Because It's a Feelings-Eating Weekend

It's been *a week*... between having to leave the chilly, gorgeous Smoky Mountains of Tennessee to come back to flat, sweaty Florida, to then get home and caught up in the tail end of a police standoff during a dog walk, to then find out my husband's deployment was slightly extended, to finally watching the Vikings go down in flames yesterday, this was a week made for feelings-eating (did I also mention I turned another year older? C'mon!!). I was looking for one sliver of hope, and it came in the form of a cupcake. A cranberry-filled vanilla cupcake with whipped cream cheese frosting. Because it's still winter everywhere else, just not here where it's 75 degrees.

Finally, a winter scene in Florida.

I had a lot of feelings to eat, so these had to be low in calories and sugar. At only 200 calories a cupcake, I can be seen with a cupcake in each hand quite frequently! The cranberry filling is so nice and tart, the vanilla cupcakes are a wonderfully sweet offset to this, and I would be willing to fight a bear to get more of that whipped cream cheese frosting. I stumbled upon this frosting recipe on a Keto website, and since I'm pretty much sugar-free as can be (but you'll have to take carbs out my cold dead hands), I decided it was worth a shot. I know we're only 12 days into the new year, but this frosting recipe is probably my greatest discovery of 2020. It is so airy and light since it is whipped, but still tangy thanks to the cream cheese and has a nice finish with a hint of sweetness thanks to Swerve. I am going to try it with various extracts and cocoas, and well, boozes, because, why not? It's the 2020's, not the 1920's, so prohibition need not apply.

Easy ingredients to boot!

I knew it was just me, and me with a full two-dozen cupcakes is a recipe for disaster, so I made only 12 cupcakes for this recipe. If you want a full 24 cupcakes, simply double the ingredients. To make a dozen, you need:

• 1/2 box of white/vanilla cake mix
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup + 2 TBS skim milk

Preheat your oven to 350 and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Mix all ingredients on low for 30 seconds, then turn to medium-high for 2 minutes. Use a cookie scoop to put 1.5 scoops of batter into each cupcake liner. Bake at 350 for 18 minutes. Let cupcakes cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before removing from the pan to finish cooling completely.

Soooo pretty...found those red foil liners on Amazon, so I now have a lifetime supply of 500 liners.

The things I had to do to find cranberries after December.

So, in hindsight, I SHOULD have made these in November when you can't even walk into any grocery store without getting hit in the face by a ton of cranberries. I had to go to several stores before I found cranberries, albeit frozen ones, to make this recipe possible. WORTH IT. The filling is insanely good. To make, get:

• 1/4 cup Swerve granular (if you want a sweeter and less tart filling, add a tablespoon or two more)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup of frozen cranberries
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp corn starch
• 1 tsp water

Dump the 1/4 cup of water, Swerve, vanilla, and cranberries into a small pan on medium-high heat. Stir everything together frequently and bring to a low boil. Cook for 3 minutes until the cranberries start to get mushy as you stir. Then in a small bowl, mix the final teaspoon of water and cornstarch together before pouring into the cranberry mix. Stir until everything thickens, another minute or so. Take this off heat and let cool fully before using.

Heavy whipping cream is the MVP of this recipe.

 While cupcakes and cranberry filling finish cooling, make your frosting. You need:

• 4 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup of Swerve confectioners
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup + 2 TBS heavy whipping cream, COLD

With a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese until fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Then add in the sugar and extract, blending well. Scrape the bowl and change to a whisk attachment. With the blender on low, VERY slowly pour in the COLD heavy whipping cream. Once all the cream is incorporated, turn the mixer to high and whip the frosting for 2-3 minutes until stiff peaks form. Once stiff peaks form STOP mixing so you don't deflate the frosting. If you wanted to add color, fold it in by hand. Keep this frosting cold until you're ready to pipe. If you're worried about things being cold enough for the heavy whipping cream to work, chill your mixing bowl in the freezer before you get started on the frosting.

Now, back to those beautiful blonde cupcakes.

 When totally cooled, take a large piping tip (I used a 2D), and gently wiggle it into the top of each cupcake until the tip is about half into the cake, then gently take the piping tip out of the cupcake.

I hate destroying something so pretty. But it's for a good, tasty cause!

 Remove the cupcake filling from the center of the piping tip and wipe any crumbs from the tip's base. Save a bit of the cupcake filling (eat the rest, obviously).

Mmm, jelly-filled like a donut.

 Take a heaping teaspoon of the cooled cranberry filling and place into the hole. You will have a little filling leftover, and I can tell you it goes excellently on an English muffin at breakfast (I can't live life without carbs, sorry, Keto people. Carbs are joy.).

And necessary to complete our baking!

Take a tiny bit of leftover cupcake scrap and place on top of the filling to keep things anchored in and to keep any bleeds in the frosting layer. Repeat for all remaining cupcakes, then grab a bowl, some sanding or granular sugar, and a handful of frozen cranberries. I put 36 frozen cranberries on a paper towel while I piped all my frosting. By the time I was finished piping, they had thawed out a bit, leaving water and some of their juices on the outside of the berries.

So I dumped these wet cranberries into a bowl with sanding sugar.

And I rolled them around like crazy until coated.

 Now, let me backtrack a moment for the piping instructions!

Swirly!

 I used a large French tip, the Ateco #869, to make these pretty swirls. I loaded up a piping bag with HALF the cold whipped cream cheese frosting, keeping the other half in the fridge while I worked. I simply started in the middle of the cupcake and piped clockwise down and around (as a lefty, I do everything backwards...righties might find up and around counterclockwise easier).

Then I gently put a few cranberries on top.

 I had a ton of cranberries though, so I decided to use the rule of three here, and I think these turned out absolutely darling:

So, so wintery. Sigh.

 While we were going through a short monsoon season yesterday that left me with VERY large hair (thanks, 90% humidity), I at least had these cupcakes to give me the winter vibes I so desperately desire.

Inside AND out.

The filling takes these to the next level. And while, yes, they are more appropriate for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert, I am a grown woman, and I bake what I want when I want. Sort of. If I REALLY baked whatever I want whenever I wanted, you'd be getting a spooky Halloween dessert 12 months out of the year. So at least these are seasonally appropriate? And they're so delicious, I almost forget about the intense level of sadness I feel today as a Minnesota Vikings fan. Excellent job covering the depression, cupcakes! I think it's the whipped cream cheese frosting. It is so incredibly delicious that it gives me reason to believe in miracles, like making it to a Super Bowl once in my lifetime. As Marge Simpson once said, "My greatest sin is that I dare to hope," and I feel that in my Vikings-loving soul.

The best therapy sessions should always end in cupcakes.