Blueberry Angel Food Cupcakes with Royal Icing

These little cupcakes were an experiment that I previously mentioned in my Lemon Verbena Ice Cream post. I had in mind little cakes to serve with the ice cream and always love the combination of lemon and blueberry. The berries were purchased fresh at the farmers' market, along with the eggs for the cake. I found the recipe for the cake on the Cooking Light site and have made many of their angel food cakes in the past. I thought I would put a different spin on them and make them into cupcakes. Not a bad idea, but I made a few mistakes and will be trying them again. So, I am posting my results, will post again when I make another attempt and would love any feedback from those out in blogland who have had better success.

The taste of the cupcakes was great, light, sweet with a few berries in each little cake. The problem was, I did not fill the cups enough. I planned on them rising up, which they did not. The batter was very light, I made sure not to over mix. Next time I will fill the cups to the top.



The other problem, after filling 12 cupcake papers, I had tons of batter left! I did not have the patience that day to keep making cupcakes, which I should have done. Instead, I poured the batter that was left into two 9" cake pans. Not a bad solution, but not a great one either. Again, the batter did not fill up the pans, and the resulting cakes tasted wonderful, but were not very high. The cake did not come out of the pan very willingly, probably should have lined the bottoms with parchment, but I salvaged them none the less, cut each cake into 4 wedges and they are in the freezer. So far I have taken one of the pieces out, let it thaw, tore it into chunks and served it with the remainder of the lemon verbena ice cream, and it was fine. Not sure what I will do with the rest.

When the cupcakes had cooled completely, I iced them with a generous dollop of royal icing and placed a plump blueberry in the center. Then I covered them with cling film and kept them in the fridge overnight. Before serving the next day, I let them come to room temperature. I don't think anyone noticed their short comings, they were gobbled down fairly quickly.

Here is the recipe for the cupcakes. I thought I would still post my results, even though they were not quite what I wanted. I'll be trying this again, that is for sure.

Blueberry Angel Food Cupcakes
servings to be determined at a later date!

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 cup sifted cake flour
12 large egg whites (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/4 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons sifted cake flour
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind

Preheat oven to 375°.
Sift together 1/2 cup sugar and 1 cup flour.
Line 12 muffin tins with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, beat egg whites with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and salt; beat until soft peaks form. Add 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until stiff peaks form.

Sift flour mixture over egg white mixture, 1/4 cup at a time; fold in. Fold in vanilla and blueberries.

Combine 2 tablespoons flour and lemon rind; toss to coat. Sprinkle over egg white mixture; fold in.

Spoon batter into cupcake liners and bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are just golden. Let cool for 10 minutes then remove from the pan. While they continue to cool, prepare your royal icing.

To make the icing, add 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tsp. powdered eggs white, 2 tbl water in a small mixing bowl. Beat with a hand mixer until the icing begins to get thick, then add 1/2 tsp lemon juice. Continue to beat until the icing thickens again. If you need to thin it a bit, add more lemon juice or if it is too thin, add a bit of powdered sugar and beat until the desired consistency.