January 19, 2011

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!



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.

31 comments:

  1. I'm totally drooling right now!! I love raspberry/lemon combo...and with cream cheese....yummmm!!! :)

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  2. How fun! What an unusual creation! Yummy

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  3. I had somewhere between 5 and 7 of these. I lost count. Incredible :)

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  4. I just followed you over from TastyKitchen, and these cupcakes look just divine. Every Christmas we have angel food cake with raspberry jam on top, so I love the idea of mixing the jam in and doing cupcakes. Awesome! This one's going in the TK recipe box. =)

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  5. oh Jen, these look so tasty!!

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  6. I think I just fell in love with these cupcakes!

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  7. I love the swirls! Thanks for the detailed pictures. It is sometimes very hard for bakers to tell the stage of the egg white to stop beating. The pictures do help. Yum.

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  8. They look amazing! Well done :)

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  9. You actually made me want to eat these, and I usually have to have some chocolate in there somewhere! Thanks for sharing the recipe!

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  10. Thank you SO much guys!! I hope you all try these cupcakes. They are insane - Michael says he ate 5 to 7... I say it was more like 10 ;)

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  11. delicious food and pictures, authentic recipe that are easy to replicate at home, thank you for sharing this recipe with us!

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  12. omg those look delishh

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  13. If you want to make them even healthier and less calories you can use Smuckers Sugarless Seedless Jam. I really don't think you can't tell the difference. I'm going to try your idea with my sugarless angel food cake recipe next week. I'll let you know how it goes.

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  14. They look sooooo good! About how many cupcakes can you get from this recipe?

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  15. For me, it made about 26-28 cupcakes. So it's perfect if you use 2 muffin pans. You will just have a little extra... which stinks because who wants to eat cupcake batter made with 12 eggs?

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  16. Oh how I love angel food cake! Your creation looks really scrumptious and I love how it's a cake that's actually good for you!

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  17. How purdy! I love the slight pinkish color to them, so playful and delicate. Love it! Gratz on Top 9!!

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  18. Ohhhh my! I KNOW that would melt in my mouth...

    YUM!

    Great blog; happy I found you!

    Delightful Bitefuls

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  19. I HAD to make these and only had enough eggs to make half a batch which actually made a batch and a half. I only had some cherry jam in the house that had chunks of cherries that I pureed a bit in my little food processor. They are so very yummy and I can't eat dairy so this is such a treat. Oh and I didn't even frost them and in my opinion you don't need the frosting, more calories saved! Thank you so much for sharing!

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  20. jenna, i love the swirls in the cupcakes!!! i might try veganizing this recipe one of these days :).

    thanks for the blog comment and congrats on TOP 9!!! :D :D

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  21. I love angel food, and naively thought that I would never experience it in cupcake form...thanks to you, now I can!!!!! I love the way the batter looks in the bowl.

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  22. Oooh fluffy goodness! Congrats to your friends but you definitely deserve these if you have to wear their dresses.

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  23. yum! I love angel food cake, and raspberry!

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  24. Oh my !!!! they look amazing , I gotta try this .

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  25. These sound delicious! I love raspberry desserts; the tartness goes so well with anything sweet

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  26. Yeah, a cupcake that Papa can eat and will love. Thanks Jen :)

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  27. HELP!!! Can someone please tell me if I can make these with an angel food cake mix?? If so do I need to decrease the water in the recipe??

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  28. I think some readers have made it with a box mix before! Just follow the instructions on the box for the batter, then whisk the jam in a small bowl to break it up, add it to the batter, swirl and bake! Hope it works :)

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