Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
Sometimes it’s hard to tell if I’m plugged into the zeitgeist or if I’m just victim to some smart speaker in my house listening to me and then serving up exactly what I was talking about to my Instagram account. How else to explain the fact I was standing by the fridge last week and said out loud, to no one because I was alone in the kitchen, that I needed to use up the blueberries and the next time I checked my phone every single one of my feeds was overfull of recipes for various ways to use blueberries. Could be a coincidence but it isn’t blueberry season right now so I just assume that my phone is always listening. Kind of like my sister on our shared phone line when we were growing up.
Electronic eavesdropping aside I did still need to use up the blueberries so I gravitated to the recipes that had a lot of lemon in them because spring was starting to spring and the combination of bright lemon flavor and the yellow of a boxed lemon cake lifted my heart as surely as the happy, bobbing daffodils outside in the garden. Lemon blueberry cupcakes it would be then.
I’ve toyed with the idea of adding another category (or at least a tag) on the website called Faking because there are times when faking a recipe is exactly what’s needed for speed or convenience even though I know it is not the right long term choice for my health. Yes boxed cake mixes have ingredients in them that I can’t readily pronounce but when I use one I can be in and out of the kitchen with something in the oven in about ten minutes with one bowl and a spoon to clean up. You cannot deny that is appealing. Especially when you have blueberries to use up.
The even more shocking truth, say it softly, is that there are times when I actually PREFER boxed cake mixes because they are made with oil and the oil creates a unique tender, moist crumb. It is the texture of all my childhood birthday cakes and that kind of sense memory needs to be indulged every so often. That’s what you get with these cupcakes – soft, tender cake with a jammy blueberry bottom. I iced them but they would be just as good without. Or, go crazy and buy the prepared frosting. I won’t tell.
