Blueberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven according to the cake directions (mine says 350 degrees). Line your cupcake pan with liners.
2. Combine the cake mix, eggs, oil and water as indicated on your cake mix. Add in the lemonade mix. The batter will get frothy because of the citric acid.
3. I like to use an old school whisk to combine my ingredients. The clumps break down and you don’t over beat your batter. No one likes a overbeaten batter, particularly the batter.
4. Right before you are ready to start filling the liners, add in the FROZEN BLUEBERRIES. Why frozen, you ask? Good question! The reason is that when you use frozen berries they won’t sink to the bottom. They evenly disperse in your cupcake and as an added bonus, the batter doesn’t turn purple like it would if you used non-frozen berries.
5. When you have the liners full, place in the oven for 25-30 minutes until a cake test or toothpick comes out clean, generally it is around a half hour.

Make the frosting

1. Add the butter, honey and vanilla extract and mix it until it is smooth. Next I put in the meringue powder. Meringue powder gives buttercream form. You know how bakery frosting has a crispy feeling to it…that is the meringue powder. Some people like it, some don’t. It doesn’t have any flavor, so if you don’t use it the flavor of your frosting won’t be impacted. I like using it with buttercream because it makes the frosting look good and it gives the frosting a nice sheen
2. To frost the cupcakes I used a disposable frosting bag and a star tip to frost these cupcakes, but I was just being fancy. This frosting is so delicious and smooth that you could easily just frost the cupcakes with a butter knife.
3. After frosting them (fancy or not fancy), drizzle blueberry perserves on top of each cupcake. A little goes a long way