bing cherry cupcakes

Who doesn’t love a cupcake? And a pink, cherry one at that?!

Let me backtrack for a moment. My friend, Elisabet, makes these AMAZING strawberry cupcakes. She found the original recipe here. They are TO. DIE. FOR. Seriously, just stop what you’re doing right now and go make a batch. Delicious.

I was going to post about them but figured since they already exist out in blog-land, I would try my own spin with my very favorite fruit… bing cherries. I have to say, after a very scientific taste test (!) I declare it a tie. Both versions are little pink cakes of light, fruity, whip-topped awesomeness.

Besides swapping strawberries for cherries, I made a couple of alterations to the original recipe to make it a bit more waist-friendly. I’ve included my own ingredients list below and noted (*) where items have been modified from the original strawberry recipe.

For the cupcakes:

• 1 pkg. white cake mix
• 1 3-oz. pkg. (sugar-free) cherry gelatin*
• 1 c. pitted, chopped, bing cherries*
• 3/4 c. milk
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil*
• 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce *subbed for 1/2 c. of the oil
• 1 c. egg substitute *equivalent of 4 eggs

For the frosting:

• 1 c. heavy whipping cream
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened *reduced fat version
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar*
• 2 Tbsp. Truvia sweetener *replaces remaining 1/4 c. sugar

Mix all cake ingredients and spoon into cupcake tins, filling 3/4 of the way (or use a cupcake-sized scoop – I love mine!). For me, this recipe yielded 20 cupcakes. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Beat cream on high until stiff. Blend cream cheese and sugar in a separate bowl (as a personal preference, I’ve never added extract to my frosting when making these – but add it in if you are using it). Fold the cream cheese mixture into the cream but don’t over-stir. I added a single drop of red food coloring to mine to give it a soft pink tint.

This frosting is much softer than a regular icing, so I abandoned my regular frosting tools and simply piped it through a ziploc bag with a small corner cut off to make concentric circles. Of course, add a cherry on top and ENJOY!

(Didn’t I tell you?!) YUM! Super moist cake and I love how light and airy the frosting is. (Plus, you get your serving of fruit, right?)!

For those interested, I used Livestrong to calculate a nutrition label for these. My batch only yielded 20 cupcakes, so this is 1/20th of the recipe. Most of the fat comes from the heavy cream in the frosting, so you could replace it with a sugar free whipped topping if you wanted to make these much lighter.