cupcake monsters (w/ sugar-free lemon-cream cheese filling)
So this weekend I was supposed to go to Waco, TX with my sorority sisters for the Kappa Kappa Psi/Tau Beta Sigma Southwest District Convention, but my sister’s been pretty sick lately, so I opted to come home and spend the weekend with her… cause I do kind of like to try to be a good big sister, sometimes haha.
So, as you guys know, I’ve been looking for a recipe for a good, sugar-free frosting for my sugar-free cupcakes. Well I finally did what I should’ve done a while ago and Googled that crap, and found the secret: sugar-free instant pudding mix.
Well last night I was chilling at home, and whipped up a sugar-free frosting and a batch of chocolate cupcakes. The sugar-free frosting, though, has such a thin consistency that there’s no way it would stay on top of a cupcake. Mom suggested we cut the cupcakes in half and put the frosting between the halves… and thus cupcake monsters were born.
Just a warning: my whole wheat, sugar-free recipe for cupcakes is not very sweet. Usually I make a full-sugar buttercream frosting to add the sweetness to the cupcakes, but the cupcakes with this sugar-free frosting are not very sweet at all. Tasty, but not too sweet. I’m working on it.
Cupcake Monsters
makes approximately 18 cupcakes
1. Make a batch of cupcakes, any kind of cupcakes you want. Here is my recipe for whole wheat, sugar-free cupcakes. For this particular recipe, I did not use any food coloring, and I added a couple extra teaspoons of unsweetened cocoa powder because I wanted them extra-chocolaty.
2. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely (preferably on a cooling rack and NOT in the pan), and cut the tops off using a serrated knife.
3. Place a spoonful of frosting on the bottom half of each cupcake, and replace the top. Scroll down a little lower for my sugar-free lemon-cream cheese frosting recipe.
4. To make these “monsters,” I dotted little red eyes on each of them using royal icing, but this is definitely the part of the process where you can get creative haha.
Sugar-free Lemon-Cream Cheese Frosting
makes approximately 65 tablespoons
approximately 25 calories/tablespoon
8 oz. (1 pkg) cream cheese, softened
1 pkg sugar-free instant pudding mix – lemon flavor
1 3/4 c 2% milk
8 oz. sugar-free whipped topping
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla
a dab of yellow food coloring (optional)
1. In a large bowl, cream the cream cheese with the vanilla and the lemon juice until well-combined.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk and pudding mix.
3. Add the pudding and milk mixture to the cream cheese mixture and blend well.
4. Slowly fold in the whipped topping until the frosting is creamy and evenly mixed. At this point, add a toothpick tip of yellow gel food coloring (if you want) to get a pretty pastel yellow.
5. Refrigerate until ready for use.
