Hi Everyone! – A quick side note – I do have an exciting announcement coming soon – hopefully next Friday if all goes well – but let’s just say I AM VERY EXCITED! And can’t wait for YOU to get involved 🙂
This is my first post about exploring food.
I love exploring new recipes. I personally am not always the best at creating the recipe from scratch – I get too excited about all food and all of the flavours and keep adding, and adding, and adding… you get the point. This leads to a very adventurous food which often has too much going on.
So the cupcake recipe is not personally mine but I think it is still good to vouch for others’ recipes. Occasionally I might have adapt the recipe a little bit and I have my standard ‘adaptations’ that I do. Most of the time it’s because I am a ‘lazy’ cook so I often try to skip steps if I can to simplify it (and have less dishes to wash). I did make up the icing recipe from scratch and it is listed below.
Getting back to this recipe.
These cupcakes make a delicious and nutritious dessert with lots of fibre from the whole grain flour.
Taste and texture:
The cupcakes It was surprisingly soft and moist but held up well. My friend picked out the recipe for her 1 year old’s birthday party. She had asked for cupcakes and I had wrongly assumed she wanted the big cupcakes first! Needless to say – the little ones
were adorable and really easy for the kids to handle.
Nutrition:
This is a surprisingly nutritious option for me to bake. Eating fibre is important (unless a dietitian or physician has told you not to). Fibre is important for people with diabetes, your digestive system, and can even help with heart disease and reducing blood pressure.
I love to bake, – and I love to bake the decadent sweet desserts. To make it work for me I tend to eat a small amount of it and try not to bake TOO often but I do eat dessert on a frequent basis. It was nice to make something light and refreshing for a change. This is absolutely a repeat recipe for me.
Here is the recipe: Healthier Smash Cake Recipe from Kristines Kitchen Blog
The adaptations I made to the recipe are:
1) I used normal 100% whole grain flour with no problems
2) I know all the chefs will cringe but as a general rule I never add salt to my baking and it worked just fine. TECHNICALLY this is a big nono as it does change the way the food rises but if I do add salt I maybe add 10-20 sprinkles which probably doesn’t do anything anyways
3) I loved the cinnamon
4) I used 2% or 1% milk (I often switch so I don’t remember now but it shouldn’t matter much)
5) I’m almost 95% positive I did not add the egg but did use a little bit more banana
6) Although the original recipe was for a full cake, there wasn’t any issues from a surface area heat perspective in cooking the cupcakes so don’t hesitate there! I am pretty sure though I forgot to set a timer so it possible it took a little bit less time.
I did not make the icing that was recommended – I made a much simpler icing but I quite enjoyed it:
Icing: I actually used a ratio – half whipped cream to a little less than half plain greek yogurt with maple syrup to taste (maybe 1-2 tablespoons) and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. It definitely isn’t a sweet icing but it was quite nice and suited the cupcakes.
If you’d like exact measurements:
Ingredients:
1.5 cups of whipped cream
1 cup of greek yogurt. The plain greek yogurt I used gave it a bit of a tart flavour which is why I added the maple syrup.
1 tablespoon maple syrup (add more if you choose but be careful!)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Directions:
I would mix the whipped cream until it becomes relatively thick before adding the greek yogurt. Finally add the vanilla extract first and if you feel you need the maple syrup then add that last. If you decide to use a flavoured greek yogurt it is unlikely you will need the maple syrup. This recipe should be fairly forgiving so don’t stress too much about it but please do remember to refrigerate the icing afterwards or it will melt on you!
As a funny side note – because I am such a clumsy cook I attempted to hide the splattering of the whipped cream everywhere with a cloth. Somehow, I got the cloth stuck in the egg beaters, whipped the whipped cream absolutely EVERYWHERE so I needed to pause to clean things up. This is a pretty standard cooking fiasco for me so just be careful with the icing!
Let me know if you have any questions, if the recipe worked out for you or if you would make any changes!
Much Love and Happy Tasting!
Irena