If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen me mention that I would be up to my eyeballs in cupcakes this weekend and it was absolutely the truth. These Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with their creamy cream cheese frosting were one of the results.
RSPCA cupcake day!
Every year, the RSPCA holds a cupcake day event. People all around Australia hold morning tea at work or at home to help raise money and every year we hold one at work.
Since I’m such an animal lover (seriously my pets are my babies), I love anything like this where I can help support a cause that helps them. There is often all types of snacks at the morning teas but they call it “cupcake” day and I happily oblige.
Last year I made these and these Loaded Rocky Road Cupcakes and those cute little Chocolate Doughnut Cupcakes. The year before it was my delicious Salted Caramel Cinnamon Cupcakes and the divine Coconut Strawberry Cupcakes.
This year I settled on Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes and Chocolate Mint Cupcakes with Ermine Peppermint buttercream that is seriously divine. Those ones will be coming in a later post but for now, bring on the lemon and blueberries.
The lemon cupcakes
I’ve always wanted to make a Lemon Blueberry Cupcake recipes but just hadn’t got around to yet.
Funny story, I started out with the vision of making these very cupcakes you see here but then decided “wouldn’t it be fun to cook the blueberries into the cupcakes?”. Yeah….. No. I didn’t like the way the blueberries all settled at the bottom. So, after making 2 huge batches on Saturday, I woke up at 4am on Sunday with the realisation that I just had to remake them – the way I first planned them.
I made myself stay in bed until a respectable hour then got up and remade them and promptly messed them all up because I was rushing. Aaaaahhhh. Stress city.
Poor blog hubby and chief taste tester extraordinaire (and my biggest supporter) rushed out to buy me more lemons so that I could restart the process and returned with a gorgeous bunch of flowers as well – to remind me that it was a beautiful day outside and I love cooking.
Job done – back in the zone. These darlings are light and bright lemon cupcakes filled with an easy homemade blueberry compote and topped with the most delectable cream cheese frosting ever!!! I mean ever!!!
This is my favourite way to make cupcakes (ie: throw all the ingredients together and bake). It uses melted butter which not only keeps the cupcakes moist but it also means a much quicker mixture to make. See, I’m always looking after you guys 🙂
The blueberry compote
I love a surprise centre to my cupcakes. If you know me, it’s no longer a surprise that you get a surprise centre to your cupcake. This time around I wanted a big dollop of homemade blueberry compote in the centre and that’s what I did.
It takes 20 minutes on the stove and barely any babysitting and it’s done. That sharp, sweet blueberry flavour is the perfect partner to both the texture of the cupcake and the flavour of the frosting, making these Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes a little like a blueberry cheesecake in cupcake form.
The creamy of creamiest cream cheese frosting
The cream cheese frosting is super soft and creamy. If it’s a warm day (which of course it was) you may need to refrigerate it for ½ an hour before frosting the cupcakes as it may sink a little. Mine did exactly that but it started slipping to one side leading me to believe our whole kitchen is on an angle. Hmmmm. Anyway, after a brief cool down in the fridge, it piped beautifully into my favourite big dollop of frosting but because of all of the above I would suggest one of two things.
- Serve this frosting in cooler weather
- Add more powdered / icing sugar to stabilise the frosting if it’s warmer weather
Click here to Pin this recipe for later!
And there you have it. Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with and easy compote filling (that I like to eat by the spoonful) and soft cream cheese frosting.
Happy Baking xo
More blueberry recipes
- Blueberry chocolate cake
- Lemon Blueberry Bars
- Blueberry Orange Muffins
- Mini Blueberry Pies with Hazelnut Crust
- White Chocolate Blueberry Cookies
- Blueberry Cake Recipe
- No Bake Blueberry Cheesecake Parfait
Ingredients
For the blueberry compote
- 350 g (12.3oz) frozen blueberries
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (notes)
For the cupcakes
- 195 g (1 1/2 cups / 6.8oz) plain (AP) Flour
- 30 g (1oz) corn flour (corn starch)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Zest of one medium lemon
- 1 1/4 cup (250g / 8.8oz) granulated white sugar
- 113 g (1/2 cup / 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3/4 cup full cream (whole) milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (notes)
For the cream cheese frosting
- 1 cup (226g / 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 250 g (8.8oz) cream cheese, softened
- 3 1/2 cups icing (powdered / confectioners) sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest of one medium lemon
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream (notes)
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Instructions
For the blueberry compote
- Pour the blueberries, sugar and juice into a medium saucepan. Heat over low heat stirring every so often allowing it to come to a simmer. Once simmer, turn the heat down to the lowest setting and let it simmer away for about 20 minutes, swirling the pan every so often, until thick and glossy and the blueberries have broken down.
