raspberry swirl angel food cupcakes

Thanks to three of my best friends getting married this year and all the bridesmaids dresses I have to squeeze myself into, I have been trying my best to eat healthier lighter foods, pack my lunches for work and work out 4 times a week.

Those are very realistic, positive goals and expectations. I have been doing really well too. Win!

But sometimes a girl just needs something sweet.

These angel food cupcakes are light as air. With no butter and hardly any flour, you can eat like 6 of them and not feel like you need to wear sweatpants the rest of the week.

They are a wonderful, melt-in-your-mouth treat. They just dissolve when they hit your tongue. It's seriously one of my favorite things to eat, even without all the calories.

They are so light because the batter is like 90% egg whites - which is the good part of the egg. Bonus.

I measured out 1 2/3 cup egg whites, and it was this gross, slimy mess.

But when you whip it up for awhile, it turns into this! Much better.

Sift in the dry ingredients to prevent clumps and make these cupcakes light and fluffy.

The raspberry swirl part comes in with the addition of seedless raspberry jam. I put one cup into a small bowl and whisked it for a few minutes, to break up the jam into a liquid. This part is important, it is much easier to mix it into the very light batter.

Everything needs to be mixed carefully, so the egg whites don't deflate.

Swirl the jam around. Look at how pretty it is!

You will be surprised when you scoop this batter into muffin tins. It's so light and fluffy - it's not like scooping regular, dense cupcake batter. It's like scooping air.

Okay so that's a bit of an exaggeration. If you make these, please tell me a good description for this.

They bake up nice in no time at all - they will be super inflated, but will settle down after a few minutes. Drama queens.

I also whipped up a cream cheese lemon frosting. It's ridiculous together. You have no idea.

Enjoy!

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Raspberry Swirl Angel Food Cupcakes

1 cup cake flour
(substitution: you can make cake flour by combining 1 cup flour with 2 tablespoons cornstarch)
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 2/3 cups egg whites (about 12 - 14 large eggs)
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tarter
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup seedless raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 muffin tins with liners. Set aside.

Crack and separate enough eggs to get 1 2/3 cups. Pour egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer along with cream of tarter and salt. Whip several minutes until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time. Whip until stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts.

Sift flour and confectioners sugar into a separate bowl. Then sift flour mixture into egg white mixture, 1/3 at a time, carefully folding into the batter after each addition. Do not over mix or deflate the egg whites.

Pour 1 cup of seedless raspberry jam into a small bowl, whisk for a few minutes until it's liquid. Add into batter and gently swirl. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop batter into muffin tins. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the tops are just browned. Let cool.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

2 (8oz) packages of light cream cheese
1 (16oz) package of confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 tablespoon fresh lemons zest (1 lemon)

Put both packages of cream cheese in a bowl, and beat with a mixer until light and fluffy - about 5 minutes. Add confectioner's sugar, 1 cup at a time, while mixing. Add lemon juice and zest and whip together.