Blueberry Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting

Blueberry Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting

These cupcakes include a blueberry compote that has to be boiled down and added to the batter. It's best to do this ahead of time, since it takes a little while and has to be strained and cooled. Incidentally, the original recipe called for blueberries in the batter, and I assumed that that would be overkill in addition to the blueberry compote. Well, I was wrong -- the cupcakes don't taste anything like blueberries, so I guess the whole blueberries are important for flavor. Oops!

Blueberry Compote:

2 cups blueberries

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp cornstarch

Over medium-low heat, cook all the ingredients until all the blueberries have burst and the mixture is thick and jamlike in texture. Strain out the skins and any stems. You should have about a cup of compote left over. Let cool.

Cupcakes:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, soft

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

vanilla

1 3/4 cup flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup milk

~1 cup blueberry compote

1/2 cup whole blueberries [not used in this recipe]

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well mixed, then add vanilla. Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder, and add to batter. Add milk, and stir until just combined. Fold in blueberry compote and blueberries.

Fill cupcake tins 3/4 full. Bake 10 minutes, turn, bake 12 minutes.

Let cool. Makes 22.

Icing:

1 stick butter, soft

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

3 cups xxx sugar, sifted

cream as needed

Cream ingredients until texture is right for piping.

Pipe a spiral onto the top of each cupcake, then add a blueberry on top for decoration. Voila!

Adapted from The Baking Robot