Can you have your cupcake and eat it too? With these lightened up, nutrition-enhanced beauties, the answer is yes! You don’t have to tell anyone that you cut back on the sugar, or that you swapped out all the oil for fat-free Greek yogurt and puréed prunes. Just don’t do as I did and eat 3 cupcakes in one sitting; that kind of works against the whole “eating healthy” idea.
PS – I just entered these in the Today Show’s “Too Good to Be Healthy” chocolatey dessert contest. Maybe you’ll see me on the Today Show Feb. 6th! (But if not, you’ll still have a good recipe to try for Valentine’s Day.)
UPDATE 2/7/14: THESE WON THE CONTEST!! See the TODAY SHOW segment here!!
PPS – According to the recipe builder/calorie calculator at sparkpeople.com, these cupcakes came in at a respectable 140 calories, with some protein and a touch of fiber thanks to the prunes!
“Too Good to Be Healthy” Black Bottom Cupcakes
Makes 18 cupcakes
- 8 oz. (1 package) Neufchatel/reduced fat cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup granulated (white) sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- ¼ cup (1 oz.) mini chocolate chips (or chopped semisweet chocolate)
- 1/3 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt
- 12 prunes
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups flour
- 5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 egg whites
Heat oven to 350F. Arrange muffin cups/liners in 2 muffin tins.
Make filling:
In a small bowl or large Pyrex measuring cup, mix together the reduced fat cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth. Stir in mini chocolate chips.
If the mixture is lumpy after stirring, beat with an electric mixer.
Sorry for the blur. Feel free to double the amount of mini chips if you’re not concerned about cutting calories.
Make cupcakes:
In a food processor, pulse together yogurt and prunes.
Prune and yogurt purée – looks like liver paté!
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.
Add yogurt/prune mixture, water and vanilla to dry ingredients, stirring until just combined.
In another small bowl, beat the 2 egg whites until stiff peaks form.
You can also beat the egg whites by hand for a little extra arm workout.
Stir a little of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate batter to lighten. Then, using a spatula, fold in the rest of the egg whites.
Divide the batter among the muffin cups. (Cupcakes will look about ½-full.)
Spoon about a tablespoon of the filling into the center of each cupcake.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Store at room temperature in a covered container. Try not to eat them all at once!
Note: If you can wait for the cupcakes to cool, the paper liners will peel off much easier. A quick 8-10 seconds in the microwave will restore the just-out-of-the-oven meltiness.
Subee's Kitchen 
Incredible looking!!!!! I’m running to the grocery store now.. have everything but the cream cheese.. need to make them NOW! Thank you Susan!!!! 🙂
I have made two batches and they are a HUGE hit; my kids love them! Thank you for sharing….
Do these need to be refrigerated b/c they contain cream cheese?
Hi Jan –
I don’t refrigerate them, but it’s OK to do so if you want. I like to heat them for 10 seconds in a microwave to melt the chocolate a little.