This week it was our favorite nutritionist’s (Bere) turn to pick out the recipe and we all where pretty curious as to what she would go for. As expected, she did not disappoint! Bere gave us the challenge of making an all time favorite, Carrot Cake Cupcakes, with a few healthy alternatives. The recipe is from chocolatecoveredkatie.com and very easy to follow.
Original recipe:
Ana
Andrea
Bere
Cori
Juli
Click on any of the pictures for more details
Have you done this recipe before? No
Tools for the recipe: Food processor, spatula
Ingredient substitute: I used Stevia sugar powder, double the apple sauce to replace the oil
Experience doing the recipe: I am not used to the sugar-free, gluten-free, baking. The mixing part was easy. I shredded the carrots and used Stevia power instead of sugar. I also decided to take the fat out by replacing the oil with the extra apple sauce. The mixture was a bit pasty-like but nothing out of the ordinary. To my surprise the recipe mentions the batch was for 9 cupcakes and I actually make 9. My issue was when baking. baking them for 19min was not enough. The batter was super raw and there was no color to the bake crust of the muffin/cupcake. I ended up baking them for 35 min. and decided to let them sit and split one in half. The flavor was carrot and raising but you could taste the Stevia. I did not like the consistency overall and honestly no one at home wanted to eat them.
Would you try the recipe again? Maybe, I am uncertain about the Gluten-Free flour. This will be my third recipe with it and I have not had any successful experiences. I also recommend to use the oil and stay away from the Stevia, unless you like the fake sugar-like flavor.
Have you done this before? Nope but I had been wanting to make a carrot cake
Tools for the recipe: 2 Bowls, cupcake pan, Measuring cups, grinder, kitchen aid
Ingredient substitute: I substituted the applesauce for yogurt, the flour for almond flour and used coconut oil. Used sugar cane and I didn’t have apple cider
Experience doing the recipe: This was the quickest recipe to make so far. The music of choice for this one was reggaeton ( my favorite). To make is easy I read the whole recipe first to see what I had and what I would need (this helps a lot for the steps). Then I started mixing things together and added it to the cupcake pan. I thought the mixture was a little soft but I thought maybe that’s how it’s meant to be. I set the timer and let it cook. In the meantime I wanted to add a topping to it but didn’t have cream cheese so I read how to make whipped cream out of the water from chickpeas and sugar, so I adventured on to make it. It’s basically the water from 1 can of chickpeas and 1/3 cup of honey and I let it stir for 16 minutes it was delicious (a little too sweet for my taste so next time I’m adding less honey).
The cupcakes came out and they were fluffy and didn’t seemed cooked so I added 15 more minutes and let them sit out for a bit. The mix turned out delicious but not hard and fluffy as they should be so I sure missed something. Anyhow they were Yummy!
Would you try doing the recipe again? I would try it again with all the right ingredients to see if the consistency comes out as in the pictures
Have you done this recipe before? I have made carrot cake before but not this specific recipe.
Tools for the recipe: 2 Bowls, measuring stuff, spatula, and cupcake pan
Ingredient substitute: The recipe called for gluten free flour and my baker heart wouldn’t allow me to use that, so I used regular flour. I use Truvia as my sweetener substitute.
Experience doing the recipe: I’m not going to lie, I was NOT looking forward to this recipe…gluten free flour…apple sauce…apple cider vinegar…SUGAR SUBSTITUTE!!!…what kind of baking is this? But I will be a team player and I will make the recipe my very good nutritionist friend recommended.
After I was able to bring my eyes to the front of my head again, from rolling them back so hard as I was reading the recipe, I started mixing my ingredients. All wet ingredients in one bowl, all dry ingredients in another bowl. I followed the recipe word for word. As I was making the recipe, Bere called me, told me I could try the batter since it didn’t really have any raw ingredients. It was good!! Just sweet enough and just carroty (is that a word?) enough. I put the liners on the cupcake pan, put my mixture in, exactly 9 cupcakes (impressed) and put them in the oven. Backed them for 19 minutes, did the knife test, and then put them back in the oven for another 5 minutes.
I topped the cupcakes with a good old fashion cream cheese spread. THEY WHERE VERY GOOD. I don’t know if it was because of the regular flour or if the recipe was good but I will definitely give these a win. Easy, healthy(ish) and yummy.
Would you try the recipe again? Yeah, I would, I was pleasantly surprised it was so yummy.
Have you done this recipe before? Nope
Tools for the recipe: Cupcake baking pan, bowl, whisk and spatula
Ingredient substitute: Mashed bananas for the apple sauce. Regular all purpose flour instead of gluten free flour. No Stevia, all regular sugar.
Experience doing the recipe: Well, first started asking for a friend for a cupcake baking pan! I felt the recipe was very easy to make and it took so little time to assemble, even with the substitutions, took less than 10min.
While the cupcakes baked I attempted to make some sort of frosting, so with Cori’s help and her cheerleading… attempted to make a whipped egg whites and sugar “frosting” with NO hand mixer but with just a whisk and good ‘ol manual mixing…
After mixing for 15minutes, with the help of Cori’s encouragement… got an amazing whipped cream BUT (You saw it coming huh?) the cupcakes were hot so couldn’t use it…
Stored it and went to bed, with the hopes to finish them the next day, and well…the whipped cream was ruined and just opted to sprinkle the cupcakes with powdered sugar.
The cupcakes taste amazing! but no”frosting”
Let’s take a minute and give a minute of silence to the 15 minutes of hand missing that wasn’t used….
Would you try the recipe again? I do want to try it but all bananas… I guess they would be banana cupcakes huh?
