Recipe for De-Stressing

My full-time gig is in animal health sales. I LOVE my people, but let’s face it – we all have goals we have to meet in our professional lives…and it’s not always easy. The close of each quarter, and even more so the close of the half and year-end (Jun./Dec.), is stressful. Period.

But I finished, did what I needed to do, and topped it off with an on-and-off stress-induced migraine for the last two days. It’ll probably last a few more days… oh the joys.

Friday night I lucked out and didn’t have to cook. Bright and early Saturday morning involved making Hubs (and Munchkin) help me with some work organizing/moving I’d been putting off, followed by cooking, a kid birthday party, and a field party to kick off the 4th of July celebrations (which is why I was cooking earlier). No rest for the weary – except the two hours I was down with the migraine waiting for drugs to kick in (aka we were two hours late to the first festivity).

But, today was a blessing. Slept in. Hubs made Spicy Breakfast Burritos (which I’ll most definitely include on here sometime). Made it to church, ate lunch with family, napped off another migraine this afternoon, and finished the day fishing and playing in the creek.

Now? Hubs and Munchkin are playing in a “fort” in the living room, while I type away…

Cooking is a way for me to let loose. I knew I had to take something on Saturday and this is what I came up with. Pinterest had tons of recipes, and given more time I would certainly have tried – but I didn’t have the time and they didn’t have a recipe to suit me…. so here goes:

Cheater Cheater Blueberry Lemon Cupcakes

1) Lemon/Blueberry is a spectacular match made in heaven.

2) You can never go wrong with a butter cream based icing.

3) I cheated with a box cake mix and nobody believed me. And then canned pie filling…

4) There were no cupcakes this morning.

What did I do? I mixed a lemon cake from a box, exactly as the box said. Then put it into two cupcake pans.

Then I coated 1.5cups of fresh blueberries (after rinsing and checking for stems) with enough flour to cover. FYI this helps keep the berries from sinking to the bottom.

I dropped ~5 berries into each cupcake and baked them in a 350* oven for 15-20 minutes. (Do not ever follow the time suggestion on a box cake mix – it’s always tooooo long and you end up with a dry cake.) Just check on them as they bake, when the center is firm – take them out and place on a cooling rack.

Meanwhile, I needed to make a kick a** icing to top these divine summer cupcakes. Since it was hot, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go with a cream cheese base. But I did see a bunch of recipes that did. Instead I turned to old faithful…butter cream.

I creamed two sticks of softened butter, with half a cup of blueberry pie filling. Yes, I cheated again. I’m sure I could’ve made an extra step and cooked down the remaining blueberries – but I just wasn’t mentally prepared to do that, nor did I have the time.

I splashed in about a tablespoon of lemon juice for a kick, then added powdered sugar one cup at a time until this beauty was created. I ended up using about 30oz of a 36oz bag, but you’ll have to play with that part. My rule is it’s got to be thick enough to easily hold up when it’s time to ice, but soft enough it spreads easily.

I put the icing into an icing bag, with a plain tip, then quickly piped the icing onto the cupcakes with a spiral motion. Voila!!!!

Obviously, I had some extra batter – so I cooked a single layer 6in cake and told Munchkin it was his special giant cupcake;) and that solved two issues: 1) extra batter didn’t go to waste 2) not having to fight a 3yo over why he can’t have a cupcake prior to the event. I am BRILLIANT.

So- I loaded these beauties into my cupcake carrier, and off we went! (P.S. I have no idea where my momma scored this beauty, but it’s GREAT.)

So, they were a hit, but I did have a few left when I was ready to go. However, I am completely unwilling to leave this carrier – so my cupcakes had to come with. We swung by Hubs’ best friends on the way home… the remaining cupcakes didn’t survive and my job was done;)

So, ya need another easy, delicious, perfect summer desert recipe – this is your girl!!

Enjoy!

– Stilletos

Ingredients:

1 box lemon cake mix (with whatever ingredients it calls for), 1.5C fresh blueberries, 1-2Tbs flour, 1 Tbs lemon juice, 1/2C blueberry pie filling, 2 sticks butter, 36oz bag powdered sugar.

Directions:

Make the cake mix as called for on the box. Fill 24 cupcake wrappers 2/3 of the way full.

Mix blueberries with flour, completely coating, then spoon onto the tops of the cupcake batter – about 5 berries per cupcake.

Bake at 350* for 15-20 minutes, or until firm in the center if each cupcake. Place on cooling racks to cool.

Icing: cream butter, blueberry pie filling and lemon juice. Mix in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until desired consistency is achieved – I used about 30oz this time. Be prepared for more or less… it’s a bit of a game;)

(Too thick? Add a Tbs of milk until you get it right.)

Fill an icing bag with a plain tip – or a gallon bag with the corner cut off – and pipe in a spiral motion onto the fully cooled cupcakes. ENJOY!