Hi Everyone,
The weekend is officially over, so we need to start the week out on the right foot. I started my Sunday by actually exercising. I did 40 minutes of strength training in the morning and in the afternoon I squeezed in 20 minutes of kickboxing. Woohoo! So for me, I am starting my week out with over a 500 calorie burn. I hope that will encourage me to keep going, since last week I fell short of my workouts. Also, to start off the week on the right foot, I made a wonderful, light, low calorie cupcake just for you!
This my friends is the lowest calorie cupcake I ever made and I am thinking the tastiest! The cake is light and airy angel food cake and the frosting is a light cream cheese frosting with a little pinch of sweetened coconut and to go with the spring feeling I added one Coconut M&M. Even though it says “n” on the candy.
To me the spring is not complete without daffodils. When I was working in my kitchen I kept getting a slight floral smell, coming to find out it’s my daffodils. I didn’t realize they had a smell, it’s a wonderful spring smell. I bought two bunches of daffodils from Trader Joe’s this weekend, only $1.29 a bunch. I need to get more, they’ll be perfect for my office.
When making my angel food cake batter. The key is to make sure when you beat the eggs, sugar and cream of tartar till you have a stiff peak.
Then you gently fold in the flour.
Then you spoon into your muffin cups, and fill them to the top. The batter rises but falls again, after they bake. Here they are out of the oven.
I added coconut extract to the batter to give it a nice coconut taste and I also cut down on the sugar, instead of using 3/4 of a cup I decided to use a half a cup. The sweetness was perfect. My theory is, if you’re using frosting, than you should cut back on sugar in the batter. It’s my way of cutting back on calories.
Out of the whole big bag of M&M’s, I only had one yellow M&M in it. That’s weird. They were mostly blue. Am I the only person that searches out colors of M&M’s? Probably, I’m weird that way.
For the frosting I used 6oz of fat free cream cheese, 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and a drop of coconut extract, whipped together and topped on cupcake. I didn’t want a heavy frosting since I had a light cupcake. I also added just a sprinkle of sweetened coconut. It’s such a perfect little cupcake. Be sure not to frost the cupcake until your ready to use it. Otherwise keep the frosting in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- ½ cup granulated sugar (divided)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup cake flour plus 1 tablespoon
- 6 large egg whites at room temperature
- ¾ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon coconut extract
- **Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients**
- 6 oz Cream Cheese, fat free
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp coconut extract
- ½ cup sweetened coconut, shredded
- Optional: 24 Coconut M&M's
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line a muffin pan with muffin liners
- Mix half of your ground sugar in a small bowl with the flour and salt. Set aside.
- In a large metal bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy. When foamy, add the cream of tartar and beat until medium peaks form. Slowly beat in the sugar, and than add coconut extract.
- Gently fold the flour mixture into egg white mixture, a little bit at a time.
- Carefully spoon mixture into the muffin liners, filling to the top and and bake for 8 - 10 minutes. They will have a slightly golden color top.
- Check cupcakes by sticking a toothpick in it, when it comes out clean, cupcake is done. Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes and than let it completely cool on a wire rack
- To make frosting:
- In a bowl add cream cheese and powdered sugar. With an electric hand mixer beat until well mixed, about 2 minutes. Add coconut extract and beat until combined. The frosting will be not be thick.
- Evenly sprinkle shredded coconut over top of cupcakes. Top with a coconut M&M.
Calculation of the calories, are for use all the frosting, so if you don't use all the frosting the calories will be less.
Calories per cupcake with frosting and shredded coconut: 58.6, Fat: 1, Cholesterol: 1.3, Sodium: 66.3, Carbs: 10.4, Fiber: .3, Sugar: 7.7, Protein: 2.6
Calories per cupcake without frosting: 29.7, Fat: 0, Cholesterol: 0, Sodium: 13, Carbs: 6.4, Fiber: .1. Sugar: 4.2, Protein: 1.4
On my calorie calculations I also gave you calories without the frosting, in case you wanted to leave a few free and maybe top with some fresh berries. Thats what I plan on doing. When I made this batch of cupcakes, I thought I would only get 12 cupcakes, I didn’t realize I’d get 24. Since it’s just my husband and I, we have a lot of cupcakes to eat! I thought heating up some berries and topping on the cupcake would be so good, than drizzle with some frosting. Yum!!! Angel food cake is one of my favorite desserts of all time!! When birthdays would come around I always asked for angel food cake. Even before I became health conscience. I just always loved angel food cake. It’s such a wonderful cake!! With all this talk, I think I need to have one right after this post!
Don’t you hate when you feel like you’re forgetting something? That’s how I feel right now, I swear there was something I wanted to tell you, oh well I guess it wasn’t that important?
Have a great week! And I shall see you tomorrow.
Toodles!
