I went to my parent’s house on Saturday. I was awake early and since I had been away so long I just decided to go. It was a fun surprise for my Mom and Dad. After hanging out for a bit we went out to lunch. Dad and I got a great fish and chips. (My chips were sweet potato) We both ate half of our lunch and brought the rest home to save for dinner. This is where the trouble began. They had no tartar sauce.
Heather and her family had left to go to a Birthday party at a friends and we were watching the first Harry Potter movie on Disney Channel (they were so tiny) Toward the end of the movie was when I began having a terrible craving for something cakey. I happened to mention this aloud so my Mom (being a bad influence) suggested we go to La Cupcake. We didn’t want my dad to feel bad that we were going without him so we used the need for tartar sauce as our excuse to go out.
At La Cupcake we tried their signature cheesecake brownie cupcake and the pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese frosting. By getting one of each we were able to cut them in half and then we each got to taste both. The cheese cake one was ok but really didn’t fulfill the cakey craving. The Pumpkin one however was exactly what I was after. It tasted great and the whole time I was eating it I kept thinking “I have got to find a way to make this legal.”
That was my mission for today. Well, that and laundry. I spent most of my day on the internet. I knew there had to be a good pumpkin cupcake that was low sugar, low fat and lactose free. I also needed a cream cheese frosting that met the same requirements.
By altering a couple of recipes I came up with something that in my opinion was way better than the one I had on Saturday.
Sugar-Free Pumpkin cupcakes
- 4 eggs
- 1 ¼ cups Splenda
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, Splenda, oil, apple sauce and pumpkin with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture until thoroughly combined.
- Spray cupcake pan with non-stick cooking spray or use paper cup liners. Fill the cups a little more that ¾ full. Bake for 15-20 min.
Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
1 (8oz) package Tofutti milk free better than cream cheese
1 (8oz) tub Cool Whip Free Whipped Topping
1/2 cup Splenda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
In a medium mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until soft. Add Cool Whip, Splenda, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Makes 12 servings
In order to keep it lactose free I went with the Cool Whip. Unfortunately that meant some corn syrup. Considering the amount of protein in the recipe vs. sugar I decided the little bit of corn syrup was probably ok. This way my Dad can eat it too.
With the major success on creating such a wonderful tasting cupcake. (I could hardly keep the kids out of them long enough to take pictures.) I will definitely be making them for Thanksgiving.
And to think it all started with tartar sauce.
