So you know when it’s Christmas?
And you’re getting all excited about christmas?
You are so going christmas shopping, you make christmassy things, you get to wrap up presents….
and then there’s the christmas food. Amirite?
Like seriously, SERIOUSLY, the food. I’m not even talking about actual legitimate Christmas food (mince pies, gingerbread, candy canes, advent calendar chocolates), but just ALL FOOD.
For some reason, when it’s around Christmas time (who am I kidding) as soon as the calendar flips to December 1st, somehow, all food becomes okay to eat in copious amounts because “it’s Christmas”….
“Do I want a brownie? Well, I’ve already eaten my advent calendar chocolate, and a chocolate chip cookie today, but hey, IT’S CHRISTMAS. Get in mah belly Mr brownie.”
Okay I don’t actually know if anyone else experiences this random Christmas eating excuse, but I certainly do.
I also use it as a baking excuse, to just constantly replenish the ‘diminished’ cookie supply…..
Now we all know how hard it is to say no to free baked goods, or just not bake before the ‘big day’ (Crimbo itself) when you know you’ll be eating loads of awesome food ALL DAY.
and what’s easier than saying no? saying yes.
Saying yes to a delicious, moist chocolate cupcake, because hey it’s Christmas-ish, and it’s only 100 calories so you might as well!
I literally took me about 5 trials to come out with a geniunely good chocolate cupcake in the end;
I didn’t want to make them ‘fat free’ because when you do that, you normally end up with some kind of strange texture situation, so I’ve left in 2 tbsp of delicious, healthy coconut oil (my and my mum are completely obsessed with coconut oil atm).
I also found that I had to squeeze as much water as possible out of the grated carrot (added for bulk, moisture, fibre, vitamins and sweetness!) to make the cupcakes work - so don’t skip that step!
Ima be studying my butt off for the next month for mock exams in January, so I might be missing a post out on one or two occasions, just in case you wanted to know for future reference :/
I hope everyone has an awesome run up to the holidays!
oh, p.s. If you’re interested, I have a new pinterest board for my fave music (it’s similar to the music in my videos) that you can check out here 
Notes:
-If you hate frosting / don’t want to make it / can’t make it, you can add 65g (~a slightly heaped 1/3 cup) of semisweet chocolate chips to the batter (sprinkle them onto the batter once it’s in the muffin cups, then poke them into the batter a bit) – this adds the same number of calories to each cupcake as the frosting
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Put the finely grated carrot into a fine mesh strainer. Hold the strainer over a sink and squeeze the grated carrot to remove as much liquid as possible. Place into a medium bowl.
To the bowl, add the melted oil, egg and yogurt/buttermilk and stir in. Add the next 6 ingredients (flour through to cocoa powder) and stir in. Lastly, stir in the hot water until just combined.
Divide the batter between 12 lined muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Cool on a wire rack.
For the frosting, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Use about 2 tsp to frost each cupcake.
http://www.topwithcinnamon.com/2012/12/100-calorie-chocolate-cupcakes-with-chocolate-cream-cheese-icing.html1 cupcake (without frosting): 103 kcal, 3.3 g fat, 17.5 g carbohydrates (1.1 g fiber, 9.4 g sugars), 2.5 g protein
1 cupcake (with frosting): 128 kcal, 3.7 g fat, 23.0 g carbohydrate (1.3 g fiber, 14.4 g sugars), 2.8 g protien
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{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you always use just square pieces of parchment paper to line your cupcake tins? I love that idea. Can’t wait to try this recipe. The cake looks very moist.
I think I’ve only ever used parchment paper twice before for lining the muffin tins; I don’t know why I don’t do it more often, I find it so cute! It’s also useful if you have a weirdly sized muffin pan that the liners don’t fit properly
Thank you!!
ooooo – I am all for these! I fall into the holiday eating trap! Oh well! At least these will give me an excuse to eat two instead of 1!
haha, that was the plan alllll along
These look so lovely!!! And I love your low-calorie option, totally perfect for the holidays when overindulgence is everywhere. They don’t look low-calorie at all!!
OMG I LOVE YOUR BLOG! I just found you through Spoon Fork Bacon and I must say you are the epitome of exactly what I strive for style-wise in my baking and photography. I’m so glad I found you, can’t wait to see what other treats you have in store!
Yes, I need food help like this. Especially since I just ate a chocolate-covered macaroon that was the size of my fist.
