Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Makes 12-14 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tspn. vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
2 cups fresh blueberries
Lemon zest from 1 lemon

1/2 tbsp white sugar plus 1/2 tbsp brown sugar (optional)

Note: You can replace first 3 ingredient with 2 cups self-raised flour

Lemon Buttercream Frosting:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3-4 cups icing sugar
2.5 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp. heavy cream
2 tbsp.lemon zest plus 4 tbsp for decorating

Directions

Make the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
If you don't use the self-raised flour, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.
With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar for about 2 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating well after each addition.
Beat in the vanilla extract and milk.
Add the flour mixture and mix it in on low speed to combine. The batter will be very thick.
Add the blueberries to the batter and fold in gently. Do not overmix.
Scoop the batter into the muffin tins and sprinkle them with the mixture of white and brown sugar.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until lightly golden. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan before removing them from the tins.

Make the Lemon Buttercream Frosting

With an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy for about 2 minutes. Add icing sugar (start with 3 cups), lemon juice, heavy cream, and zest.
Increase to high speed and beat for about 3 minutes.
Taste and add icing sugar if frosting is to thin or another Tablespoon of cream if frosting is too thick.

When cupcakes cooled completely, you can start decorating them with frosting. Until then, store the frosting in the fridge.

Pipe or spread the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes.Top with blueberries and lemon zest.

Enjoy!