Vanilla cupcakes with blueberry filling and mascarpone frosting

Happy anniversary to my wonderful parents! They have been married for 32 long years. Through so many ups and downs that life has brought them, they have overcome them and raised three great children (the greatest being me of course ha!), and provided us with a great life. I am so proud to have them as my "mae" and "pai". Love you guys!
Now, my parents love fruity cupcakes, so much so that when I make chocolate varieties, my dad especially sort of wrinkles his nose... Really? Who doesn't like chocolate?! Anyways, due to my parents preference to fruits, I was inspired to make these vanilla cupcakes filled with a blueberry and lemon filling, and then topped with a light mascarpone frosting. How did I come up with that combo? It's partly what I already had at home haha!
The vanilla cupcake recipe I found on Pinterest, and have been dying to try it out. It came out nice and fluffy, with that pretty little dome you expect to see on a great cupcake. It's one I'm happy to try again!! Each of the locations I got the recipes from are listed below.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Yields about 18 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder 
1/2 tsp baking soda 
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line cupcake pan(s) with baking cups.

Sift and mix together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the yogurt, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Gradually add in the dry ingredients in 3 separate batches, alternating with the milk (start and end in dry ingredients). Mix until just incorporated.

Fill baking cups about 2/3 full (or a little less) and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven, transfer cupcakes to a cooling rack, and allow to cool to room temperature before frosting or serving.

Blueberry cupcake filling

Ingredients:
8oz frozen blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1-2 Tbsp lemon juice
A pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and stir. Bring to a boil, stirring, until sugar has dissolved and mixture has thickened.
2. With a paring knife cut cylinders out of the center of each cake and set aside. Fill with blueberry filling and “re-cap” with cut out cake. 

Mascarpone Frosting

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
8oz mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted

Directions:
With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately.

Resources:
Vanilla Cupcakes inspired by Pastry Affair
Blueberry Filling inspired by Quarter Cup Kitchen
Mascarpone Frosting inspired by Martha Stewart

My favorite vanilla cupcake

Wow... it has been a while since I last posted. Things got away from me, busy life took over, and now it seems like forever since I last wrote a post. 
As an update to our personal life, I am due any day now (!) and looking very much forward for baby #2 to arrive. I am officially on maternity leave and hope to take some of this time to post some of the stuff I've made but just not posted. 
On to the recipe though! I have been looking and looking for a good, reliable, and simple vanilla cupcake (or cake for that matter) recipe. I've tried many but never found one that would truly deliver the same results every time. I like the little dome on top of the cupcake, and I like the cake itself to be moist but with good consistency. AND (not to be picky or anything), I like it when it doesn't take a whole bunch of bowls, I don't need to whip up the eggs separately (which does deliver a good fluffy cake, but man... the extra work...), and I don't have extra mess to clean up!
So, have I finally found the recipe "of my dreams", you ask? I think so! :) So far this recipe has made me very happy, and I can officially say that I can retire the cake box mixes for vanilla/yellow cakes (I've already done that with my chocolate cakes/cupcakes!).
So here is the recipe, from one of my all-time favorite food bloggers Annie from  Annie's Eats . I didn't modify/tweak this recipe at all; it's that perfect (I just omitted the lemon zest for the same reason Annie did too)! :) You can basically pair this cupcake with any frosting you want, which I chose (this time) to frost with a nice chocolate frosting (another recipe that has become my go-to one!)

Vanilla Cupcakes

Make 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

¼ cup milk

1-1 ½ recipes easy vanilla buttercream frosting (or any other frosting you want)

Directions:

Get your ingredients ready!

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.  Set pan aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

 In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides and beating well after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla extract. 

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl. 

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter (about 2/3 up the cup) and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool in pan 5 minutes.  Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Prepare frosting.  Decorate cooled cupcakes as desired.

Recipe from Annie's Eats