Martha Stewart's CUPCAKES: Blackberry Cornmeal Cupcakes

I've only baked one recipe out of my new cupcake cookbook by Martha Stewart and I'm in love. I have to admit, I haven't even looked all the way through it to give a complete review.

I have leftover buttermilk to thank. I hate waisting milk so naturally I had to find a way to use it and cupcakes are always the best option.The recipe I chose to bake was Blackberry Cornmeal Cupcakes. Though I'd say these are more muffin-esque, they are perfectly sweet and a wonderful dessert.

I had high hopes of giving you a step-by-step guide to these cupcakes, but I haven't quite mastered that skill. Though I love my kitchen the lighting is horrible so I always have to either deal with ucky light or move things toward the window. However, I did manage to get a few shots.

The beginning. This is my mis en place. I am adoring my little silver cups from IKEA; one is housing the salt. I love using berries in cupcakes, their tartness and health factor are always appealing. This recipe also feature cornmeal and I feel it offered a fabulous texture and heartiness.

One of the best parts of this recipe was that I got to stir it by hand. Always a joy and furthers my feelings that it is more of a muffin..but hey, who cares.

I made a few mistakes during the process. For instance, I forgot to spray my liners with PAM. I'm not sure if you guys normally this or not, but I tend to do so with most of my cupcake recipes. I find that the cupcake comes out easier. I actually prefer the PAM that has flour. The second mistake I made was not sprinkling the cupcakes with sugar before putting them in the oven. I'm thankful I remembered so quickly...only a minute passed by before I remembered. But still, I hate opening the oven more than necessary.

The third issue I ran into was overfilling the cups and possibly the consequence of having the cupcake sink. I'm not sure what the heck happened. My husband thinks it's altitude issues but I'm not sure. So if anyone in Utah or a similar elevation makes these please let me know your results. I know it's not my baking powder because it is not old by any means.

Here they are before and after baking. It was honestly such a pain to have them overflow and sink. I just hate when that happens! With that said, I didn't really care about the sinking once I bit into them. I thought they were just great! I loved the tartness of the berry, and how the berries changed to a pink after cooking. The cornmeal offered a sweet and salty hint to the cupcake, making me feel less guilty about eating a cupcake for part of my breakfast!


For some reason I always like to bake my cupcakes in two different liners...just to see how they turn out. I bought these souflee cups at Gygi Culinary Solutions a while back and love them. My husband is convinced these ones tasted better. :)


I really want to cook my way through this glorious cookbook. But I know I can't fit a weekly bake into my schedule or add that pressure to myself right now. My solution: still bake through it...just on a "whenever I can basis." Please let me know if you are trying out these recipes...I would love to see your results!