I love coconut oil and buttermilk in baked goods, so so much. And those parchment wrappers are adorable! (They make the winter, sugar-crazed pig version of myself think about the possibility of being able to put a lot more frosting on top.) I hope I get sweatpants for Christmas.
ahaha, I know, when I was filling the cupcake wrappers with batter, they were so tall I was thinking “I could just make like 6 HUGE cupcakes…”
I pretty much live in my baggy jumpers and sweatpants during December holidays… for ‘warmth’… :/
Theses are so good! I found you through foodgawker and pined your awesome recipe, this is just what I needed!
thank you!
Great looking recipe, might try making these somewhere these upcoming weeks. Usually, I’m really sceptical about low cal recipes for great desserts, but hey, this one looks genuinly good. Now I just need to find myself some coconut oil.
Me too! Having tried a few in the past, and them always ending up being gummy or tasteless, I’m normally suspicious. You can sub any other neutral oil or melted butter for the coconut oil
Can you substitute coconut oil?
yup! you can sub in the same amount of any neutral oil, or even butter if you want!
These look soooo so good. I love that you added carrots and yogurt to them. Such a great idea.
Thanks! When one of my friends saw I had added carrots to the recipe, she got ridiculously confused hahah
I want this to GET IN MAH BELLY too!! lovely. lovely photos!
WELL WHO WOULDN’T!
Thank youuuu!!
These look so delicious! I am also OBSESSED with coconut oil at the moment, I just ordered two HUGE jars online.
This is my situation too, my mum managed to find coconut oil ridiculously cheaply (like the same price as butter, seriously), so we currently have 4 1/2 jars of it. It’s the good life :’)
Ugh, I’ve been totally eating cookies like it was a food group this last month. So yeah, these cupcakes may be the perfect solution. These look awesome, Izy!
AHAHA totally, you just summarised my December completely in that first sentence :’) Thank you!
wow..I really love how do you work with food and the way you fix it on images..keep it!!
Hi, do you use mini muffin tins or the normal sized tins?
Normal sized
Looks amazing !!!
I just made these, they are divine!! Love the idea of using carrot in a chocolate cupcake. I did make a somewhat more frosting, must admit… even though I think these are magnificient with or without the frosting. Nevertheless, why not to enjoy life to the fullest, isn’t that what they say…?
Can you substitute greek yogurt for the lowfat regular? I’m assuming it will be fine but thought I’d ask!
I think it should work! but you may need to replace like 2 tbsp of the greek yogurt with water so the batter isn’t too thick
is the chocolate creme cheese icing good? my sister says she thinks it’s a bad idea so ? ^_^
Well I made it part of the recipe so..yeah! Haha why would I put something gross in it?
I just found your website and oh my gosh I am in love! Question though, is it the carrot JUICE you’re adding or the grated carrots? Sounds totally delicious(:
Thank you! It’s the actual grated carrot that you add to the batter
Damn it, I want one of these. Badly. Despite the fact that the holidays are over, my body still craves all of the chocolate, cookies, and really ALL THE FOOD. I love the idea of cupcakes that come with a little less guilt!
In the frosting, is it really just 1 1/2 TBS of cream cheese? I’m trying to make these now and it’s just a very powdery mix at the moment…. HELP!
Ooh, I think I finally got it. It just took a long time with the hand mixer. I started with cold cream cheese, so it make sense now!
I made these today and they were awesome! The cake was moist and delicious and I would have never known there was carrot in the list of ingredients nor a mere 120 calories per cupcake! I used 1/c cup cake flour and 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour, buttermilk, Callebaut dutched cocoa, and added 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. The frosting was a bit difficult to work with so I added 1 tsp buttermilk, and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Izy, I have been following your blog for a few years now, and your recipes are brilliant, particularly the healthier recipes. Keep em coming girl!
Thanks Yomi! I’m glad you liked them
I love that you used whole wheat flour, I’ll add that to the notes! The reason the frosting can be difficult I think is because of the low fat cream cheese – sometimes it makes frosting really wet so you don’t have to add any liquid, sometimes it’s too dry; I think it depends on the brands… Anyways, thank you for reading my blog for some time, I’m always excited to hear from long time readers!
thank you sooooo much for a fantastic recipe ! i jus made these tonight they are AMAZING and dont have that horrible ‘low fat low cal’ bland taste diet food normally has. haha BEAUTIFUL. DO RECOMMEND X
Made these today for a friend’s birthday! They are WONDERFUL. so moist! I was a little skeptical to make the cream cheese frosting at first, but then I made it and it was a great decision. I LOVE the frosting. I’ve been reading your blog for only about two weeks but I am so hooked. Your photography is amazing and the food is delicious.
Thanks for the recipe! Definitely going to keep it around for sure.
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