Guilt-Free Vanilla Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
A few notes on these cupcakes; first, what a pain in the butt, eating cupcakes day after day to test and make sure they’re good enough to share. Just kidding! It was my pleasure. Please pay attention to the notes; there are a few variations to this recipe. Again, I hate discussing calorie counts because I hate having numbers in my head but these cupcakes are less than half the calories of the “lowfat” variety I have seen. These cupcakes have tons of flavour and are really easy to make. I am listing the recipe for the icing first because it has to be made ahead of time and allowed to cool in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
Makes 12 Cupcakes
Icing:
¾ Cup fat free cottage cheese
½ Cup Confectioner’s Sugar (Icing sugar)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
– Combine all ingredients in a food processor and mix well. Leave the food processor running for a few minutes to ensure a completely smooth consistency.
– Transfer to a container with a tight fitting lid and refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours, up to a couple days. If the icing is too thin for your liking you can line a sieve with a coffee filter and pour the icing into the coffee filter; rest over a bowl (to catch the liquid). Leave the icing to strain and thicken in the fridge for at least 3 hours, up 6; I wouldn’t leave it uncovered any longer than that.
Cupcakes:
¾ Cup All purpose white flour
¾ Cup All purpose whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ Cup sugar
1 Cup fat free vanilla yogurt
1 Cup 1% milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
– Preheat your oven to 350.
– Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; mix well.
– In a large bowl (using a stand mixer ideally – its awesome!) combine the sugar, yogurt, milk, and vanilla extract; mix well.
– Gradually pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, incorporate well but don’t over mix – stop when you can’t see any more flour.
– Evenly distribute the batter into each portion of a muffin tin; it’ll be about 2 tablespoons per muffin/cupcake (halfway filled).
– Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, until the cakes are golden in colour and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the cupcake.
– Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack. Let them cool completely before you ice them.
– Cover the cupcakes evenly with the icing; you should get about a tablespoon and a half of icing per cupcake.
Notes:
- If you prefer, you can add more confectioner’s sugar to the icing to thicken it BUT its already really sweet so taste it first!
- I HATE white flour but this is a cupcake and well, I thought I’d compromise and split the difference between whole wheat and white flour. That’s just me. I tested this recipe with all white flour and it tasted really good so feel free to use 1.5 cups all white flour (I won’t look).
- This cake isn’t as sweet as other cupcakes; I did this on purpose. I personally prefer a milder cake when the icing is really sweet. If you prefer sweet and sweet then add another ½ cup of sugar but keep in mind I didn’t find it necessary and it’ll add many, many more calories.
- I didn’t line the muffin pan with cupcake liners, again, personal preference.
- I have a non-stick muffin pan and I didn’t grease the pan (I took a walk on the wild side), I was fine. If you prefer to grease the pan, go ahead, they’re your cupcakes!!!