Take Me To Your Leader!

This is my second entry for Iron Cupcake: Summer Berries! I thought I'd make one for the little kids and boy, did it go over well! I decorated these during naptime. When Amelia woke up and wandered out into the kitchen, her little face lit up and she asked in an awed tone, 'Mommy, what is thaaaaaaaat?' I let her pick her own alien (they were all different) and of course, my little berry girl picked the one covered in blueberry eyes! She then proceeded to de-eye her little alien which was just a little disturbing to watch, seeing as she was gently crooning to it the whole time. *shudder*

Considering that I've never piped white chocolate before, I thought my little antennae were passable. I was trying to be clever so I drew little antennae on the back of a piece of wax paper before trying to pipe them on. But I didn't draw them big enough, the chocolate needs to be fairly thick to stand up to it's own weight. Turns out that the ones I did just trying to fill up space and when my hand was starting to get tired, those were the ones that turned out the best! Geesh.

Blueberry Aliens, I mean, Cupcakes

8 ounces (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 room temperature eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup non-fat buttermilk
1 cup of blueberries


Preheat oven to 325. Prepare two 8” round cake pans.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder
In mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. At least 5 minutes on high speed.
Add eggs one at a time, incorporating well before you add another
Add vanilla extract.
Add flour and buttermilk in alternative pours, about 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of buttermilk each.
Mix on slow speed and scrape the bowl during the process.
Once everything is well incorporated, use a plastic
spatula to fold in the blueberries and make sure the batter is well mixed. Divide the batter between your cake pans.
Bake in preheated oven for twenty to forty minutes. Check for doneness by pressing gently on the cake.
Let your cake cool completely before filling.

For the frosting:

2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1/2 block (4oz) of cream cheese, room temperature
2 lbs powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla
2-4 tablespoons of cream


Beat the butter and cream cheese together well.
Sift in the powdered sugar and mix on low until incorporated.
Add the vanilla and 2 tablespoons of cream and mix well.
Add more cream as necessary to achieve your preferred consistency.
Pipe onto cupcakes!



And, again, these are the prizes I'm competing for!

Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
A groovy linocut piece from BLOCKHEAD PRESS http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6108705
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com.


Be sure to head over to 5 minutes for Mom to enter a drawing to win $1000 for a 4th of July party to remember!