beat on medium speed until the berries break down – about 2-3 minutes. At this point, the berries most likely have enough liquid that you only need to add a small amount of milk to the batter. Begin adding 1 tablespoon of milk at a time and beat with the mixer until the batter is smooth. You definitely want it to be cake batter and not dough.
Pour into cupcake liners, filling ⅔ of the way full, and bake for 18-22 minutes or until cake is set. Let cool completely, then frost.
These look yummy!
spongy cake is sometimes caused by overmixing the batter, which develops the glutens too much, so try to cut down on mixing time after you add the blueberries. You want overall smooth batter, but it's ok to have a few lumps! Also, if you substitute in heavy cream instead of milk, cut down the fat content elsewhere in your recipe (i.e. slightly less butter) so that the recipe stays balanced.
Perfect. Thanks for the tip Katie! I think it was probably the overmixing - Noa wanted to add the ingredients and it took some TIME. 🙂 I'll hasten her along next time. I'm glad to have what may be a solution!
These look delicious!!