Roasted Blueberry Cupcakes with Chocolate Fudge Buttercream

My cousin Michelle wants to make me fat.  She is pregnant and has an uber-fast metabolism when she is preggers and sent me this recipe.  She is so mean.  At a glance I thought, "interesting" but did not know how good they would actually be.  I am always up for a food adventure, so I decided to go for it!
OH....  MY....  GOSH!  We all loved these!  The combination of the flavors was amazing and I will be making these again and again! Purple people eater meets wonderful chocolate fudge buttercream and made a confection that will have even blueberry haters eating these.  All the kids loved these.  Even my friend's little girl who hates blueberries was eating it, enjoying it thoroughly until she discovered what made the cupcakes purple.   It was a dense, rich, delicious cupcake and wonderful. Start your own little cooking adventure and make these!


ROASTED BLUEBERRY CUPCAKES
recipe from: http://www.howsweeteats.com
makes 12 cupcakes (and 6 mini's)

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries + a few additional ones rubbed with sugar for garnish
• 2-3 tablespoons milk, if needed (I used 2.)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spread blueberries on a baking sheet (with sides) and roast for 20-25 minutes, or until berries start to burst. (I used silicone liner for easy clean-up.) Remove from oven.
Meanwhile, beat butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix until combined, another 2-3 minutes. Add flour, baking powder and salt with the mixer on low speed, then gradually increase speed. Scrape in blueberries (mine were fresh out of oven so they burst quickly in batter) and beat on medium speed until the berries break down – about 2-3 minutes. At this point, the berries most likely have enough liquid that you only need to add a small amount of milk to the batter. Begin adding 1 tablespoon of milk at a time and beat with the mixer until the batter is smooth. You definitely want it to be cake batter and not dough.
Pour into cupcake liners, filling 2/3 of the way full, and bake for 18-22 minutes or until cake is set. Let cool completely, then frost.




CHOCOLATE FUDGE BUTTERCREAM

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup of unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
• 3-4 cups of powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder (reg. or dark, it’s what I had)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup hot fudge sauce (at room temperature or cold, and using store bought is fine)
• 1-2 tablespoons milk, if needed

DIRECTIONS:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth. Gradually add in powdered sugar about 1/2 cup at a time with the mixer on low, increasing it to medium-high speed once all the sugar has been added. Add the cocoa, vanilla and hot fudge, and mix until completely combined (while scraping down the bowl every few minutes) for about 5-6 minutes. If the frosting seems very thick, simply add some milk 1 tablespoon at a time and mixer for another minute or 2 until it comes together.
Note: this makes enough frosting for me to frost 12 cupcakes with a pastry bag. If you use a spatula for frosting, you will most likely have frosting left over. If you use a pastry bag and add a lot of frosting, you may not have enough. I add about 1/4 cup of frosting on my cupcakes when piping (still had leftover.  Sandwich between some graham crackers!) If you have some leftover, simply store it in an air-tight container in the fridge (a few days) or the freezer (3-4 months!).