Baby Blueberry Champagne Cupcakes

It doesn’t get much cuter than mini cupcakes… ok, well the actual babies are pretty adorable! I’ve been baking up a storm for the little buns in the oven these past few months. First for my sister-in-law, then my boss, and soon my own sister! I will tell you about my sister’s baby shower cupcakes much later as it is a surprise and she would likely snoop on my blog (hehe). Today, I wanted to share what I whipped up for my boss at work...

When I make baby shower cupcakes (this is my third time), I try to cater to the tastes of the mother and the general color scheme of the event. Since her stomach can be a little sensitive, I want to give her something she and the little munchkin will absolutely love and hopefully not up-chuck later!

My boss loves cupcakes and fruity dessert. She is not a big fan of icing or super sweet things. AND she is having a boy. I took all this into account when I cooked up the idea for her cupcakes. My co-workers had given me the specifications of the color blue. Ok, that I could do!

I knew I wanted to do minis for two reasons – 1.) It’s a baby shower! A celebration of a tiny dude! Minis seem appropriate, 2.) I was baking for an office of about 40, which would take FOREVER with a normal sized cupcake in a 12 dozen sized pan.

The next idea I had was to involve blueberries – I knew they would look so cute topping a mini cupcake. But could I take it all a step further? Why yes! Thanks to the innovations of Bead Up! who introduced me to adding flavored Jello mix into a white cake mix (and joined me for an epic night of baking!), I had a great pairing idea to go with my blueberries – I picked up blue Very Berry Jello mix at the store.

We proceeded to mix it… but the dough was tasting quite berry. So we added about two teaspoons of Vanilla. Ah yes, the sweet spot! Then on to the icing! Bead Up had the brilliant idea of adding champagne flavoring to the normal Martha Stewart Buttercream Icing recipe. What a festive idea for a baby shower! While she promises me it did not taste like medicine, I could not help but feeling that the final pairing of blueberry and champagne flavoring tasted a little like dental fluoride… but I must be crazy because everyone loved them! Especially the Mommy!