Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

These little babies gave me my first paid cupcake job:) I made them, someone tasted them and then asked me to make them for a birthday party. I filled a few with the lemon curd, then decided they were better topped with the curd because the blueberries made the cake so moist.

And plus, the cupcakes don’t rise so much, so fill those babies full! The whole batter should fill a 24-cupcake tin.

But see how pretty and summery they are?! Perfect for a non-chocolate option. Then top them with my new absolutely favorite fluffy and delicious whipped cream cheese frosting. I’m loving the frosting because it’s still cream cheesy, but it doesn’t have butter so it holds up REALLY well at room temperature and isn’t as heavy.  The end result is a pretty heavenly cupcake! The tang from the curd, the moistness from the blueberries, the lightness of the frosting…who wouldn’t pay for these?!

Lemon-Blueberry Cake
2 cups plus 6 T flour
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
3 cups fresh blueberries (reserve 24 blueberries if you want to use them for garnish)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whole milk
2 t vanilla
1 t lemon juice
1 t lemon zest
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare muffin tin with cupcake papers.  Sift dry ingredients into medium bowl. Transfer 1 T flour mixture to larger bowl. Add fresh blueberries and toss to coat them with flour. Set remaining flour mixture and blueberries aside.

Stir whole milk, sour cream, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest in small bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar, until pale yellow and very fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, until well combined. Mix in flour mixture alternately with milk mixture, starting and ending with flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Gently fold in blueberries. Divide batter equally among cupcake cups.

Bake until toothpick inserted into center of a couple cupcakes comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in pans on racks for about 10 minutes, then put onto racks until completely cool. Makes 24 cupcakes.

Lemon Curd
*If you’re going to fill the cupcakes, I suggest doubling the recipe. But if you’re just going to top them with the curd, one batch is plenty.
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
zest of one large lemon
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 t cornstarch
pinch of salt
6 large egg yolks

Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat.  Remove from heat and add the lemon juice and zest.

Mix together the sugar, salt and cornstarch and add it to the pan.  Whisk in the egg yolks until smooth and return to heat. Cook over medium-low heat for roughly 10 minutes until the mixture has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. Do not allow the mixture to boil.

Once thickened, strain the mixture though a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl. Allow to chill in the refrigerator completely before using. Stir before using.

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
16oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup heavy cream, cold

Beat the cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream to nearly stiff peaks. Fold the whipped heavy cream into the cream cheese mixture. Do not over beat. Pipe onto cupcakes topped with lemon curd. Enjoy!!

*PS: I added about 1-2 t of lemon juice to this frosting for this particular recipe. It gave it a hint of lemon, without overpowering. You don’t want to add too much because the lemon curd is VERY lemony.

*Cake and curd adapted from theregoesthecupcake.com
*Frosting from Not So Humble Pie