Red White and Blueberry Upside Down Cupcakes

Moist and simple, but with a fresh twist! An upside down cupcake is quick but has a very special twist! White cake mixed with red food coloring and a blueberry layer make a unique treat for the Fourth of July (or when the US was still in the World Cup....sad!). As seen on Photograzing. 

red white and blueberry upside down cupcake

Watching the World Cup has been so intense. Between  BAD calls in the Germany vs. England game or the two goals scored back to back within minutes by Argentina I had been biting my nails! I made these cupcakes for a US game watching party...its a shame that the results were not equally good. The cupcakes were lovely, the soccer scores were not. I think the US was far too dependent on Donovan...but I'm a baker, not a sports analyst. I know food...and is it me or did the Ghana team uniforms look like like a McDonald's commercial circa 1987. Everytime I saw a close up of the red and yellow uniforms I just couldn't help but wonder if they wanted fries with that goal.

I'm not going to pretend these are a fancy cupcake. They were the product of 45 minutes of time between a camping trip and game time. I confess, I used a mix again. If you're looking to color cakes red (the most daunting color) I recommend using Wilton's No Taste Red and lots of it! I split the mix in half and added more than a teaspoon of the dye. It's a tough color to reach. For some reason red dye's just don't behave the same as the rest. If you are looking for blue dye, Wilton also makes a very nice Royal Blue, which is a perfect USA blue instead of the bright blues you'll tend to get with other dyes.

Hopefully your cupcakes turn out just as well...though you might have to use the blueberry upside down cupcakes to cheer on Brazil instead.

red white and blue cupcakes

Red White and Blueberry Upside Down Cupcakes

1/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 white cake mix
1 cup blueberries
water, oil and eggs according to cake mix instructions
Wilton White Dye
Wilton Red No Taste Dye

Preheat oven to 325.

Line two cupcakes tins with liners.

Melt the butter in a small pan over medium low heat. Add sugar and continue to cook for five minutes.

Mix cake mix. Add water. Mix. Add Oil. Mix. Add egg whites one at a time, mixing after each addition.

Split the cake batter in two. Add White dye to one half and red dye to the other half. (The white dye does make a  noticeable difference).

Divide the butter and sugar mixture between the cupcake liners. Add about 7 or 8 blueberries to each cupcake liner. Spoon the white cake batter over the blueberries. Top with red cake batter.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow to cool for five minutes before attempting to invert.

Enjoys!

Blueberry Cobbler Ice Cream

Homemade sweet cream ice cream with blueberry cobbler mixed in! 

Alright, so it's not incredibly creative to take the last two of the cobblers I made earlier and throw them into ice cream, but what it lacks in creativity does make up in taste. 

To be fair, I haven't had a lot of time or opportunity to be creative. Prepare yourself for another moment of my complaints on the weather. Not that having metro stops flood, power outages, and falling trees cutting apartment buildings in half........but its getting old. Really old. Snowmaggedon was bad enough. Three feet of snow instead of the usual three inches DC gets in one snowfall was bad enough, now six months later we're flooded, and have tornado warnings. 

Last night I had to trudge through the rain and water to try to get to a movie theatre for a long distance date. It's horridly cheesy but Stephen and I plan weekly date nights. Last night we both went to see The Other Guys at the same time, and were those obnoxious people who text during it. Don't judge me too fast! I hid it well. I was in an oddly fancy leather seats theatre with hard wood floors and large hardwood arm rests you can hide the light from your phone under. Thankfully the theatre wasn't cold because I was nearly soaked through by the time I got there! 

Hopefully tonight goes better. I'm off to cheer on my home team Diamondbacks against the Nats. Both teams are pretty wretched this year, Strasburg aside, but I'm not fair weather fan....and irony of it all is the weather is not fair. 

I hope you all have lovely weekends and lovely summer weather to go with them! I'll try to hit a grocery store so I can be more inventive next week. 

Blueberry Cobbler Ice Cream
*if you made the blueberry cobbler from the previous post, then just use two of those and skip straight to making ice cream! 


1 cup blueberries
1/12 cups butter
1/8 cup oats
1/8 cup flour
scant 1/4 cup brown sugar
pinch of cinnamon
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar 
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 F. 

