Low(er) Fat Chocolate Cupcakes

You can have a chocolatey treat without all of the guilt.

It’s fall and everywhere you turn you see pumpkin products and recipes. Almost too many! Unfortunately, I’m not going to give you a break from the pumpkin craze… but I will give it to you with chocolate! Normally I use this method with a boxed spice cake mix, but sometimes you just want/need chocolate. So here’s how I made a low fat chocolate cupcake.

This is a pretty simple technique that I picked up from my friend at Whatever Whimsy a few years back while I was part of a Weight Watchers program. You get to leave out the eggs and oil and replace it with low-fat, low-calorie,  pumpkin puree! You get to cut the calories down to about 150 and the fat down to 3.5g and the fiber is about 3g. Not too bad for a regular sized cupcake. You can make them as minis to cut it further.

You don’t need many ingredients:

• 15oz can of pumpkin puree (NOT pie filling)
• one box of cake mix (use your fave or whatever is in your pantry, I had Pillsbury Devil’s Food)
• a bit of water (I used approximately 3/4c just to loosen the mix a bit)
• cupcake liners (or spray your muffin pan with non-stick spray)
• sprinkles or sanding sugar (optional, but a nice touch since we’re not covering with frosting)

I mixed by hand using a spatula until everything was well combined. Nothing fancy. If the batter feels too stiff just add a touch more water.

I used an ice-cream scoop and filled 12 liners. You could use the mix to make 24 minis if you prefer.

Since I was not going to be adding frosting and these were a treat for the children I added some sprinkles and sanding sugar before baking. This adds about 10 calories per cupcake.

I baked at 325° for 25 minutes (adjust as necessary for your oven and pan choice). These are very moist because of the pumpkin so a toothpick may not come out perfectly clean when done, but there are no eggs to worry about being undercooked!

The hardest part of making these was having the children wait until they were cooled to eat! They are really yummy and super moist. You can taste a hint of the pumpkin but you really just get to enjoy a rich chocolate cupcake without feeling bad if you happen to eat more than one (or two). They do stick to the liners a little since there isn’t any oil, you could use foil liners to avoid that or just back directly in a sprayed pan.

What’s a treat that you enjoy, but would love a lower calorie version of?

**Shared at Weekend Potluck (9/21-23) at Meet Penny be sure to check out the yummy links!