Wednesday 12 January 2011

Skinny Chocolate and Cranberry Muffins. Resolution friendly!

Hi folks!

So I thought as it's January and a month where traditionally allot of people (me included) make a resolution to loose some weight that I would try a low fat cake recipe for this blog. So after looking through a few recipes I found one that looked tasty as well as easy and didn't use to many ingredients, Perfect!

The recipe I decided on was Chocolate and Cranberry muffins, so I can still get my chocolate fix without all the guilt that comes afterward. And I have to say, though not as rich as some full fat cakes (obviously) that they taste great. With some low fat desserts I find I eat it thinking, I'm eating this because it's low fat when I'd rather have more of a treat. But these do feel like a treat but without the guilt, and they don't feel like a substitution for something fattier.

So the facts, well they contain no butter and each muffin contains just 6 grams of fat with only 1g of saturated fat (The bad kind of fat) and for all you calorie counters there's 206 calories per cake.  So still enough fat and calories for it to be yummy but not enough for major guilt to set in and a mammoth gym session just to burn 1 off.

Any way here they are :


I almost forgot to take the picture I was too busy eating one.

And here's how they're made:

250g Self raising flour
1 tbsp Cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
85g light muscovado sugar
85g dried cranberries
25g dark chocolate (It was very hard for me not to add allot more)
125g low fat yogurt
125ml skimmed milk
3 tbsp sunflower oil
1 egg, beaten 

Pre heat the oven to 180 degC. Put the flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar into a bowl and mix together till combined. Mix in the cranberries. In a separate bowl, melt the chocolate in  the microwave for a couple of minutes or in a bowl over a pan of boiling water, put to one side.
Mix the yogurt and milk together with the oil and egg. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and stir in the liquid. Drizzle half the chocolate over them ix and gently fold until swirled, then repeat with the remaining chocolate.

Spoon into 12 muffin cases and bake for about 20 minutes until risen and baked through.

And that's it.

I know I've wrote allot in my last two blogs about all the great cupcake related gift's I received for Christmas, well I got some more! (I know still getting Christmas presents, great huh?) My friend Mandie bought me a load of presents all with a cupcake theme including a few books, a cupcake cup and some cup cake bath salts. I'll definitely be posting a pic of at least one of the books on the next blog but as I've forgotten to take a pic of it up to now here's another pic of the cakes instead hehehe.


Well that's it for today, keep baking and good luck with all your resolutions whatever they may be! me? I'll probably be back to full fat icing topped cakes by next week.

Cupcake Kris. xx

8 comments:

Zoe said...

I love "skinny" recipes with or without new year resolutions...

You got a great blog and happy to be your follower for more of your healthy food ideas...

Not quite beautiful said...

Those cupcakes look yummy!

Chele said...

They look great and you wouldn't know they are skinny unless you were told. Must put this on my 'to bake' list.

Brownieville Girl said...

These cupcakes will be a great help with those resolutions!

Think I might add some cocoa to up the chocolate quota!!

Brownieville Girl said...

sorry should have written "extra cocoa"!!!!

Love your cupcake cake plate :-}

cupcakegirl said...

Thanks Guys, they have all been eaten now so I've had to resort to going back to eating full fat cakes hehehehe

I love my iccle cupcake stand and it was a bargain too at £3. I wish i could buy loads of pretty stands and plates but my cupboards are overflowing as it is

Domestic Goddess Wannabe said...

Ooh, these look like nice 'semi-healthy' cakes - and a good use for left-over cranberries in my fridge so thanks for the tip!

Really enjoying reading your blog.

Ocean Breezes and Country Sneezes said...

These cupcakes look delicious! I'm always on the lookout for a tasty low-fat dessert! I like the addition of the cranberries, I love cranberries, I live in the cranberry capital of the world! LOL!!! This is going into my "keeper file" for a future bake! Thanks for sharing!