How to Make Cupcakes Healthy{er}
Have you ever wondered how to make cupcakes healthier?
So far, I haven’t been so adventurous in baking from scratch, so I took a regular box of cake and made a plan to taste test a few healthy{er} variations.
Notice I said make a plan – I’ll share my inner nerd with you. You can see I’ve outlined each possible way to make the cupcakes healthy{er} as well as a color coded way to keep track of who’s who.
I’ve read several times that you can swap applesauce for eggs or oil (which one is it? I get confused). Turns out applesauce can stand in for eggs or oil and some bakers say to leave out the oil completely.
Ultimately, I made 3 sets of cupcakes.
- Regular – eggs and oil
- No Oil – eggs only
- Sub Oil – eggs and applesauce (1 to 1 ratio)
The Ingredients:
Don’t these packages looks beautiful? After reviewing the ingredients list that’s full of artificial “things”, I feel certain that I will try my hand at baking from scratch. The Easy Frost was very delicious – think cheese whiz can of frosting. Danger! Again, it has a huge ingredient list, so I’ll attempt my own frosting next time. It’s interesting how over time, I pay attention to labels like I never have before.
The Experiment:
I chose to make 3 recipes because the original recipe called for 3 eggs. I did NOT want to attempt to mix 1.5 or .75 eggs! I separated the mix very scientifically into 3 juice glasses. I mixed the batter according to my plan and added a couple drops of food coloring to each batch.
As careful as I was to plan the ingredients and colors, I neglected to decrease the mixing time! The cupcakes were a little more dense than usual, but still good! Remember when you’re splitting recipes that you have to consider mixing and cooking times.
The Taste Test:
The cupcakes turned out so pretty!
The results:
- Regular (purple) – eggs and oil – The usual YUM
- No Oil (orange) – eggs only – Ok, but a little crunchy
- Sub Oil (green) – eggs and applesauce (1 to 1 ratio) – Yum and moist
I definitely recommend swapping oil for applesauce. You’ll save at least 500 fat calories for the batch as well as add a little fruit.
The To-Go Box:
Isn’t this the cutest cupcake carrier? The yummy beauties are packed safely for the birthday party!
