Fantabulous Food! Blueberry Filled Cupcakes

This week's recipe is actually a combination of 3 different recipes from 3 different places. The cake is from Our Best Bites, the filling comes from Naturally Ella, and the frosting comes from my good friend Angela :) I know you're probably thinking that this is ridiculously complicated already since it's 3 separate recipes, but it really isn't hard at all. Also, I made these for Memorial Day for my family and Justin's, and let me just say, they were a smashing success. It seems that combining these three recipes is like finding the holy grail of cupcakes - even if you're not a big blueberry fan. When I told my hubby that I would be making them again for this blog post, he made a very excited sound and said that would be fantastic. So, let's get cooking :)

Easy White Cake:
This cake was seriously so easy, I felt guilty making it. I've become kind of a snob about using box mixes since it's just as easy to make a cake from scratch and they taste much better - I know, I'm weird. But this one really is good, so you should definitely give it a try.

Ingredients:

1 box Duncan Hines Super Moist White Cake Mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
4 egg whites
1 1/3 cups water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put cupcake liners in cupcake pan.

2. Mix all dry ingredients together in bowl of a mixer. Whisk together to mix well.

3. Add wet ingredients and beat for 2 minutes until fluffy.

4. Spoon batter into cupcake liners. Should be 3/4 full.

Being that I was using the Cupcake Genius, I had to clip my top onto the pan to make the holes for the filling.

Bake according to box directions (mine baked for about 22 minutes).

The cupcakes are done when there is a slightly golden brown ring around the edge of the cupcake but the rest is still white.

And when I pull the cupcake genius out of the cupcakes, they look like this

5. Cool completely. Take a paring knife and cut a little cone shaped hole in the center of the cupcake (this is the advice of Our Best Bites). I was given this nifty pan set from Justin's Grandma for Christmas, so I don't cut my holes, they are baked in. (By the way, I totally recommend this pan, it's been really useful!)

Blueberry Filling:


Ingredients:
2 cups of blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp corn starch

1. Place blueberries in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Let heat until juice begin to extract from blueberries and fill the bottom of the pan. 

2. Stir frequently, add in sugar and stir until dissolved. Allow to simmer a little. 
3. Add corn starch. The sauce will begin to thicken and it should be consistency of pudding (the sauce will thicken as it cools.) If the sauce is too thick before cooling, add a spoonful of sugar. Scrap into a separate bowl and set aside to cool.
*When I made these on memorial day, this made enough to fill 20 cupcakes, so you may need more depending on how many you make and how much filling you like to put in.

To fill the cupcakes, I started by pressing my finger inside the cooled cupcakes to make the hole a bit bigger.

Then take a butter knife to scoop some of the filling into the hole.

Then use the knife to press the filling into the sides of the cupcake.

Then just keep on filling the cupcake up until the hole is full. Repeat with all the cupcakes.

Angela's Cream Cheese Frosting:


Ingredients:
32 oz powdered sugar (more if you live in Florida)
2 sticks butter
2 blocks cream cheese
1 cup shortening
1 tbsp vanilla

1. Make sure your butter, cream cheese, and shortening is all at room temperature.

2. Combine butter, cream cheese and shortening in a mixer and until smooth.

3. Add vanilla and mix well.

4. Add powdered sugar very slowly (or it will look like it snowed in your kitchen).

I know that many of you do not use any type of cake decorating tools. They are a bit intimidating to say the least! But be not discouraged! I have recently become a huge fan of the star-tip swirl. It's probably the easiest cake decorating technique and it looks good every time. Doing this can really make a huge difference in how fancy your cupcakes look without adding much time and effort.

I ran out of blueberry filling and icing, so I used some of my homemade strawberry jam to fill and top the extras. Let me just say - they were delicious. It seriously tasted like a biscuit with gravy.

Unfortunately the jam ones didn't look quite as pretty.

Also, just so you know, if you double this recipe and use the cupcake genius you will end up with almost 100 cupcakes. Yeah - it was a lot. It took us quite a while to bake and finish them all. Hopefully they will be enjoyed by lots of people.

So give these a try! It seriously ended up being the perfect combination. Everyone who tries one loves them, even if they are not blueberry fans.