Blueberry Basil Cheesecake Cupcakes

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It’s that time again. Here’s my entry for September’s Iron Cupcake Earth. Ingredient: BASIL. I decided to try and make a cupcake that reminded me of cheesecake, using basil in the filling and topping. Here’s the recipe that resulted, which in hindsight, I should have cut in half because I ended up with 48 cupcakes…48 basil flavored cupcakes, no less. I think I liked these best when they were still warm. They didn’t even really need the topping. But, that would have looked pretty boring, so I added the topping and extra blueberries for the photo.

Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup graham crackers, ground in a food processor
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup dark brown sugar
1.5 cup regular sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
4 eggs, room temperature
8 oz. sour cream, room temperature
1 Tbsp vanilla

Blueberry Basil Filling
1 can of Blueberry Pie filling (yeah, I took the easy way here.)
1 Tbsp ground basil

Cream Cheese Filling
16 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Blueberry Basil Whipped Topping
2 cups heavy whipping cream
4 Tbsp powdered sugar
4 Tbsp Blueberry Basil Filling

For the Blueberry Basil Filling:

• Purée the blueberry pie filling and ground basil in a food processor. Set aside.

For the cake:

• Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and ground graham crackers in a large bowl and stir with a wire whisk until combined. Set aside.
• Cream both sugars and butter with a mixer until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs one at a time to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.
• Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients in three additions, alternating with the sour cream in two additions and ending with the flour mixture. Mix well with each addition.
• Add vanilla and mix well. Set aside.

For the cream cheese filling:

• In another bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the cream cheese filling and mix until thoroughly combined.

For the Blueberry Basil Whipped Topping (You can make this while the cupcakes are cooling):

• Beat whipping cream and powdered sugar in a chilled mixing bowl until stiff peaks form.
• Add Blueberry Basil Filling until combined.
• And throw in some extra ground basil if you want the taste stronger.

Assemble:

• Fill each baking cup about halfway.
• Spread a spoonful of the blueberry basil filling on top.
• Spoon some of the cream cheese filling on the top of that so that they are filled about 3/4 full.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-18 minutes.
• Cool.
• Top with Blueberry Basil Whipped Topping and whole blueberries, if desired.

Note: You can keep some untopped cupcakes refrigerated. Then, heat them up a little and add the cold blueberry basil whipped topping when ready to eat.

Okay, that’s out of the way. Now don’t forget, you can play, too. Enter here ^[2]. And, let me tell you… it’s worth it. I’ve started receiving some of the prizes from winning the first challenge and they are fantastic (Thanks again, everyone who voted). When I do get all the prizes in, I’ll show them to you. FYI – I can’t win the main prizes again for a year, so make sure you use your vote wisely and spread the cupcake love. Vote here ^[3] between September 28 and October 1st.