There is no doubting it, blue is the new black.

If you haven’t seen Avatar, well firstly, where have you been?! And secondly, and don’t lie now, but how many of us would trade in our pasty skins for the luminescent glow of the blue Navi’an skin tone, and with that a connection with our planet, the original blue planet? I know I would.

Not only has Avatar brought back the blue, I’ve also just bought it on blu-ray which has nothing to do with blue, but it’s still blu, so there’s something going on there. I re-watched it last week and I want to be Navi. I want to be tall, although even as a Navi, I’m sure I’d hit 5’3″ at best.

Anyway, Avatar is not the only blue extravaganza. Did you hear? Smurfs are hitting the big screen! You don’t understand, I absolutely adore Smurfs and as a child my parents bought me a Smurfs sheet set which was my favourite of all my sheets. What am I talking about? It’s still my favourite and my mum still dresses my bed in Smurfs when I go home ๐Ÿ™‚

… and I can’t believe I just blogged all that out loud…

Where is my censorship executive?

Oh, it’s me. Hi.

Anyway, inspired by all things blue, I decided to bake myself some blue velvet cupcakes. Yes, yes I did. I didn’t come up with the marvellous concept myself though – whilstย gallivantingย around LA in January, I went to Milk with some awesome foodbloggers and there they had an adaptation of the already famous red velvet cupcakes.

The adaptation wasย blue. Red velvet is pretty much just cocoa drenched in red, what I loved about the blue velvet was that it actually had it’s own flavour ~ it was blueberry.

Huzzah!

Bored on a Saturday morning, I decided to bake my own blue velvet cupcakes. Mind you, I didn’t have a recipe to work from and so I decided to adapt my red velvet cupcake recipe. It worked. Mostly.

I wanted my cupcakes to be really blueberry-y. And yes that’s a word. So I used blended up blueberry mush as well as fresh blueberries in my batter. As a result the cupcakes turned out a little heavy. I mean, all that cooked fruit was going to do some damage but in my humble little opinion, I liked the natural flavour it gave to the cupcakes.

If you want fluffier cupcakes, maybe cut back on the blended blueberries, or not drop the extra 2-3 blueberries into each cupcake. In fact, if anyone experiments with this, can you please let me know?

Oh by the way, I shared my blue velvet love around and check out this gorgeous photo taken by Mowie. Seriously, the man is so amazing he makes me want to cry. *sniff*

Blue velvet (blueberry) cupcake
60grams unsalted butter (at room temperature)
150grams caster sugar
1 egg
100 grams fresh blueberries, blended
extra blueberries for cupcakes and decoration
10-20mL blue food colouring (obviously the more the blue-er)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
100mL buttermilk or natural yoghurt
150grams plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar

Cream Cheese Frosting:
300grams icing sugar, sifted
50grams unsalted butter (at room temperature)
125grams cream cheese, cold

a 12-hole cupcake tray, lined with cupcake cases

  1. Preheat oven to 170ยฐC/325ยฐF (Gas 3).
  2. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl andย beat on a medium speedย with an electric whisk until light and fluffy and well mixed.
  3. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.
  4. In a separate bowl, mix together blended blueberries, blue food colouring and vanilla extract.
  5. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until everything is combined and coloured (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula).
  6. Turn the mixer down to a slow speed and add half the buttermilk (or natural yoghurt). Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added.
  7. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth even mixture.
  8. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.
  9. Spoon the mixture into the cases until 2/3 full. Drop in 2-3 blueberries per cupcake and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to slightly cool in the tray before removing to wire cooling rack to cool completely.
  10. When cupcakes are cool, spoon the cream cheese frosting on top.

Cream cheese frosting:

  1. Beat the icing sugar and butter together with an electric mixer. on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.
  2. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed.
  3. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. Do not overbeat, as it can quickly become runny.
Makes 12-15 cupcakes

33 Thoughts on “blue is the new black: check out my blue velvet (blueberry) cupcakes

  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention NEW BLOG POST: blue is the new black: check out my blue velvet (blueberry) cupcakes - -- Topsy.com

  2. Amazing feats of balance!!! Or a skewer? ;P

  3. I’m feeling blue, too, but in a good, craving-these-cupcakes kind of way!

  4. Sasa: that, you’ll have to ask the genius that is Mr Mowielicious ๐Ÿ™‚

    Tangled Noodle: oh no! I hope you’re not really feeling blue and just craving a bit of blue!

  5. Catty darling you really do make me laugh – love your lack of censorship, Smurfette =) Can’t believe you liked my picture enough to use it in your blog post!

    And Sasa, no skewers involved, the cream cheese frosting acted as a super superglue =)

  6. These are so beautiful Catty! reminds me of blue jello as well!

  7. Mowie: I’m a total Smurfette!! LOL except dude I’m NOT smurfette because did you know she’s the only female in the village?? What a little hussy LOL! Your photo is stunning. I’m jealous of your natural light ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Holly: Thanks! Oh yes jello. I might do a jello post doon as I’m craving it. I don’t discriminate though, love ’em all – blue, red, orange, yellow, green!

  8. Hemulen on May 10, 2010 at 12:57 am said:

    Hey Catty – Been following your food blog for a while now – you take the awesome-est pictures! But I also had to comment on this one, as it involves blueberries (talk about food of the gods!). Go, you little smurf, go! ๐Ÿ™‚

  9. lols smurfs are awesome. esp the one and only chick smurf. she was hot.

  10. Loving the little blue cup-cakelets in the top pic – just enough room to squeeze a single blueberry on top. These beauties would be perfect for an afternoon tea party or picnic, maybe by the sea to continue the blue theme.

