Pages

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

How About Amazingly Healthy (Not to Mention Delicious) Cupcakes?

Simple Goodness....
Okay, so here's where the dilemma starts: today is GraciAnn's, (my oldest daughter's) 5th birthday. Now, if I think about this long, I get very emotional.  It's so hard to believe that the blue-eyed beauty entered our lives five years ago.  I never knew I could love someone so much.  She is amazing.


My Birthday Girl!

So, here's where the problem comes in.  GraciAnn goes to a Montessori school that strongly focuses on healthy eating; therefore, a birthday treat means something extremely healthy.  So, I searched for a healthy recipe and found these Pineapple-Zucchini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.  Because I always want things to be a little healthier I changed them up a bit more.  They turned out DELICIOUS!  I'm pretty sure the kids will love them and even more sure the teachers will.

Here are the changes I made to the original cupcake recipe:
I omitted the white flour and used 1 1/2 cups of  organic whole wheat flour
I substituted the 1 cup of white sugar with 2/3 cup of agave nectar
Instead of using oil, I used 2 tablespoons applesauce
*I used organic zucchini
*I used cage free eggs

As far as the icing goes, I used fat free cream cheese but couldn't figure out how to get the right consistency, for the icing, without the powdered sugar.  I thought about agave nectar or honey, as a sweetener but thought the icing would be a little runny.  Next time, I think I'll try honey. I can't imagine how powdered sugar could be healthy.  The good news is there's only 1 cup of sugar for the entire icing recipe so it's not too terrible.  The icing isn't very sweet. It's just right!

I promise that these are scrumptious!