Our Brand Ambassadors offer up an assortment of healthy treats for the holidays
The holidays are right around the corner, and that means carb-rich sugary desserts like cookies, cakes, pies, and other treats that will have you fighting those sweet temptations. We’re happy to report, it is possible to join in the holiday spirit without trashing your health regime. We asked our Crispy Green Brand Ambassadors to come up with some holiday-themed cupcakes that won’t leave you sugar-crashing. Charles Chen, Healthy Chef, TV Host and Wellness Expert; Allergy Expert Tracy Bush from the blog Nutrimom; and Megan Meisner from Megan Meisner Fitness all offered up creative and tasty desserts. They’re perfect for a party or even grabbing as a quick, healthy snack. Enjoy!
Charles Chen’s Paleo Cupcakes
Charles Chen’s Paleo Cupcakes won’t give you a carb overload because they use coconut flour. Give them and then are frosted with a pumpkin/coconut cream frosting. Yum! Visit his website for more nutritious recipes from Charles. http://www.charleschen.tv
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a muffin tin with 8 paper cups and spray the insides with coconut oil spray to prevent sticking.
Whisk together the coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
Add in the eggs, maple syrup, coconut oil, almond milk, and vanilla.
Stir well to combine.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Divide the batter equally into the muffin cups.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Remove the cupcakes from the tin and cool completely before adding the frosting.
To make the frosting, stir together the coconut cream, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, cinnamon, and vanilla in a small bowl.
Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill.
Frost the cupcakes once they have cooled.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a muffin tin with 8 paper cups and spray the insides with coconut oil spray to prevent sticking.
Whisk together the coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
Add in the eggs, maple syrup, coconut oil, almond milk, and vanilla.
Stir well to combine.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Divide the batter equally into the muffin cups.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Remove the cupcakes from the tin and cool completely before adding the frosting.
To make the frosting, stir together the coconut cream, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, cinnamon, and vanilla in a small bowl.
Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill.
Frost the cupcakes once they have cooled.
Mummy Face/Snowman Cupcakes
Food Allergy specialist and blogger Tracy Bush offers up these ghoulishly adorable Mummy Face Cupcakes (or can easily be decorated as a snowman face or perfectly shaped snowball).
Make cupcakes using a gluten-free mix. She recommends Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Chocolate Cake mix and then uses half of the oil, and then adds one 4-ounce applesauce as well as Ener-G Powdered Egg Replacer to ensure the cupcakes stayed together. This makes a total of 12 cupcakes from this batch.
Frost the cupcake with the frosting, making sure all of the chocolate cupcake is covered.
Place two candies on it as the eyes.
Frost again just above and just below the eyes, making horizontal lines with the frosting to make it look like bandages.
Using a toothpick, dip it into the melted chocolate and "draw" two dots for eyes.
Vanilla Frosting of Your Choice
Ingredients
Directions
Make cupcakes using a gluten-free mix. She recommends Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Chocolate Cake mix and then uses half of the oil, and then adds one 4-ounce applesauce as well as Ener-G Powdered Egg Replacer to ensure the cupcakes stayed together. This makes a total of 12 cupcakes from this batch.
Frost the cupcake with the frosting, making sure all of the chocolate cupcake is covered.
Place two candies on it as the eyes.
Frost again just above and just below the eyes, making horizontal lines with the frosting to make it look like bandages.
Using a toothpick, dip it into the melted chocolate and "draw" two dots for eyes.
Vanilla Frosting of Your Choice
Coconut Cream Vegan Frosting
From Lindsay Cotter at Cotter Crunch
Make sure your coconut cream can is chilled 24 hrs and you have coconut cream not milk.
Have extras chilling in case the first one doesn’t give you enough cream.
Once chilled pour the hardened cream mixture into a bowl.
Discard the water portion.
Add your sugar and vanilla beat until fluffy and smooth.
Ingredients
Directions
Make sure your coconut cream can is chilled 24 hrs and you have coconut cream not milk.
Have extras chilling in case the first one doesn’t give you enough cream.
Once chilled pour the hardened cream mixture into a bowl.
Discard the water portion.
Add your sugar and vanilla beat until fluffy and smooth.
Pumpkin Banana Cupcakes
Megan Meisner of Megan Meisner Fitness https://meganmeisnerfitness.com came up with these tasty Pumpkin Banana Cupcakes, which can double as muffins if you skip the icing, which means it’s totally fine to eat these for breakfast. 🙂
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Add the wet ingredients to bowl and mix well.
Stir in dry ingredients.
Fold in Crispy Green Banana Slices.
Line muffin pan with paper liners.
Fill 3/4 with batter.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes.
Allow to cool before frosting.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Add the wet ingredients to bowl and mix well.
Stir in dry ingredients.
Fold in Crispy Green Banana Slices.
Line muffin pan with paper liners.
Fill 3/4 with batter.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes.
Allow to cool before frosting.