Yield 12 Cupcakes
These taste like lite pound cake.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 3 large egg whites (use the yolks in meatloaf or bread dressing).
- 1/2 cup 2% milk
- 1/2 cup melted, cooled, unsalted butter
- 1 Tablespoon Smart Balance oil
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest (grated lemon skin)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Fruit
- 1/2 cup frozen blueberries or fresh
- 1/2 cup frozen strawberries or fresh
- 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
Cream
- 8 oz heavy whipping cream
- 1 Tablespoon powdered sugar
Directions
Microwave the butter in a safe glass bowl or cup. Melt in 1/2 minute intervals until liquefied. Set aside.
Fruit (Lite on the sugar.)
This is a quick microwave light syrup method and will add flavor to your cupcakes
Place each fruit in a microwave safe bowl, add one Tablespoon of powdered sugar, and cover with a loose lid.
Heat on high in 1/2 minute intervals mixing in between until hot, and sugar is dissolved.
Once cooled, mix in a food processor or blender to make it smooth (or use more fruit, and a bit more sugar, and do not blend; keep it chunky). Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a large bowl whisk egg whites until they start to turn white and get air bubbles.Stir in milk, lemon zest, and extracts. Set aside.
In another large bowl, sift 11/2 cups of flour with baking powder and salt, stir to combine.
Add the sugar to flour mixture, then add butter and oil, mix until incorporated. Now it is crumbly!
Add bubbly egg mixture to flour mixture. Mix until smooth and shiny (should look like pancake batter).
Use a 1/4 measuring cup per cupcake.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick test comes out clean (place a toothpick in the center of the cake, if it comes out without batter, then the cake is baked.) They should be slightly golden as in the first photo.
Whipped Cream (lite on the sugar)
Place a freshly rinsed large steel bowl upside down in the freezer for 15 minutes. Remove the bowl, and quickly dry and wipe out any ice from the inside with a paper towel. Add 8 ounces of heavy whipping cream and 1 Tablespoon of powdered sugar (btw, that white lump in the cream is the shape of one of my measuring spoons, it is sugar:).
Beat and stir for 4 minutes with a whisk or until you have whip cream (Do not place the bowl next to your body, you want to keep it as cold as possible.) If you prefer a big food processor, excellent! Then you can use that and will have to wash it too :) Or, keep your arms strong! I go sit in a leather chair, and rest the bowl on top of the leather arm while I whip it up! The leather keeps the bowl cool! LOL! True!
Be creative, and decorate the cakes to your liking, but keep the cream or prepared cakes refrigerated until you are ready to work with it or eat.
Note
I didn't have any paper liners (use individual liners if you can). I put the batter directly into a silicone muffin tray, it worked but the cakes were sticking to the silicone (or hard to remove and messed up some of the bottoms). I used baking spray for the remaining batter, and that did the trick. (I was trying to keep the cakes as white as possible but the cooking spray only added a little more golden color).
Since I use a small counter-top convection oven, I put the remaining batter in the refrigerator until the first batch of cupcakes was baked. The second batch (after the batter was refrigerated) came out fluffier and had a bit more rise. Maybe the secret to light and fluffy muffins and cupcakes is to refrigerate the batter for 20 minutes prior to baking :) Watch your baking time (ovens vary).
Enjoy!