Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Filling & Blueberry Lemon Buttercream

A big thank you to Dave for inspiring me this week.  I know you thought I should have been resting, but it's better this way.  Now I have sweets. 

So...I'm still sick. 
Luckily, these can be made in stages.  I made the lemon curd 2 days ago, and I made the blueberry mixture for the frosting last night.  Both went in the refrigerator until I was ready to make the cupcakes after work.

Last week I made Vanilla Almond cupcakes that were originally vegan cakes.  I used butter instead, but kept the rest the same.  I loved the texture of the almond meal, but I didn't think the light texture would hold up with a filling.  I ended up altering her recipe--pretty dramatically--to better suit my needs.  The only thing I kept the same was the amount of some of the ingredients.  I used butter to give the cakes more structure, but added a tablespoon of oil to keep them moist.  I knew that wouldn't be enough, so I added an egg.  My coconut milk had gotten kind of thick b/c it was in the refrigerator, so I thinned it out by making some of the "wet" real milk.  Generally speaking, I like to avoid milk b/c I'm lactose intolerant.
Butter clearly doesn't affect me the same way.
Have you seen how much I use?
Finally, these are vanilla cupcakes, so I used all vanilla extract instead of almond.

They didn't puff up as much as last time, but I think that was partially b/c I didn't beat them all that much.
Still...I think they look pretty good!

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

This made 15 cupcakes for me.  Weird, I know.

Ingredients:

1 c. AP flour
1/4 c. almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. softened butter
1 large egg
1 Tbs oil
3/4 c. coconut milk
1/4 c. whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean (seeds only)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

In a large bowl, sift the flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, & salt.
In a medium bowl, beat the butter until it is light and fluffy.  Beat egg in.  Add oil, coconut milk, milk, vanilla bean seeds, and vanilla extract.
Make a well in the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet ingredients.  Beat until smooth.
Fill cupcake liners w/ 1/4 c. of batter or 2/3 full.
Bake 20-22 minutes.

I used Alton Brown's lemon curd recipe because he's my favorite.

Like I said, I made it a couple days ahead of time.  It will keep in the refrigerator for a week.
I used a piping bag and a Bismarck tip to fill them. 
So maybe I got a little happy with the filling....

It's going to be covered with frosting anyway....
Blueberry Buttercream

Ingredients:
2 c. frozen blueberries
1/2 c. vanilla sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
3+ c. confectioners sugar (I used 4 b/c my kitchen was really hot.)
1/2 vanilla bean (seeds only)
1 lemon--zest and juice (I only needed the juice of one lemon b/c mine were HUGE!)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Put frozen blueberries & vanilla sugar in a medium nonstick sauce pan.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat & simmer for 20-30 minutes.
Allow blueberry mixture to cool before pureeing in food chopper/processor.
Set aside.
Beat butter for 1-2 minutes until light & fluffy.
Add 1 c. of confections sugar & beat until smooth.
Beat in blueberry mixture--I didn't use all of it, lemon zest, and juice of 1/2 of a lemon.  Beat for 1-2 minutes.
Add 2 more cups of confectioners sugar.  Beat for 2 more minutes.
Finish with vanilla extract and more lemon juice if needed. 
More confectioners sugar can be added for a thicker texture.

I piped the frosting on with my usual--Wilton 1M open star.

There is a slight texture from the fruit, but you don't really notice it when you're eating it on the cupcake.

The color turned out great.

Now for the most important part...opening them up and eating them!
The texture was still pretty soft.  Very moist, but it didn't stick to the liner a whole bunch or fall apart. 

I could not believe how...amazing these were!  Seriously.  That first bite just...melted in my mouth.
It was amazing.  I'm definitely proud of myself!

Not bad for being sick, eh?

By the way, I used Wilton liners.  The periwinkle polka dot liners were slightly smaller than the standard cups, but they still worked fine. 
I also used a new scoop this week.  I haven't decided if I liked the amount of batter it produced or not.