  11. Hemulen: Thanks so much!! But I sooo don’t take the awesome-est pics hehehs you make me blush ๐Ÿ™‚ Blueberries are the food of gods indeed! ๐Ÿ˜€

    chocolatesuze: LOL yeh but she’s a hussy! How else did baby smurf come about and who’s the father?!??!

    The Grubworm: Hehehe oh you noticed they’re cupcakelets! Or maybe GIANT blueberries?! They are delish, I’m going to play with the recipe some more and maybe one day they will appear at a picnic! ๐Ÿ™‚

  12. frankie z. on May 10, 2010 at 9:52 am said:

    omg these are so cute! i love them, i’ve tried red velvet cake before but this is awesome – dont know if i can bake them but will see if any shops sell them!

  13. blue lovers unite ! blue has always been my favorite color. so of course my radar brought me right here to your blog. ok, and mowie’s shout out too, thank goodness ! ๐Ÿ™‚

    and are you kidding – who *doesn’t* love the smurfs ? can not wait for the movie next summer ! hank azaria’s voice as gargamel !! and wolfgang puck too, oh how fun !

    oops, where was i – ah yes, these phenomenal cupcakes. gorgeous photos and i totally can’t wait to try the recipe ๐Ÿ™‚

  14. frankie: I’m not sure when they will hit the shops as I’ve only ever seen them in the one dessert store in LA! Try making them, I’m sure you can. I mean really, if I can, anyone can ๐Ÿ™‚

    Kerrin: Blue lovers unite! LOL, I loooove smurfs and Hank Azaria is going to be MAD. Not just his voice, he’s playing a real life Gargamel – can you imagine? I hear the smurfs are animated though but oh well ๐Ÿ™‚ See you at FBC x

  15. Yay Smurfs! You should name these smurf cupcakes ya know ๐Ÿ˜‰

  16. Too much blue is never a bad thing! ๐Ÿ˜‰ Love that deep blue background you used for the photos, really brings out the blue-ness of the cupcakes.

  17. Gemma Ardle on May 10, 2010 at 9:31 pm said:

    Catty, this is a fantastic blog and what adorable cupcakes you’ve made. Loved reading this post and a few others – very funny and light reading! Thanks!

  18. Mai: Good idea! That’s a bit tough though – any suggestions??

    Su-yin: Thanks and yes, I used to have issues with food colouring but I kinda got over that when I had to use half a bottle of colouring for my red velvet cupcakes! Besides, this blue is purrrrty ๐Ÿ™‚

    Gemma: Thanks Gemma, hope you come back again ๐Ÿ™‚ Promise to keep it light, will try to keep it funny!

  19. This looks like a really fun recipe, but the geek in me feels that a correction is necessary.

    Blu-ray discs do, in fact, have much to do with blue. Traditional DVDs and CDs use an infra-red laser which has a fairly long wavelength, but Blu-ray uses a blue laser with a much shorter wavelength. As a result, the bits on the disc can be shoved closer together and you can fit more information in the same space. Dual-layer DVDs have a capacity of about 8GB and Blu-ray discs have a capacity of about 50GB. More space = more resolution and less compression = better quality.

    And…they call it Blu-ray rather than Blue ray, because it’s easier to copyright or trademark something that is not in common usage. See also Diet Rite and Splenda.

    • You see. I’m glad someone like you read this post because I would have forever gone on with my life saying blu-ray has nothing to do with blue. And everyone would have looked at me like I was an idiot. So thank you! I do learn something new every day! ๐Ÿ˜€

  20. It is very Avatar-ish! I could have that which I watch avatar again. Makes me feel – natural.

    • I loved Avatar! Made me feel shit for being human LOL but yeh, amazing story. Really heart felt.. and Sam Worthington looks hot as a tall blue smurf ๐Ÿ™‚

  21. Love ๐Ÿ™‚ these are stunning, Cat!

    p.s. I felt ashamed to be human too…

  22. Im going to try making these on the weekend, but mini ones. Have you ever done those before, best length of time to cook them?

    • coooool! Well, not sure if you noticed but I made small ones and big ones… I baked them all for the same time and it turned out fine ๐Ÿ™‚ Lemme know how you go!

  23. Judith on July 17, 2010 at 6:09 pm said:

    I think that your cupcakes are amazing! I baked them for a family picnic this weekend and they were a hit!Everyone wanted there recipe! And dont feel embarrased about the smurfs… I love them too!

    • YAY!!! I’m so happy to hear they turned out well for you ๐Ÿ™‚ They are so different aren’t they, but healthy because blueberries are good for you ๐Ÿ˜‰

  24. Shelby on August 14, 2010 at 6:53 am said:

    Do you think I could use a cake mix and just add the blueberries to save time and money? Or any suggestions of what to add to a cake mix to doctor it up? A friend sent me this link as a suggestion to make for my other friend’s surprise party tomorrow because he loves blueberries and i love making cupcakes! But the party is tomorrow… and I am a college student so I don’t have all these ingredients just laying around like they used to be at home! Also the ingredient list is all in grams and mL… not American? haha i suppose i could translate it somehow… but that means more time as well. Very cute though! I will let you know how my experimenting turns out.

    • Hi Shelby, to be honest I’m pretty sure you can just use a cake mix, because cupcake batter is really just cake mix right? Are you able to blend up some blueberries though? That will help give it taste. If not then just add the blue food colouring and drop a few blueberries into each cupcake. Don’t drop too many. 3-4 max. They get quite soggy! Hope it works for you! xx

  25. Maggie fisher on March 15, 2011 at 9:46 pm said:

    I made them today and they were the BEST cupcakes I have ever had! Perfection! Now I won’t be able to stop making them

  26. Pingback: Blue Velvet Cupcake Recipe from The Catty Life « The Daily Quirk

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