A Guilt Free Birthday Celebration - Clean Pumpkin Cake!

Good evening,friends.

I'm really working on getting to bed early tonight (Sorry, dogs, the Patrol isn't likely going to happen) - but before I do, I have to share my super yummy experiment.

Today is Ben's birthday. After a killer "38 Special" workout (38 reps or 38 seconds of each exercise), we enjoyed a special birthday treat.

Here is the finished product - Pumpkin Cupcakes w/
Chocolate Pumpkin Frosting and Fresh Strawberry Garnish.

Here's the deal - I felt some pressure to make a birthday treat that is healthy and clean - especially when it's for my trainer. This is the guy who tells me to cut out artificial flavors, coloring and sweeteners, to eat whole and organic foods when available, and kicks my butt regularly to burn off what I do eat. I couldn't show up with cookies or brownies from a box/mix.

No way.

I wanted something yummy, that tasted good, but was made up of things that I can feel good about eating.

So, what I found was a CLEAN pumpkin cake recipe with chocolate pumpkin frosting.(This gal has the best clean recipes - I just love her site!) They were a hit with the ladies we workout with on Tuesday night, and I think the birthday boy liked them too.

I hope you enjoy this - I know I sure did! And now I have leftover pumpkin that I can make super yummy smoothies with! YES!!! I'll share that recipe another time. It's time to try and get the zzz's I need to kick some ass tomorrow at 5am. TRX class, baby. Oh, and the ass that will be getting kicked is my own.

 Here's the recipe and how I modified it:

Clean Eating Pumpkin Cupcakes With Chocolate Pumpkin Frosting

(Makes approx. 16 cupcakes)

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1 cup canned pumpkin (be sure it’s NOT pumpkin pie mix. Just pure pumpkin.)
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup safflower oil (or whichever light-flavored oil you have handy)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I really like vanilla, so I went a little heavier - maybe 2 tsp or so.)
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I know I used more than this... I didn't really measure!)
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• (I also added more of the ginger, cloves and cinnamon. The cocoa powder can get bitter, try using a little less if you don't like such a strong dark chocolate taste.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line your cupcake tins with cupcake papers or grease the tin itself.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your pumpkin, almond milk, egg whites, safflower oil, honey and vanilla extract.
4. In a second mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and cloves.
5. Whisk the flour mixture into the liquid mixture and blend well. If your batter is too thick, add a little extra almond milk (about 1/4 cup at a time until you reach a thick, yet runny consistency.)
6. Pour into tins, and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.
7. For the frosting, place all ingredients in a small mixing bowl, and whisk until well blended.
8. Remove cupcakes from oven, allow to cool and spread frosting over the tops.

I garnished with sliced strawberries on top to give it a fresh, spring look and taste.

Nutritional Content:(Data is for 1 muffin)Calories: 179Total Fat: 8 gmSaturated Fats: 1 gmTrans Fats: 0 gmCholesterol: 0 mgSodium: 127 mgCarbohydrates: 28 gmDietary fiber: 3 gmSugars: 14 gmProtein: 4 gmEstimated Glycemic Load: 14Please Note: Nutritional information estimated at Nutritiondata.com. Data may not be accurate and is subject to the availability of specific foods in their database. Where one ingredient is not listed, substitutions must be used. Therefore, you should not refer to this data as being exact. It’s more of a ballpark figure. The Gracious Pantry does not take responsibility for the inadequacies of the nutrition calculator used. This data is provided as a courtesy and general reference only. It is not exact.

Until next time...

<3Jen