I used my new KitchenAid to really bake for the first time. Not some cake mix, but actually baking from scratch. No one shock in gasp. Oh, okay. Go ahead and gasp.

I went a little out of my comfort zone baking something that embodied two of my least favorite baked goods. First, they were cupcakes. Cupcakes are annoying. So messy and hard to eat. We do not get along that well. Secondly, they were lemon blueberry cupcakes. I LOVE lemons. But I’ve always had a sort of mental block when it came to sweet lemon desserts. Lemon cookies, lemon bars, lemon meringue pie we’re never for me. But Husband seems to really like lemon desserts & I know he loves cupcakes so I was willing to try something new.

I used this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/missys-lemon-and-blueberry-cupcakes-recipe.html

Let me just say right now that I love my KitchenAid mixer. Without it, this fibro girl would not have been able to bake these cupcakes.

I liked that the batter ingredients were split into three bowls and then you mixed those contents together. First your butter & eggs, then milk & sugar and lastly the rest of the dry ingredients. My butter wasn’t entirely room temperature and I had trouble mixing it with the eggs. I think I might have even overbeat the eggs which caused for a stiffer batter.

You will also need to add some lemon zest. I needed 3 tablespoons. I bought two large lemons. I grossly underestimated. I might have had a tablespoon and a half, two tops. I added a dash of lemon juice to make up for the lack of lemon zest.

Before you pour the mixed batter into the cupcake liners, spray the cups with a cooking spray like PAM. OMGosh. This is especially important if you don’t want to spend $5 or more for those really good cupcake liners. I bought mine at Kroger. Cheap as possible. After the cupcakes have baked, the liners peel off without making a crumby mess and the cooking spray will help crisp up the outside of the cupcake and make it golden brown just like the cupcake tops. Absolutely brilliant trick. This might make me and cupcakes get along better.

Before you put the cupcakes in the oven to bake, place some blueberries tossed in flour on top of the batter. In theory, the batter will rise above the blueberries and they will sink throughout the cupcake. This was a FAIL for me. The batter never raised above the blueberries and I had to take a butter knife to sink them lower.

Also, the 18-20 minutes cooking time was a FAIL. Our oven stayed preheated/heated at the right temp through the whole process. My only guess is that the recipe was underestimated or more likely, our oven lies. If you have an external oven thermometer that would be best. If you’re like us and don’t bake often enough to justify another piece of clutter in the house, then you might want to be prepared for some extra baking time.

Once the cupcakes are finally baked, pull them out and let them cool on a rack. Don’t be lazy like I often am and just leave them in the pan to cool.

Next it’s time for the icing. Cream cheese icing is the best. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Seriously, how can anything with two sticks of cream cheese, a stick of butter and 3-4 cups of confectioner sugar be bad? (I know the answer to that but I don’t wanna hear it!

We also needed lemon zest for the icing. I just added a little extra lemon juice.

The KitchenAid made mixing this together so easy. Have I mentioned my love of the KitchenAid?

Finally, icing and decorate your cupcakes.

Despite my earlier caveats, these cupcakes are fanfreakingtastic and I highly recommend this recipe.

If I had been clever there would have been pictures of the process. But I’m not, so here is just the final product. (I do have a picture of Husband decorating with blueberries, but I am fair certain he would kill me if I shared that with you.)