Thursday 25 July 2013

Blackberry Cupcakes

So I'm just going to pretend that there wasn't an awkward hiatus.



You might recall that I mentioned last summer I made the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe and conveniently lost the photos, which resulted in me never writing a post on them. On the off-chance you do remember me mentioning these cupcakes, fear not! I made them again with the photos and everything!

(Mini) Vanilla Cupcakes (makes 24+ mini) - adapted from here
 Ingredients:
- 1 cup milk (I used 2%)
- 1 tsp. vinegar
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp. cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin tins.

In a large bowl combine milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes.

Add sugar, oil and vanilla and whisk until foamy.

Sift remaining dry ingredients and whisk until no lumps remain.

This batter is very thin so I poured it into a squeeze bottle to fill the cupcake liners approx. 3/4 full. I had remaining batter although I did not use it so I can't say how many more cupcakes it would have filled. If I had to guess I would say at least a half dozen.

Bake for 9-14 minutes.


Since blackberries were coming into season I thought to add a twist to the cupcakes this time. Ironically, I couldn't find any Ontario blackberries.

Blackberry Cream Cheese Filling:
Ingreients:
- 1/2 cup of cream cheese
- 2 tbsp. milk
- 2 tbsp. blackberry syrup (alternatively you could use a puree with some added sugar)

 Combine ingredients and whisk until smooth.

Using a BBQ skewer, carve a cylindrical hole out of the cupcake. 


Fill a piping bag with blackberry filling. Insert tip into the hole and fill the hole. Remove any extra icing.


Wash and rinse a dozen blackberries. Cut each blackberry in half. Insert blackberry over the hole with the cut side face up.

Using a petal tip and white buttercream, pipe petals around the blackberry. Optional: sprinkle some black decorators sugar over the blackberry.


You'll be hearing from me soon. I promise. Scout's honour. Pinky swear. etc. etc.