Low Carb Dark Cocoa Cupcakes

I've been working on these cupcakes for a month.

At least.

I was seriously dying for something cake-like to put in my mouth without making my diet run for the hills. I came up with a few recipes that I thought were pretty good. But after having children test them, and wrinkle their noses, I knew. It had been a while since I've had a good muffin/cupcake. Long enough that I didn't even realize how incredibly incredible a chocolate cupcake is.

So, here's my last version. What I came up with after trial by....chocolate?

I used fat free mayo in place of the fat (butter/oil), I'd tried milk before and it doesn't work right. You could try fat free sour cream or fat free yogurt, but I did try one muffin recipe with yogurt instead of fat and I still taste a tangy after taste. The muffins are denser and have a shorter cooking time than cupcakes, and I think that the extra liquid/sweetener/cooking time help the taste of these.

Oh, and I used cocoa instead of chocolate squares. It's much less fat because the cocoa solids have butter in them. There is even a low fat cocoa, but I just used Hershey's dark cocoa. I was looking for heavy chocolate flavor.

I also had to find another sweetener choice than Splenda. It works great for most people, but for me, it gives a headache. Yuck. Which means that all those jello's and puddings don't work for me. Well, they taste great, if it's worth the headache that follows. I'm sad to say that it occasionally is worth it.

I like Stevia, but in small doses, where it doesn't have to be overly sweet. Also, I don't think stevia tastes as good when baked. Personally. I found the Kroger's brand of zero calorie brown sweetener is like brown sugar and has a mix of sweeteners that taste good, but don't give me a headache.

The last thing I changed is that I used cornstarch instead of flour. It's very low in carbs, but you add half of what you would add in flour. Each tablespoon of cornstarch adds 7 grams of carbs, so this recipe only has 28 grams of carbs total, for all 6 cupcakes. If you're on the Dukan Diet, they say you can have up to 2 Tablespoons per day, but I stick to 2 cupcakes, warmed up. *mmmm*

Stir 1 egg very lightly, only until broken up
Then add 6 Tbl low fat milk

In a separate bowl, mix together (mix well enough that the mayo mixes in, but start out slow as the cocoa will go EVERYWHERE)(not that I know or anything)(smoosh it with your fork)
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 Tbl and 1 tsp fat free mayo
3 Tbl dark cocoa
1/4 cup zero calorie sweetener

Then add the mayo/cocoa mixture to the egg & milk. And add the following ingredients
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
4 Tbl cornstarch

Mix just until moistened, pour into lined muffin pan. Should fill 6.

18 chocolate chips (optional)

Sorry, I didn't take more photos of the process. It's fairly straight forward.

I really like that sweetener. It's like brown sugar, so it's a little heavier and richer. 

I threw 3 chocolate chips into the center of each cupcake so that when I bit into it, it would be all melty in my mouth. Yum.

Then bake in a 340 oven for about 30 minutes. Be careful when filling the liners, the ones that were more full overflowed a bit. So, be as even as possible.

These would be good for Valentine's Day, for those that want something seriously chocolatey, but don't want to murder their diet.

Here's what the inside looks like. I always want to see the inside of posted recipes. I want to see the texture!

This my friends? This is sinfully rich. It's heavy and wonderful in your mouth. It's dense, sure, but it has a little bounce to it that screams cupcake.

I tried lots of recipes and mixed recipes with my changes until I came up with something that works.

And work it does.

The kiddos even approve!

I wanna keep this new figure!! Psst! I only have 3 pounds to go to my goal weight!