Scrumptious Saturday: TARDIS Blueberry Cupcakes

One of my favorite things in the world to do is bake. I love baking. I bake for kicks, out of boredom, out of stress, and in a desperate desire to make everyone love me. So when I finished my errands this morning I was debating what to do, and then I saw my bottle of Police Box sprinkles and… well, GERONIMO! I’m a HUGE fan of Doctor Who, so any excuse to be a Time Lord in the kitchen is a good one. Every other Saturday I’m going to be bringing you some sort of delicious recipe with a nerdy twist. So let’s get started on our first Scrumptious Saturday!

Behold, TARDIS cupcakes! They’re blue! They’re fruity! They’re covered in tiny little sugar police boxes! I supported The Geeky Hostess‘ Kickstarter campaign for these geeky sprinkles ages ago (and stupidly forgot to update my address so I only got one of my bottles after I moved, oops) and hadn’t really used them. It was time to remedy that, and what better day to do that than Doctor Who Day (aka Saturday)?!

Now, I knew I wanted to make a TARDIS cupcake, but what flavor is the TARDIS? I thought maybe banana, as you should always take a banana to a party, or maybe apple to play off the an apple a day keeps the Doctor away (though who wants to keep the Doctor away??). But I just kept coming back to blue. They had to be blue. So a look in the fridge and I saw blueberries! Perfect! But there weren’t enough to make a full batch (damn, why did I eat them for brekkie?), so perusing about, I spotted maraschino cherries and figure if I was making cupcakes, I should just go all out and make them indulgent. Now I had the fruit, but I knew blueberries wouldn’t turn my cupcakes blue. I needed some help.

When wanting to color your food with the help of food dye, I cannot recommend gels enough. The drops aren’t going to give you the crazy colors you want without saturating your batter. Gels don’t require as much as the colors are always so much richer. So pick some up at your local grocery store or craft store if they’ve got a baking session. You’ll really notice the difference!

WHAT YOU NEED

• 1 stick/ 1/4 lb unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1 tsp baking bowder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup maraschino cherries, chopped
• 2 Tbsp Police Box Sprinkles by The Geeky Hostess
• Blue food coloring gel

MAKE THE THING!

1. Preheat oven to 350F and insert liners into a cupcake pan. Pro tip: don’t have cupcake liners? Use coffee liners! Just cut to size.
2. Cream butter and sugar together at medium speed until fluffy (3-5ish minutes). Add the eggs one at a time at low speed, but beat well.
3. In a separate bowl sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. Don’t have a sifter? You can use a strainer or colander… or just pretend you sifted.
4. Beat portions of the dry mixture into the creamed mixture, alternating with milk. Start with dry and end with dry. Add the food coloring gel (and add more if you want a deeper color) and mix together for two minutes.
5. With a spatula, fold in the vanilla extract and then the blueberries and cherries. Follow with the sprinkles!
6. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack.

For a frosting I mixed marshmallow fluff (which actually contains no marshmallows btw) with blackberry jam and a little more of the food coloring gel, but these would be good with any sort of frosting really! Make sure to top with some more police box sprinkles once your’e done for that extra timey wimey feel and a nice crunch.

Let me tell you, these are AMAZING. The blueberries are nice and tart and the cherries add a nice sweetness and a bit of texture. Your mouth will undoubtedly turn blue, but just count it as part of the experience! The cupcakes are light and fluffy and are a delicious fruity treat.

So try them out! Let me know how it goes :)!