Healthy cupcakes. Any healthy baker knows this can be a REALLY tough thing to accomplish.  Over the past couple years I’ve tried multiple recipes with some really bad results.  Dry, didn’t rise, tasted like a muffin instead of a cupcake, and the list goes on.  I must give props to Chocolate Covered Katie for her Skinny Vanilla Cupcake recipe that I adapted mine from. I was a little leery that they would turn out by looking at the batter (its thick), but I had faith, and they turned out great!  They are light, and have a great cupcake texture.  They really do taste like a great vanilla cupcake!

I quite enjoyed them plain, but they could easily be jazzed up with icing (like above).  A great option would be my cream cheese icing , which is the recipe I used for the pink icing (just added some Wilton gel in Rose) or even a glaze. The cream cheese icing is thick enough that you could easily dye it to make your desired icing color.

Note: Spelt flour is well tolerated by people sensitive to wheat.  But its not gluten free. I haven’t tried this recipe with oat flour yet.  It may make it really dense. Whole wheat pastry flour may be a good substitute to spelt, but again, I haven’t tried that either, so attempt at your own risk 😉

Healthy Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
12 packets stevia
2 eggs
2 Tbsp vanilla
2 cups 0% greek yogurt (for dairy free use plain or vanilla coconut yogurt or soy yogurt)
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted (could sub with a light oil instead. You will get a hint of coconut taste in the cupcakes if you use coconut oil)

Note: I don’t recommend subbing the oil for applesauce in this recipe, or the cupcakes will be gummy

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients and stir (spelt flour, baking powder/soda/salt, stevia).  In a separate bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients (eggs, vanilla, yogurt & lastly, coconut oil).  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until combined. Mixture will be much thicker than traditional cupcake batter.

Scoop into cupcake liners or grease/spray your muffin tins.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until just golden around the edges and a toothpick comes clean.

Nutrition (per cupcake)   Calories: 142   Fat: 6 g   Carbs: 15 g   Fiber: 2 g   Sugars: 0.5 g   Sodium: 161 mg   Protein: 6 g