Divide the blueberries in between 2 ramekins, about a half cup each. 

In a stand mixer combine the butter, oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon and mix until clumps have formed. Spread the mixture over the blueberries. 

Bake for roughly 20 minutes, until blueberries have burst and the topping is slightly browned. 

Allow the cobbler to cool in the refrigerator as you make the ice cream. 

In a stand mixer combine the eggs and sugar. Beat for one minute until light and fluffy. Gently mix in the cream, milk and vanilla. Do not whip!

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker. When the ice cream is almost ready, pour in the cooled cobbler. Allow the ice cream to churn until finished and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Enjoy! 

Blueberry Cobbler

Delightfully juicy blueberries baked to perfections with a buttery oatmeal topping! 

Remember those credit card record sheets from the 80s? Carbon paper? I thought I'd seen the last of it, but Tuesday night I was proven wrong.

Lately DC has been a power grid nightmare. It seems like every three or four days we loose power. Sometimes for one hour, sometimes for four days. Personally I would think the capital of the United States of America would have a more reliable power grid. I would imagine that given the importance of many of the buildings in the area, electricity would be considered a slight priority.

Last night at trivia, we'd made it through round three, oh and by the way... we were winning! Yay! Being nerds and watching The Muppets seems to have worked out for us. Finally! Useless knowledge like the names of Statler and Waldorf, who heckle the audience and have a fantastic musical number as the Marley brothers in the Muppet Christmas Carol has FINALLY come in handy. My childhood now feels validated.

Round four comes around and we are answering questions about Coach Tark the Shark and out goes the power.

Surprised? As locals we were not. With the summer storms knocking out power in the area for a few days at a time, every other week or so we're just getting used to it. So there was no storm, and no way to finish the game, run our credit cards to pay for dinner, and no way to see the food in front of our faces. It was comical. They canceled our trivia, and dusted off some nappy box from below the bar and worked out a nearly thirty year old method to track our credit purchases. It was more surprising than the power outage. Who knew carbon paper hadn't been completely obliterated?

So, had a little extra free time at home (which thankfully did have power) Tuesday night and here's the result: Blueberry Cobbler. It's my Aunt Kathy's recipe. I hope you enjoy it!

Blueberry Cobbler 

1 quart blueberries

1/3 cup butter

1/2 cup quick oats

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cups brown sugar

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 F. 

Divide the blueberries in between 8 ramekins, about a half cup each. 

In a stand mixer combine the remaining ingredients and mix until clumps have formed. Spread the mixture over the blueberries. 

Bake for roughly 20 minutes, until blueberries have burst and the topping is slightly browned. 

Enjoy! 

Berries N' Cream Pavlova

Continuing in my parade of red white and blue desserts in preparation for the Fourth of July I've made a patriotic pavlova!  The fluffy meringue is a wonderfully light summer dessert. The marshmallow consistency can be accented by any fruits or toppings you like! I love berries and cream! As seen on Photograzing and and part Cook and Tell. 

berries and cream pavlova

With Independence Day coming up I thought I'd do a little mini series of red, white and blue desserts! I started out with the cherry pie and now this gorgeous pavlova! 


It's been a bit of a long week. Thankfully my intern is now working half days instead of one day a week! It makes such a difference to have the extra helping hand. I've been backed up on some reports to do and now I have actually been able to get on in a day! I was even able to get off for the weekend a little early and get in some Friday afternoon baking! Interns are wonderful. 

Berries N' Cream Pavlova

3 egg whites

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

1 cup whipped cream

1 pint blueberries

1 pint raspberries

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put egg whites in a stand mixer. Mix until they hold soft peaks. While the mixer is still running on a medium speed, add in the sugar one tablespoon at a time. Add in the cornstarch. Beat until the meringue holds very stiff peaks. 

Spread the meringue in a circle onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. I prefer to either fill a spring form pan and then remove it, or trace a circle on the underside of the parchment paper.

Bake for roughly one hour, or until the outside is dry, and a pale cream color. Turn the oven off, leave the door slightly ajar and allow the meringue to cool completely.

The cooled meringue can be stored in an airtight container for a few days.

To serve garnish with whipped cream and berries. Serve within 3-6 hours of garnishing. 

Enjoy!