Vanilla Cupcake with Blueberry Cream Cheese Butter Cream

I made these cupcakes for my high school's open house. It's usually a very long day for the teachers, so I decided that it might be nice to have a sweet treat before the parents arrived. I've been wanting to work with fresh fruit for a while now. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I started by culling the internet for a cupcake recipe that would be easy to make and required fewer than 10 ingredients. I settled on Billy's Vanilla Cupcakes from How to Eat a Cupcake, a blog with excellent cupcake recipes. I was able to find everything I needed at my local Super Target, always a plus. The quantities of the ingredients were convenient for a household of two, as I am often befuddled by involved recipes because inevitably the leftover ingredients will go bad before my husband and I can use them.

For the frosting, I decided to modify a basic butter cream recipe. I loved using the blueberries because they provided a natural tint to the icing that made it a lovely lilac shade.

Billy's Vanilla Cupcakes from How to Eat a Cupcake 

The recipe yielded about 30 cupcakes for me, and I filled some of them quite full. I think I would have ended up with more had a been a bit more even on my batter distribution among the cups. 

1 3/4  c. cake flour - I had a hard time finding this at first. It was on the bottom shelf in a box, not a bag like regular flours. 

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 c. sugar
1 tbs. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. unsalted butter softened and cut into tablespoons
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 c. whole milk
1. tsp. vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 325. Prepare your cupcake pan with liners. 


Thoroughly mix dry ingredients in your mixer bowl. Using the paddle attachment on your mixer on medium speed, slowly add the butter to your dry ingredients. I softened my butter in the microwave for about 20 secs. Make sure your butter mixes in evenly. You should have a mixture that looks like a dry cookie dough or pie crust. 


In a small bowl or large measuring cup- I used a 2c. measuring cup, and it got a bit messy- whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. The recipe specifies that the liquid ingredients are added to the butter mixture in thirds, scraping the bowl with each addition. Since I am very impatient, I turned on my mixer to one notch below medium (I use a KitchenAid) and slowly poured in the mixture. This worked well,and I didn't have to scrape the bowl. The batter was thicker than a traditional cake batter and tasted fabulous, like a moist sugar cookie dough. 


Fill your liners about 2/3s full. Bake between 17-21 minutes, rotating halfway through. Always check your cakes with a toothpick to ensure they are done baking. When the toothpick comes out clean, they are ready. Mine took about 22 minutes, but I have an older oven and it was very humid the day I baked these. 


Allow cupcakes to cool on a wire rack before icing. 


Blueberry Cream Cheese Butter Cream

Keep in mind when you are purchasing your ingredients that this is not a low fat recipe. I bought regular cream cheese because the consistency is best for a smooth butter cream. You can use fresh or frozen blueberries. For frozen, just follow the directions on the package for thawing and drain thoroughly. 


1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened but not melted (one stick)
8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature (about half a standard package)
2 lbs. 10x confectioner's sugar
4-5 tbs. whole milk
1/2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tsp. vanilla extract


Prepare your blueberries. If you used frozen, allow them to thaw and drain thoroughly. I sprinkles a bit of sugar over my berries after they thawed, so they would have a syrupy consistency. If you're using fresh, wash your blueberries and cut in half, sprinkling with sugar. Let the blueberries stand for about 10-15 minutes. I prepare my blueberries before I begin my cake batter to give them time to stand. Place blueberries into a food processor or blender and puree. Make sure the puree is not chunky because you won't be able to use a decorating tip if they are. Pour this mixture into your clean mixing bowl.


Add the butter, cream cheese, and confectioner's sugar to the blueberry mixture. Allow the confectioner's sugar to settle before attempting to mix. Add the whole milk and vanilla. Using the paddle attachment, begin mixing incing. Start on low to prevent the sugar from going everywhere. As the icing begins to look doughy, turn up the speed of your mixer. Mix until icing is thick, but not stiff. You want to be able to pipe it out of an icing bag. If your mixture is too thick, add more milk to achieve the right consistency. 


To ice the cupcakes, fill a pastry bag with the icing, and using a large star tip, start at the edge of the cupcake and swirl in. You could complete the cupcake by adding a fresh blueberry garnish. I kept mine simple because I was transporting them to school. 




These cupcakes were a huge hit with my coworkers. The cake turned out nice and moist. It tasted like the cake version of a sugar cookie. The icing added the perfect creamy sweetness to top off the cake. The blueberry flavoring was subtle, and the cream cheese kept the icing nice and light tasting. If you want a stronger blueberry flavor, I would recommend using blueberry preserves in your icing.