Confession.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been on a Cupcake Wars BINGE. I have a new routine. Every night, I watch two to three episodes of this show. Usually, I eat a bowl of ice cream or nibble on some S’mores Goldfish as I sit in front of the tv, transfixed on all of the crazy cupcake creations. (I have a subscription to Amazon Prime, which allows me to watch all of the old seasons at no cost). It just boggles my mind how these people are able to make a great-tasting cupcake out of weird flavors, like cheddar cheese and green beans.
As old Sometimes Healthy readers may know, cupcakes hold a very special place in my heart.
I heart cupcakes and frosting!
When I lived in NYC, I would bake a different cupcake every week and bring them to my lucky coworkers, who served as my taste testers.
I was the most popular girl in the office on Cupcake Mondays!
Here in the Hudson Valley, both the BF and all of our friends are cookie eaters. So, recently, I’ve been baking up some tasty cookie recipes. They’re also not big fans of healthified treats, so I’ve been baking with all of that full fat goodness.
However, after watching Cupcake Wars one too many times, I could no longer sit on that couch in cupcake envy. Nope, I needed to make my own cupcake concoction. And, just for kicks, I’d try to healthify it….
Breakfast in a Cupcake
In one of my fave episodes of Cupcake Wars, this wacky lady (many of the bakers on there are quite eccentric), came up with the concept of “Breakfast in Bed.” The cupcakes were for a young Hollywood singles party, so she decided to stretch the theme into a bit of a “sexy” direction. Although she didn’t win, I just loved her concept!
She created a BED as her cupcake display. GENIUS!
So, with my Cupcake Wars inspiration in mind, I decided to bake a Stuffed Bacon French Toast cupcake from scratch. By the way, for all the times I have baked cupcakes on this blog, never once have I baked a cupcake from scratch!
In case you haven’t noticed, this time around, I’m a new Sometimes Healthy Girl. Every week, I find a Kitchen Adventure to tackle, and little by little, I’m gaining more confidence in the kitchen! Even my BF is impressed with my newfound “Betty Crocker-esque” persona. He can’t believe that I’m the girl he met two years ago who didn’t even know how to chop an onion.
Me last May in a cookie class with the BF, cluelessly cooking in heels. Totally lost in the kitchen.
I decided to go the healthifed route for this cupcake, because I wanted the challenge of creating a healthier version of a decadent creation. Keep in mind, “healthified” merely means that I have made it lower in fat and calories than the original using some healthy substitutions. This is still an extremely indulgent cupcake!
Healthified can still be indulgent ya’ll
Another goal I had with this cupcake was to stuff it with something delicious and creamy. I tried stuffing cupcakes a while back, but I had no idea what I was doing. I actually baked the cupcakes with jello pudding inside! After watching Cupcake Wars, I felt like I was ready to try it again! And, just for fun, I decided to go with a mascarpone filling (they use it ALL the time on Cupcake Wars).
Check out my super cool cupcake corer!
The cupcake took a couple hour to make from start-to-finish, but the end result made it worth the wait. It was creamy and sinfully sweet, while evoking all of the flavors of my favorite breakfast.
Here’s a list of some of the healthy ingredients and substitutions that I used, followed by the recipe.
- Bacon – Turkey Bacon (vegetarians can use Veggie Bacon Strips)
- Butter – Lowfat Yogurt Butter
- Cream Cheese – Lowfat Cream Cheese
- Greek Yogurt (for texture)
- Jello Pudding – Sugar Free Pudding
- Eggs – Egg Beaters
I must be honest about what happens when you work with substitutions. While you won’t lose a lot of flavor, the lower fat ingredients do generally change the texture of the cupcake a bit. In addition, both the frosting and the filling were not quite as thick as I would have liked. But, in terms of taste, the signature french toast flavor still came through loud and clear.
So, without further ado:
Healthified Bacon French Toast Cupcakes
Yields: 12 Cupcakes
Prep Time: 45 minutes; Cook Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
Cupcake
- 2/3 cup fat free vanilla greek yogurt (Fage and Chobani are best)
- 2 cups all-purpose flower
- 5 tbsp yogurt butter
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 package sugar free vanilla pudding
- 1/2 cup egg beaters
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp maple extract
Filling: Cinnamon Bacon Mascarpone
- 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
- 1/2 cup yogurt butter
- 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp maple extract
- 5 – 6 pieces crisp, chopped, turkey bacon
Frosting: Maple Cream Cheese
- 3/4 cup lowfat cream cheese
- 1/2 cup yogurt butter
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tbsp maple extract
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- Leftover turkey bacon for garnish
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with tin foil liners and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, pudding and baking soda.
- With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in egg beaters one at a time. Alternate adding flour mixture with yogurt in small amounts. Batter will be thick.
- Add in maple syrup and maple extract. Mix until well combined.
- Divide the batter among the muffin cups, filling near the top. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Place on parchment paper or plate to cool.
- While cupcakes are cooling (about 30 minutes) cook 6-8 pieces of turkey bacon in microwave or on stovetop until crispy. Place on paper towel to absorb moisture and in refrigerator to cool.
- For the stuffing combine all ingredients, except bacon, and beat with an electric mixer until incorporated.
- Chop 6 pieces of cooled bacon into small pieces and mix into stuffing.
- Once cupcakes have cooled, to fill cupcakes, use cupcake corer (can buy at Bed, Bath and Beyond) to remove middle or a paring knife to carve out the middle. Fill with about 1.5 tbsp of filling and replace top.
- For the frosting, beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add maple syrup, maple extract and confectioners’ sugar; continue beating until well combined and smooth. Frost cupcakes with generous amounts of frosting using knife and garnish with remainder of crispy bacon bits.
Here’s the run-down of what it looked like in the Sometimes Healthy kitchen.
Let’s just say the kitchen wasn’t its’ cleanest at the end of my Cupcake Wars evening. The BF called me a “Mad Cupcake Scientist.” And, then he proceeded to help me cook up the bacon. We have decided that, in this relationship, I am the veggie/baker girl. And he is the meat man. Whenever meat is involved, he always ends up pitching in.
Concentrating quite hard on his meat!
We were both very happy with the way my healthified treat turned out!
Eat these babies for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert or no reason at all!
You can bet I had one for breakfast this morning as well!
Now, it’s back to work! Until next time, here’s to frosting wishes and cupcake dreams!
YOUR TURN:
What’s the craziest treat you’ve ever baked?
What should be my next cupcake creation?
Oh yum! Those look outrageously good. I know what you mean by being completely in awe of the creations on the show! Those people are ARTISTS! 🙂
I can only dream to achieve their cupcake greatness some day haha. Definitely have a lot of work to do…particularly in the decorating aspect 😉
I dare anyone to watch that show and not want to start pulling flour and sugar out of their cupboards right after! I’m definitely going to give this a try — I could always use some extra karma amongst the workplace. Thanks for sharing!
Cupcake Mondays are an instant hit in the workplace. Perfect way to cure the Monday Blues, trust me 🙂 Good luck with the recipe!
These are the coolest cupcakes!! I should definitely give them a try with some vegan “bacon!”
I thought of you when I mentioned the veggie bacon 🙂 I think it would be a great cupcake for you!
Dear me woman…what have you done? I see two boys in my house that would love these!
Yes! Give them a try and tell me what you think 🙂