Strawberry Cupcakes

These are more like ‘normal’ cakes in my opinion as they use low fat spread and flour rather than the usual yogurt/oat/egg mix but I found them to be a bit flavorless and dense.  I made the icing almond-y to make up for the fact that to me they were a little bland.  If I’m going to be perfectly honest I much prefer the baked oat muffins but give them a try, I’m doing a poor job of selling them, they’re much better when cooled and good for a change.

Each cupcake is 2 ½ syns

Ingredients:

60g low fat spread

3 eggs

6 tablespoons sweetener

110g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon strawberry essence

3 drops vanilla essence

To decorate:

8 teaspoons icing sugar (plus a little extra for dusting)

A few drops red food colouring or gel (I use gel as it’s a stronger colour with no flavor)

A few drops almond essence (if liked)

Strawberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 or Gas mark 5

Put your muffin cases on a baking tray, this mix should make 16 muffins

Whisk the eggs, low fat spread and sweetener until it’s all blended

Add the vanilla and strawberry essences and whisk a little more until light and well mixed

Fold in the flour

Spoon the mixture into your muffin cases and bake for about 20 minutes, turning halfway through cooking.  I found they took a little longer to cook – they need to be a nice golden colour so don’t worry if they take more like 25 minutes

Leave to cool on a wire rack

When the cakes are cool make up your icing by adding your food colouring and then the cold water a few drops at a time.  You can always add more, you can’t take it out so add a few drops and give a good mix until you have a consistency that’s thick enough to spook and drizzle but not runny…I personally found the buns a little bland and added almond essence at this stage but that’s your choice

Garnish with strawberries and dust over a little icing sugar for that finishing touch

Slimming World Strawberry Cupcakes