Green Velvet Cupcakes

A festive twist on red velvet cake, these skinny Green Velvet Cupcakes are a St. Patrick’s Day treat with the perfect amount of sweetness!

Let’s talk St. Patrick’s Day! Honestly, it’s usually not my favorite “holiday,” but with how crazy the world has been the past year, I’ll take any chance I can get to celebrate just about anything.

Next week, I’ll make these cupcakes as a fun sweet treat for the holiday. Keep an eye out for a funky twist on Corned Beef and Cabbage that I’ll share this weekend!

I love this recipe because you can switch the colors for any event you want. Red Velvet is traditional, of course, but why not Blue Velvet or Purple Velvet? It’s just a matter of food coloring.

HOW DO YOU MAKe VELVET CAKE HEALTHIER?

If you spend any time in the dessert section of my blog, you know that I’m not much of a baker. I try my best, and sometimes I find something that works, but it really is hard to lighten up sweet treats.

Well, traditional recipes include loads of butter, sugar, and full-fat cream cheese. Those ingredients make the cake moist and rich, but a stick of butter is just not feasible if we want to have these regularly. I found that we could achieve a similar texture by using just a bit of softened cream cheese beat together with a minimal amount of sugar.

I use 1/4 cup of sugar for the cake and then add 3/4 cup of applesauce to naturally increase the sweetness. The applesauce also keeps the cupcakes tender.

The donuts get super fluffy when adding in a combination of baking powder, baking soda, and Greek yogurt (nonfat, to keep the points low). Baking powder and baking soda are leavening agents that make the batter extra tender and fluffy, but baking soda needs acid to activate it.

Greek yogurt serves two functions for these Green Velvet Cupcakes: it activates the baking soda, and it takes the place of oil or butter as a tenderizing ingredient.

Many people asked what they could substitute for Greek yogurt on my Cinnamon Roll Donut recipe. I said probably just omit, but for this one you really do need that acid. Another option is to use 1 tsp apple cider vinegar and then replace the 2 tbsp Greek yogurt with more almond milk.

how to make green velvet cupcakes

• Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• In a separate bowl, beat together softened cream cheese and sugar. (See blog notes for how to quickly soften cream cheese.)
• Add the rest of the wet ingredients to the cream cheese/sugar mixture and beat until fully combined.
• Slowly whisk the wet ingredients into the dry until just fully combined. Add in food coloring (if you want) until the batter is a bright green color.
• Insert 9 cupcake liners into muffin pan. Spritz liners generously with cooking spray. Fill each liner about 2/3 way up with batter, dividing evenly between 9 molds.
• Bake until just cooked through, when a tooth pick inserted comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Try not to over bake! Let cool for about 5 minutes.

HOW TO QUICKLY SOFTEN CREAM CHEESE

If you’re anything like me, you find a recipe and want to make it NOW. Or you plan to make it and forget the before-making-this instructions, like setting your cream cheese out to come to room temperature.

Here is a life hack that came to me out of sheer impatience. If you forget to set your cream cheese out on your counter or simply don’t want to wait for it to come to room temp, put the required amount of cream cheese in a microwave-safe bowl and heat on the defrost setting for 15-30 seconds. It works with butter, too!

I’d love to hear from you if you make this recipe! It makes my day when you share your pics on Instagram and tag me (@litecravings). Don’t forget to use #litecravingsrecipes to make sure I see it. If I don’t get a chance to scroll through my tags quickly enough, I won’t see your post. I always make a point to look through the hashtags, though, so I’ll see it there.