The two biggest food items I took away from Maine were blueberries and honey. One of the winemakers we visited noted, “We’re in Maine, so there’s practically a law that blueberries need to be in everything.” Both were everywhere. I was very disappointed to learn when we got there that Maine’s blueberry season starts in August, meaning no fresh blueberries or blueberry picking for me. But I still tried to indulge when I could–blueberry jam, blueberry ice cream, even blueberry butter at the Lucerne Inn! I did pick up some blueberry honey at the Blue Hill Food Co-op, but stayed away from the blueberry syrup (I’ll stick with good old maple syrup, thank you).
So, when I got back to Brooklyn, I still had blueberries on the brain. Plus, I recently read Romancing the Bees blog post about honey cupcakes. I was inspired. Honey’s tasty and blueberries are pretty awesome, how good could they be together? So I experimented and whipped up some pretty tasty blueberry cupcakes with blueberry honey icing, kind of a last goodbye to our vacation in Maine.
To make the cupcakes, I used a basic vanilla cupcake mix and added some blueberries. For the icing I made a butter-cream cheese icing and added some Maine blueberry honey. Voila! Cupcake goodness!
Blueberry Cupcakes
- 1 1/2 c. sifted cake flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 c. whole milk
- 1 c. blueberries (I used 1/2 c. whole and 1/2 c. smashed for variety)
Heat oven to 400°F. Line 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into large bowl. Beat in butter 1 tbsp at a time until mixture is course and crumbly. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and milk until just mixed. Then add blueberries and mix until blended. Fill cupcake liners evenly and bake for 15-20 min.
Butter-Cream Cheese Icing
- 1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 4oz low fat cream cheese
- 1/4 c. honey (I used Maine blueberry honey)
- 2-3 c. powdered sugar
Cream butter, cream cheese and honey together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in powdered sugar (2-3 tbsp at a time) until desired taste and thickness is achieved. Ice cupcakes and enjoy!
Reblogged this on Romancing the Bee and commented:
Honey Blueberry Cupcakes!!
Awesome! Thanks!
You’re very welcome! Thanks for mentioning my blog!! 🙂
Pingback: Peach and Blueberry Pizza « madelinenel
Pingback: Everything’s Better as a Cupcake! | Brooklyn Locavore
Reblogged this on Brian Jessee Post.
The berries in the above photograph are much too large to be authentic Maine wild blueberries. The genuine article is much smaller.
Yeah, when I went to Maine, it was still too early for blueberry season. I used to pick wild blueberries as a kid when we went up there, but haven’t in some time. The blueberries pictured are from NJ and purchased from the farmers market once I got back from vacation and made the cupcakes.
I have 9.5 lbs. of the genuine article in my freezer, if you want to see them.
Pingback: Celebrate with Red, White and Blue! « Brooklyn Locavore