I love berries. In all colours and sizes. I spotted raspberries in my fridge one evening, and it look all of 20 minutes to transform them from the box they were sitting in to crowning these amazingly light and fluffy vanilla cupcakes. Added bonus was using the elderflower syrup sitting in the pantry. Result= amazing guilt free desert! Guilt free? Yes— only 3 tbs of oil, zero fat milk and zero fat yoghurt, and less than a cup of sugar. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself. These divine cupcakes are a solution to all those of you who love cupcakes but are torn between their fat content and their scrumptious flavours! Be afraid no more— these cupcakes are here to rule, without any effect on that waistline! So go ahead, indulge your taste buds. I did 🙂
Ingredients for the Cupcake: (makes 12 cupcakes) adapted from here
1. ½ cup yoghurt (zero fat will work)
2. 2/3 cup zero fat milk
3. ¼ cup apple sauce/ ¼ cup cream cheese
4. 3 tbs vegetable/canola oil
5. ¾ cup granulated sugar
6. 2 tsp vanilla bean extract
7. 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
8. 2 tbs corn flour
9. ¾ tsp baking powder
10. ½ tsp baking soda
11. ¼ tsp salt
Ingredients for the Icing:
1. ¼ cup spreadable seedless fruit preserve
2. ½ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3. 1 tsp milk
4. 1 tbs elderflower syrup
5. ½ cup fresh raspberries (3-4 per cupcake)
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 175*c and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Use light colours, or white if possible, to bring out the colours of the berries.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the wet cupcake ingredients (ingredients 1 to 6) i.e. the yoghurt, milk, cream cheese/applesauce, oil, sugar and vanilla extract. Add in the sifted dry ingredients- the flour, corn flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix with a whisk for 2 minutes until smooth. This is a very easy batter to mix by hand- it doesn’t need a hand blender or any machine whatsoever to make the batter smooth.
3. Use the ¼ cup measuring cup or a ice cream scooper to fill each liner with the batter, till 3/4th full. Place in the oven for about 24 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. Let them rest in the tin for 10 minutes before removing to cool further on the cooling rack. Don’t attempt to put on the icing till completely cook or else it’ll just slide off!
4. While they cool, mix together the confectioners’ sugar and the milk and syrup and slowly mix by hand till smooth and well incorporated. Add more sugar/milk to get the consistency right. We want a white glossy icing.
5. Once cool, assembly the cupcakes. Spread over 1 tsp of icing onto each cupcake. Then add ½ tsp of the preserve (I used strawberry jam and just spooned out the liquid-y parts which don’t have the chunks) onto the centre of each cupcake over the icing. Finish with raspberries (about 3-4) on each cupcake. Pop into fridge to set! There we are—ready in a flash!
Feedback:
1. If you don’t have elderflower syrup, use any other syrup of choice. Same with raspberries. Although I love raspberries. The combination of the elderflower and raspberries was just divine. Other all time favourites are dark chocolate and strawberry.
2. These stay well in the fridge for up to 3-4 days, but make sure you use good quality clean fruit so that the fruit doesn’t go bad while resting on the cupcake, waiting to be consumed! Always be careful while using fresh fruit, as it should be fresh, thoroughly cleaned and of even size on all cupcakes.
3. Variations- skip the icing and add ½ cup of chocolate chips to the batter. You will have amazing chocolate chip cupcakes, and won’t need any icing whatsoever! Another one on my mind (at my father’s request), is to try one with sugar substitute- make it even more healthy!
