Healthy 4th of July Cupcakes
Yields: 12 cupcakes
 
These guilt-free cupcakes are perfect for the 4th of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day… Or any day you’re craving red velvet cupcakes! They’re supremely tender with that iconic chocolaty vanilla flavor, topped with cream cheese frosting, and finished with a surprise blueberry filling. Hooray for red, white, and blue! The cupcakes are best if eaten the same day they’re frosted, but they’ll keep for at least three days (if not longer) if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
  1. Prepare the Ultimate Healthy Red Velvet Cupcakes and cream cheese frosting (both recipes here).
  2. While the cupcakes cool and the frosting chills in the refrigerator, prepare the blueberry filling. Add the blueberries, cinnamon, and sweetener (if using) to a blender. Pulse until the mixture turns into a smooth purée. Transfer the purée to a saucepan. Rinse out the blender using 3-4 tablespoons of water (or more if necessary), and add the rinse water to the saucepan as well.
  3. Cook the purée over medium heat until it has reduced to about a third of its original volume. Transfer to a bowl, and let the filling cool completely to room temperature. Once at room temperature, transfer to a zip-topped bag, and cut off one corner.
  4. Once the cupcakes have cooled to room temperature, cut out the center of each using a cupcake corer (I used the smaller size of this set!) or a sharp knife. Pipe the filling into the center of each cupcake. Pipe the cream cheese frosting on top.
Notes: Any sweetener will work! I didn’t add any because the blueberries I used were already sweet enough on their own.

I absolutely love these cupcake corers! When using the cupcake corer, press it about ¾ of the way down into the cupcakes. You don’t want to make too deep of a hole… Or else you’ll (a) cut out the bottom of the cupcakes too, which means the filling will leak out the bottoms and (b) run out of filling.

I don’t put the cored top back on, as you can see in my photos in the blog post above. I just pipe the frosting straight on top of the open filling hole!

{gluten-free, low fat, low sugar, higher protein}
Recipe by Amy's Healthy Baking at https://amyshealthybaking.com/blog/2018/06/12/healthy-patriotic-red-velvet-cupcakes/