Are they muffins? Or are they cupcakes? Perhaps they’re petit fours?! I think these little guys have a lot of people confused in the best of ways. These blueberry muffin petit fours are baked in a silicone mold, inverted, and topped with cream cheese frosting. Then, because we can’t just stop there, you’ll add a sprinkle of salted crumble on top along with an extra blueberry or two for presentation.
Is it a muffin or a cupcake?
Although a dollop of cream cheese frosting may be a bit unconventional to add to your classic morning muffin, I’m all about mixing things up!
Generally speaking, cupcakes are made with a higher amount of fat and sugar than muffins are. Cupcakes can be more of a decadent dessert, whereas a muffin is essentially a healthy, socially acceptable cupcake you can get away with eating for breakfast.
The addition of cream cheese frosting adds a tangy sweetness to the experience, and adds to the overall appearance of the presentation as well – a win-win!
Silicone Molds
which mold should I buy?
The classic shape of the muffins pictured is due to the vessel in which the batter is baked. I use these cylinder baking molds.
After spraying the molds with baking spray or coating with melted butter, I fill my molds about 2/3 of the way full.
What if my muffins don’t bake in perfect cylinders?
After baking and slightly cooling, the muffins will pop right out of the greased molds.
Like many cake-based goods, your batter may have slightly domed during the baking process. The muffins below have been slightly trimmed using a serrated knife to cut off the top so that it is flat.
You are of course welcome to choose whether you want to cut off the domed portion of your muffins into a perfect cylinder or simply let them be!
Baking the batter in a silicone mold
Don’t feel too intimidated by these molds! Think of them as if they were cupcake liners. You’re simply adding batter into the mold…. baking until you can insert a toothpick into the middle of the muffin and it comes out clean! It’s the same process!
The only thing that you’ll want to take note of is the removal of the muffins from the silicone. You do not want to remove your muffins from their molds too early before the muffins have a chance to cool slightly. This is similar to baking a bundt cake. If you are to remove the cake too early from its mold when it’s piping hot, the cake will not be able to support itself and will likely collapse. That is the same for our muffins!
Using Frozen Blueberries
My original reason for creating this recipe was due to the copious amounts of blueberries I had sitting in the freezer from a blueberry picking adventure this past summer!
In order to use frozen blueberries in your recipe, you’ll want to make sure that you take a few moments and do the following:
- Grab your frozen berries out of your freezer and place them in a colander or a strainer set over a bowl until they have thawed. This way, you are able to capture the excess blueberry juice in case you want to add them to a smoothie or use it in another way.
- If you’re tight for time, place your blueberries place in a colander and rinse with warm water until they have completely thawed
- Gently transfer thawed blueberries to a paper towel-lined sheet pan and pat dry. They are ready to use!
Helpful Equipment to make Blueberry Muffin Petit Fours
Fancy Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
Salted Oat Crumble
- 1 1/3 Cup (108 g) Oats
- 3/4 Cup (93.75 g) All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 Cup (110 g) Brown Sugar
- Pinch Salt
- 1/2 Cup (113.5 g) Unsalted Butter, Cold, cut into cubes
Blueberry Muffins
- 2/3 Cup (157.73 g) Water
- 3/4 Cup (168 g) Canola oil
- 3 Eggs
- 2 Tsp Vanilla or Lemon Extract
- Zest of 4 Lemons
- 2/3 Cup (133 g) Sugar
- Salt pinch
- 2 1/2 Cups (312 g) All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Tbsp Baking powder
- 1 1/3 Cups (197 g) Blueberries
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/4 Cup (56 g) Unsalted Butter
- 1 Cups (227 g) Cream Cheese
- 1 Cups (120 g) Sifted Powdered Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Paste
Instructions
Salted Oat Crumble
- Place oats into a food processor and pulse until they've broken up – pulsing for about 15 seconds
- Add your oats, flour, brown sugar and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix with a paddle attachment.
- Add butter in chunks into the mixture and continue mixing until thoroughly combined. Sprinkle on top of blueberry muffins before baking and/or on top of the cream cheese frosting once frosted.
Blueberry Muffins
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and prep your by spraying with baking spray evenly or prepare muffin pan with liners.
- In a medium bowl add flour, salt, and baking powder whisking to combine.
- In a separate large bowl, add water, oil, eggs and extract into a bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Place lemon zest and sugar together in a food processor and pulse for a few minutes. Then add sugar mixture into bowl of wets and mix to combine.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two separate parts, mixing until just combined. Then add blueberries, folding them into the batter gently.
- Add batter into each mold or muffin liner until they are 3/4 of the way full and add a sprinkle of salted crumble on top.
- Then bake muffins until a toothpick can be inserted into the middle of the muffin and it comes out clean. For the silicone mold muffins, this should take approximately 18-20 minutes. Let the muffins cool for ten minutes in the molds before turning upside down and removing the muffins from the mold. If your mold was greased well, the muffins should slide out easily.
- If using a muffin tin, they can take between 22 and 26 minutes to bake.
- You are of course welcome to choose whether you want to cut off the domed potion of your muffins in to a perfect cylinder or simply let them be!
- Allow to cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat together the softened butter and cream cheese on medium speed until it’s smooth and somewhat fluffy.
- Scrape down the sides, then add in the powdered sugar slowly and vanilla paste
- Place cream cheese frosting in a plastic bag or pastry bag and cut off the tip. Add a dollop of frosting onto each muffin, sprinkle with salted crumble and enjoy!
Nutrition
Hey there, I just tried your recipe and the silicone mould was filled 3/4 full with a tsp of crumble on top. Although they filed so much that leveling them would have left practically no crumble on top. Is this what happens for you? As in the picture I can also see very little crumble.
Thanks!
Hi there Brooke! Great questions – when I fill my molds to 3/4 of the way full usually they don’t overflow. If yours did – you could always trim off the bottom so that you can preserve thee crumble! Or perhaps reduce the amount of batter in your molds to make up for the amount of oven spring that’s happening. As for the crumble, you can certainly add the crumble both onto the top of the muffin or simple to the top of the blueberry muffins after they’ve been frosted! I tend to add a bit of crumble onto the top of the muffins and touch on top of the cream cheese. Depending on your preference, you can add much more or less!