- Place in the fridge to cool completely before using.
For the cupcakes
- Preheat your oven to 180C / 350F (160C fan) and line your muffin tins with paper cupcake cases
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, corn flour, baking powder and salt. Add the lemon zest and mix well to combine.
- In a separate bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the melted butter and sugar until smooth.
- Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl each time and beating well after each. The mixture should look smooth and silky. Add the vanilla and mix well to combine.
- Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture. Stir through gently until only just combined. Now add half of the milk and the lemon juice. Mix gently again. Continue like this until all the flour and milk is combined… just. It is important not to overmix or be too heavy handed otherwise your cupcakes will turn out dense and tough.
- Fill the cupcake cases to about 3/4 full. Bake in the oven for around 20-22 minutes, turning the pan around in the oven half way through to make sure they bake evenly. When a skewer inserted comes out with just a crumb or two, they are done.
- Cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely before proceeding.
For the cream cheese frosting
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese, along with ½ cup of the icing sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides regularly and continue beating.
- With the mixer on low, add another 2 1/2 cups of the remaining sugar 1 spoon at a time until combined. If the mixture needs to be a little thicker, add in the last 1/2 cup of icing sugar.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the salt, vanilla, lemon zest and cream and beat for 5 minutes at medium speed until it looks light, thick and creamy.
To assemble
- Use a sharp knife or a cupcake corer, to cut a hole in the top of each cupcake.
- Fill each hole with about 1 teaspoon of blueberry compote. Top it off with a little bit of the cupcake offcuts to seal it in.
- Transfer the cream cheese frosting to a piping bag and pipe a big dollop on top of each cupcake.
- Top the cupcakes with little fresh blueberries (or one large one)
- Add 1-2 teaspoons of water to the remaining compote and push it through a strainer so you just have the juice. Drip the juice over the top of the blueberries so it drips down.
Notes
- I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (4 teaspoons worldwide)
- For best results you should always weigh ingredients like flour and sugar. Kitchen scales are relatively cheap but if you can’t weigh the ingredients, use the spoon and level method (don’t scoop).
TOOLS USED IN THIS RECIPE
This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission for my referral, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting Sugar Salt Magic.
14 Comments on “Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes (with Cream Cheese Frosting)”
Could you use cake flour instead of the ap/corn starch?
Yes, you can.
Also you only have weight listed on the corn starch so I used 1/4 cup minus 1/4 tsp.
Thanks for the feedback Annie, I’ll add other ways to measure it into the recipe card.
These came out perfect all three batches. I didn’t alter the recipe except I used unsweetened almond milk. Made 16 standard (in America) cupcakes.
Thank you!
I’m so happy you loved them Annie
Do you have to refrigerate these?
Yes, they’re best kept in the fridge once frosted. Take them out half an hour or so before you want to serve so they can come to room temperature.
Really really good! Well done!
Thanks so much Kristin 🙂
hello, I loved your recipe for your lemon cakes and have made them multiple times and was looking for some cupcakes with fruits to make for a get-together party when I thought about these cupcakes. I had a few adjustments I wanted to make and wanted to see if you thought the adjustments were good since I am not a good baker but try to be a good one and wanted a second pair of eyes checking over my plan.
1) I wanted to switch out the blueberries with cherries and raspberries.
2) I wanted to make a hole in the middle of the cupcakes and put some crushed raspberries with the juice in the hole since I heard that rasberries go well with lemon.
3) Then I wanted to add a drizzle of milk chocolate on top of crushed raspberries since I heard that raspberries and lemon go well with milk chocolate.
4) Then I wanted to switch out the 3 blueberries on the top with two cherries and have some cherry juice drip down the sides of the cupcake since I had heard that cherries and lemon go well together.
5) Then I wanted to drizzle some milk chocolate on top of the cherries and have the melted milk chocolate drip down the sides of the cupcake just like the cherry juice since I had heard that cherries and milk chocolate go well together.
6) Lastly, I wanted to keep the cupcakes outside for about 30 minutes so that the berry juices would seep into the cupcake and then put them inside a refrigerator so that the milk chocolate would harden on the top, center of the cupcake and on the berries.\
Could you please respond back to this comment telling me if you like my adjustments since I am not a good baker but always try my best and wanted a second pair of eyes checking over my plan.
Hello Pranav, Thank you so much. I’ve replied to your email with some ideas 🙂
Have you used mascarpone cheese for the frosting?
Hi Vaishali. No. This uses regular cream cheese