IronCupcake_011: Not-So-Blue-Berry Cupcakes

Iron Cupcake:Earth_011
Theme: Summer Berries
My entry: Not-So-Blue-Berry Cupcakes
Voting begins: Sunday, June 28 @ http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/ and will be open through Monday, July 6 at 12 noon Central.

This post is about blueberry cupcakes, but I need to get this rant off my chest first. It's directed to supermarket butter brands. Most people who use butter often have noticed that brands distinguish their salted butter from their unsalted butter by making the writing on the wrappers either red or blue. But why is it that some brands use red on unsalted butter and other brands use blue on unsalted butter?? It gets extremely confusing when I have more than one brand of butter in the fridge. Here's an example: While I was making these blueberry cupcakes I reached in the fridge and grabbed a stick of unsalted butter (not in it's box). The writing was red, and I clearly saw UNSALTED BUTTER on the label. So when I went to make the frosting I grabbed the other two sticks with red writing on them. I assume they're also unsalted because they're red. How shocked was I when I tasted the frosting and it was SALTY!?!?! I looked in the trash can, and sure enough, it was a different brand of butter and it was salted. So, supermarket butter brands, I urge you to please do your part to prevent future baking disasters. Create a general rule that all unsalted butter will be in a blue wrapper, and all salted butter will be in a red wrapper. THANKS!

Now on to the Not-So-Blue-Berry Cupcakes. I gave them that name because blueberries aren't really blue. They're purple. It's cool if you don't believe me. You probably missed that episode of Food Detectives. Anyway, these purple-berry cupcakes are absolutely delicious. I was afraid they would taste like a blueberry muffin with frosting on top, but they don't. They totally make a name for themselves as a cupcake. The frosting is Swiss meringue buttercream (of course) with Braswell's Select blueberry preserves mixed in. Btw, Braswell's Select is my favorite brand of all jams, jellies, preserves, marmalades, you name it! You can usually find it at Marshall's and TJ Maxx for a great price. My all time favorite is the seedless black raspberry. Mmm it's the best!

Anyway, I digress. This is my almost-late entry for IronCupcake:Earth_Summer Berries challenge! I realized it's not the most creative cupcake ever. I planned on using blackberries from the bush in our yard. I waited as long as I could, but the blackberries weren't quite ripe enough to make the deadline!

Blueberry Cupcakes (from Crazy About Cupcakes by Krystina Castella)
Makes 14-16 cupcakes
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Insert liners into a regular muffin pan.
With an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs (one at a time) to the creamed mixture and beat well.
In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Beat portions of the dry ingredients into the cream mixture alternating with the milk. Mix for 3 minutes (I don’t know why the recipe says this. It’s not a good idea. I only mixed until the flour was almost fully incorporated.). With a spatula, fold in the vanilla and blueberries.
Fill cupcake liners 1/2 to 3/4 full with batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes (mine were done at 18) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

Blueberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream (my own recipe)
Makes enough to generously frost about 16 cupcakes
4 egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but cool
1 cup blueberry preserves
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Put egg whites and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is hot (about 160 degrees).
Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes. While mixture is beating, bring the blueberry preserves to a simmer in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the pulp. Set aside the blueberry liquid to cool to room temperature.
Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium, add cool butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. It may go through a soupy, curdled-looking phase, but it will come together. Reduce speed to low; add cooled blueberry liquid and vanilla extract and continue beating about 2 minutes to combine.

Overall rating on a scale of 1-5
Moistness: 5
Tenderness: 5
Frosting: 5 (even with salted butter!)

Prizes provided by Etsy artists:
A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH
A groovy linocut piece from BLOCKHEAD PRESS
Also, CAKESPY, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice!
SWEET CUPPIN CAKES CUPCAKERY will be tossing in sweet surprise.
Corporate prize providers:
HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS
HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
JESSIE STEELE APRONS
CUPCAKE COURIER
TASTE OF HOME books
UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM
Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers