Strawberry Cheese Cupcakes

I went to Tidwell's on Thursday and bought a 'flat' of strawberries.  For those who don't know, a flat is 8 quarts. Yes, I said EIGHT quarts of strawberries!! That IS a lot of berries!  Thankfully, my neighbor was getting 2 of those quarts.....but it still leaves me with 6.....and that's still a lot of berries!!  It was time to go on a 'seek and find' mission to use these berries.  This recipe is the first of a few berry recipes I need to do ...... fast! I used 2 quarts for this (by the time I got done munching on a bunch). This is *not* a quick & easy recipe, but very much worth making.

STRAWBERRY CHEESE CUPCAKES

Makes 12 Cupcakes

1 Cupcake = 4 PointsPlus™

Cupcake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Splenda granulated
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup fat-free egg substitute
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup fat-free milk
1 tsp vanilla

2 cups strawberries, cut into small pieces

Cream Cheese Filling:

4 oz. Neufchatel cream cheese
1/3 cup Splenda granulated
2 TBSP fat-free egg substitute
1 tsp vanilla

Topping:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Splenda granulated
1 tsp cinnamon
3 TBSP light butter

 

Preheat oven to 400º. Line a cupcake/muffin pan with papers or spray it.

Cupcake: In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another medium bowl, beat milk, applesauce, egg substitute and Splenda granulated. Stir dry ingredients into the milk mixture; do NOT over-mix; batter should be slightly lumpy.

Cream Cheese Filling: In a small bowl, beat all ingredients until smooth.

Topping: Mix together the flour, Splenda and cinnamon. With a fork, blend in the butter until it looks like coarse sand.

Now it's time to put these together!

Scoop a TBSP of cupcake batter into the bottom of each cupcake section. Sprinkle a few pieces of strawberries on the batter. Place 1/2 TBSP of the cream cheese filling on top of the strawberries. Sprinkle some of the topping on the cream cheese filling followed by another layer of the cupcake batter. Add a few pieces of strawberries and the rest of the topping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

Refrigerate any that aren't eaten since they contain cream cheese.

MY SPIN: I sprayed the pan and then put the finished cupcakes in the cupcake papers......I get so irritated when they stick to the papers! Since I have SIX quarts of strawberries to use up, I put some of the cut up berries in the cupcake batter. And, I used a heaping tsp of cinnamon.

Now for the 'legal mumbo-jumbo' to keep me out of court!!   *** The PointsPlus™ value for this recipe was calculated by me (Jan Gomes) and is not an endorsement or approval of this recipe by Weight Watchers International, Inc., the owner of the PointsPlus™ registered trademark. ***

Later!

Loving Life(time)!
Jan