Maple + Blueberries = ...meh

Walking around the house one day, the phone began to ring. Answering the phone, Mr. Crumbs assumed the voice that he'd hear on the other end would be that of a telemarketer selling him insurance; but it was Ms. Butters excitedly telling Mr. Crumbs to check out the bon appetit website as something had caught her eye: Blueberry Hill Cupcakes.

Blueberry Hill Cupcakes

When asked why; Ms. Butters gasped into the phone receiver, "we can use maple syrup with this recipe!" (kind of). Considering our previous success with maple syrup, and the vast quantity of maple syrup that was supplied by Ms. Butter's husband - we decided that this would be the best choice.

After rushing over to Ms. Butters house; we set out to make cupcakes. Pulling out all of the ingredients - we placed them all around the counter. A friend of ours encouraged us to have all the ingredients easily accessible so we wouldn't have to keep searching for ingredients as we mixed. This proved to be really helpful, as by the time we put in the cupcake tins; all of the items we used were cleaned, dried, and put away. Mr. Crumbs was very happy about this - as he tends to have a little OCD tendencies within the kitchen.



Hot out of the oven!

 We did modify the recipe somewhat: we used frozen blueberries just like the recipe told us not to, but were trying to use ingredients that we had within the cupboards and fridge. The recipe did call for maple sugar, which is something that most people don't have in their cupboards. Ms. Butters asked Mr. Crumbs what exactly maple sugar is and so out came the lap top and we googled maple sugar - what exactly is it?

According to google; maple sugar is maple syrup that has been concentrated to a solid form and then grated. The instructions can be found here. Regardless, we decided that maple syrup was just as good and substituted it instead: we're rebels like that!

The end results were mixed. Mr. Crumbs thought this recipe was a dud; he thought the cupcake itself was too dry and bland while the icing was sickly sweet (so maybe using maple syrup instead of maple sugar wasn't the best idea). While Ms Butters enjoyed it (because cake is cake) and enjoyed the differences in tastes of the actual cake and icing. The cake was a bit too dense and the frozen blueberries were good if the cupcakes were eaten right away - if they're being eaten about 2-3 hours after assembling, the berries seemed to thaw and become too liquidy and melted the icing.


Action Shot!

 We were able to use Ms. Butter's most prized possession: her cake decorating set. Piping was a lot easier than either of us thought - but if you're not in possession of a piping bag, a plastic baggie with the corner tip cut works just as good.
Also, we're recommending that these cupcakes should be refrigerated if not being eaten, as the blueberries went a bit rancid - but we think that may be from the blueberries being frozen.

Would we make these again... probably not.

Recommended drink pairing: a good stiff drink!