Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

For the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place liners in two 12-cup muffin tins. In a medium bowl, stir together four, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar together until it looks creamy. Beat in the egg and the vanilla and almond extracts until the mixture is smooth. Add half of the flour mixture and mix on low until almost combined. Add buttermilk and mix on low again, until almost combined. Add the rest of the flour and mix until all ingredients are combined. Divide batter evenly into muffin cups about 2/3 of the way full. Do not overfill.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting.

For the icing:
Beat the butter, blackberries, vanilla, lemon zest, and salt at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the powdered sugar gradually and beat at low speed until blended and smooth.

Notes:
These cupcakes are very light and moist and the frosting is quite sticky, so do no overfill your cupcakes or they will be more difficult to ice. It may work better to pipe this frosting on to avoid messing up the cupcake.

This frosting will have blackberry seeds in it since it calls for fresh blackberries. I would think that seedless blackberry preserves could be substituted for those who may not like the seedy texture.

I found that I liked these cupcakes even more when they were cold, so I kept them in the refrigerator.