These are moist and tender blueberry cupcakes that are topped with a blueberry cream cheese frosting. A perfect spring or summer dessert that’s perfect for any occasion!

My Favorite Blueberry Cupcakes

I love when the weather turns warmer and berries start overcrowding the supermarket. We’re just now starting to hit that time of year and I can’t wait to share all of the berry desserts over the next few months! Fresh blueberries have always been one of my favorite fruits, and these cupcakes really highlight the sweet and slightly tart flavors.

These cupcakes start with a moist and tender vanilla sponge that is infused with some mashed blueberries as well as whole blueberries. They are then topped with a tangy blueberry cream cheese frosting that’s flavored with freeze dried blueberries. Using freeze dried fruit adds a lot of color and flavor the frosting without introducing excess moisture and acid that could split the fats.

They’re truly so buttery, moist, and blueberry-forward! I developed these cupcakes using one of my most tried and true vanilla sponge recipes as the base and I promise they don’t disappoint.

Ingredients for Blueberry Cupcakes

There are two parts to this recipe–the cake itself and the frosting. Here’s what you’ll need for both

Blueberry Cupcakes

• Fresh blueberries
• Buttermilk: if you do not have buttermilk, you can make your own by adding 1 tbsp of either vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk
• Vanilla extract
• Unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• Both granulated sugar and light brown sugar
• One egg and one egg white: make sure the eggs are at room temperature
• A neutral oil, such as vegetable, canola, or avocado
• Cake flour
• Baking powder and kosher salt

BLUEBERRY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

This frosting is great because it’s super light and blueberry forward. While most cream cheese frostings use equal parts cream cheese and butter, I reduced the amount of cream cheese here so that you get just a hint of that tangy tartness, similar to how fresh blueberries taste!

• Unsalted butter, softened
• Plain cream cheese, also softened: make sure you’re using cream cheese from the block and not the tub
• Powdered sugar
• Freeze dried blueberries: you can find these at Trader Joes, Target, or online.
• Vanilla extract
• Kosher salt

Do I Need to Use Cake Flour?

In my ideal world, we’d all have our pantries stocked with tons of cake flour. However, in reality I understand that not everyone has cake flour around! If at all possible, I would recommend it when baking these cupcakes. Cake flour helps give the cupcakes a soft and tender texture that would not be 100% the same if you used a substitution.

If you are unable to, or do not have time to run to the store to buy a box of cake flour, then here are two substitution options. The first is to DIY a cake flour by mixing all-purpose flour (AP flour) with cornstarch. To make one cup of DIY cake flour, replace 2 tbsp of AP flour with 2 tbsp of cornstarch (1 cup flour – 2 tbsp flour + 2 tbsp cornstarch). The second option is to just use all-purpose flour.

Note though that any substitution will alter the final product! Your cupcakes will still be delicious, but just may vary slightly from my final product.

Tips for Making the Best Blueberry Cupcakes

Don’t skimp on creaming the fats: it’s important that you cream the butter, sugars, eggs, and oil together until they’ve increased in volume and are light in color. This adds air, which produces the light and fluffy cake that we all know and love. Make sure during the creaming process to pause scrape down the sides of your bowl as well, just to make sure everything gets evenly incorporated.

Use room temperature ingredients: Cold ingredients do not mix well into the batter and can cause your fats to curdle. During the creaming process, we are also creating an emulsion, and something like cold eggs will cause that emulsion to split. At the end of the day, this all means that your cake won’t be as evenly textured and tender, so please warm your ingredients to room temperature!

To do so, you can soak the eggs in a bowl of very warm water for 10 minutes and give your buttermilk a quick zap in the microwave.

Avoid over-mixing the batter: over-mixing leads to gluten build up, which leads to tough and gummy cake. Try to mix in your flour as gently as possible, and stopping as soon as it is fully combined. I like to finish folding in the flour by hand just to make sure I have full control over the process.

Toss the blueberries with flour: toss the blueberries with a teaspoon of flour before folding them into the cake batter. This will prevent them from sinking down to the bottom of your cupcakes during the baking process.

How to Store Leftovers

Tightly cover or wrap leftover cupcakes and keep them in the fridge. They will be good for up to 4 days, but are best enjoyed within 1-2 days.

Did You Make This Recipe?

If so, I’d love to hear from you! Please leave a rating and/or comment to spread the love and help others find this recipe.

Also feel free take a picture and share it with me on  Instagram @toppedwithhoney. Looking forward to seeing your delicious and fresh blueberry cupcakes!

If you’re not ready to bake yet, no problem! Simply hover over any image in this post ( there’s one below here or pick your favorite), or tap if you’re on mobile, and click the pin icon in the corner to save for later.

Have fun baking!

More blueberry recipes: jammy blueberry muffins, brown butter blueberry lemon poppyseed muffins

More cupcakes: lemon poppyseed cupcakes, roasted blackberry earl grey cupcakes

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The Best Blueberry Cupcakes