Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes...Is this real life?

Earlier I posted a blog about my attempt at being healthy and avoiding carbs. I did pretty good all week, so I thought I would satiate my intense chocolate craving and bake something. Usually, me baking something turns into a massacre of butter and sugar, a la Paula Deen. Trying to keep up with my healthy ways, I thought I'd try a new recipe (do you even have to ask if it's from Pinterest?) for low fat chocolate cupcakes. 

I know, I know: low fat chocolate cupcakes. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? But I was dying to eat something chocolatey and cakey, so I decided to try.

 

The recipe is simple, and only had four ingredients:

• 18.25 oz Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix
• 1.4 oz sugar free, fat free, instant chocolate pudding
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 1/3 cups water

 

 

The directions are just as simple: Just combine all the ingredients. First, mix together the pumpkin and water (and warning, if you're as messy as I am, you might want to just stir these together with a spatula and not the hand mixer so that you don't spray the walls and yourself with orange splashes). 

The batter is extremely thick, which made it easy to scoop into the cupcake holders. When they bake, though, they don't change shape a whole lot, so if you want them to be pretty then you need to scoop them in pretty little balls. If not, they looks a little rough. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full (and they really don't rise much at all, so make sure you get them pretty full) and bake about 25 - 28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

My biggest worry was that these would taste strongly like pumpkin, or just really gross in general. But they really didn't! They were actually good. Clearly not a full-fat chocolate cupcake, but if you're looking for an alternative then they really are worth a try.

Looks ugly. Tastes yummy.

These taste the best when warmed up in the microwave for a few seconds, then topped with a little fat free whipped cream. And, of course, sprinkles.