Vanilla Lemon Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream

Strolling through the aisles of the Farmer's Market, cartons of fresh blackberries stood out on the tables. Only $5 for probably a half pound of them too! I had saw frosting recipe online for mashing blackberries and extracting the juice to mix into it. So, going along with this "handcakes" thing, (I will now be changing the term cupcake to handcake to make it sound more masculine, and there are because there are so many cupcake stores around her, so when I open up my own place people will come and see what handcakes are) I had some lemons left over from a a weekend of vodka and tonics. I was thinking about using the vanilla beans I got from Home Goods but I was those to be the main flavor of the recipe so I skipped it on this round. Speaking of vanilla, I went to the Tomato Art Fest (see post later of tomato/pork dish) this past weekend and tried Ugandan Vanilla Ice Cream from Jeni's Ice Cream, it had a deeper and more earthy flavor and was really good.


Lemon Cupcakes:
3 cups flour                                                                                      1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt                                                                                      1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar                                                                                    4 large eggs
grated zest of 2 lemons (about 2 Tbsp.)                                2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract                                                                          1 cup milk, I used soy

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. 2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in zest and vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk and lemon juice, and beating until just combined after each.3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown or toothpick comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

Blackberry buttercream frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup blackberry puree (I used a blender and then strained it)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract                                                                            1/2 Tbsp. lemon zest
pinch of salt                                                                                            5-6 cups confectioner’s sugar

1. With a mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add blackberry puree, vanilla, lemon zest and salt, and mix on medium-low until well-combined. Gradually add in the powdered sugar, beating on low speed until combined. Then beat for 3-5 minutes on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.