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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.

  1. Regular – eggs and oil
  2. No Oil – eggs only
  3. 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:

  1. Regular (purple) – eggs and oil – The usual YUM
  2. No Oil (orange) – eggs only – Ok, but a little crunchy
  3. 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!

It’s easy to make small substitutions to make your food healthier. What healthy substitutions have you tried?

Need help making your favorite recipes in a healthy{er} way?   Check out my one-on-one coaching options.

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