HEALTHIER HOSTESS CREAM FILLED CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

Do you love those CREAM FILLED HOSTESS CUPCAKES?  My daughter loves those things, thanks to Nana and PaPa.  (love you, mom!)  Here's a HEALTHIER  version of a favorite treat!  (very easy to make and a blast to do w/ your kids!)

Ingredients:

1 cup UNSWEETENED organic applesauce
3/4 cup sucanat
1/4 cup agave nectar, maple syrup, or honey
2/3 cup milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract (please people, don't use imitation)
2 egg whites
1 cup all-purpose UNBLEACHED flour
1 cup minus 2 Tbsp of white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 heaping tbsp of ground flax or chia seeds

FILLING:

1 cup of heavy whipping cream
3-5 tbsp of any combination of: agave nectar, maple syrup, and/or honey
1-2 tsp of pure vanilla extract
*A ziplock bag or piping bag will be needed to fill the cupcakes

Preheat oven to 325.  In a large bowl or stand mixer, whisk together first 6 ingredients.  In a medium bowl, sift flours, cocoa, baking soda, salt and flax.  Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and mix well. (I used my kitchen aid stand mixer).  Line 12 muffin cups w/ paper and lightly grease.  Fill each cup 3/4 full and bake 20-24 minutes.  You want the center of the cupcake to be slightly firm...that's when you know they are done.

WHILE THEY ARE BAKING, clean your kitchen aid bowl/whisk (or another medium bowl and electric mixer thingy's) AND PUT IN THE FREEZER.  We need our bowl and whisk's to be nice and cold for our filling.

WHEN CUPCAKES ARE DONE, immediately remove from the pan and place on a cooling rack.  We cannot fill the cupcakes until they are no longer warm.

WHEN YOU ARE READY TO FILL:
Get your bowl/whisk out of the freezer.  Pour in 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and whisk on high until soft peaks form.  Turn off whisk and add the vanilla extract and 3-5 tbsp of agave, maple or honey.  I say 3-5 because it depends on how sweet you want your filling.  I wanted ours very sweet so I used 4 tbsp of honey and 1 tbsp of agave.  Keep in mind, the cupcakes themselves are not overly sweet, so don't be afraid to “splurge” a little on the filling.  On the flip side of that, we didn't want any icing on our cupcakes, but if you wanted to add a chocolate glaze on top, you might want to use 3 tbsp.  Make sense?

Ok, you added the sweetner and extract.  Turn on high again, mix it in good, taste it and make sure its just right.  When you feel it's perfect stick it in the frig until we're ready to fill.

FILLING THE CUPCAKES:

1. Using a sharp knife (I used a steak knife) you are going to cut out a “plug” from the center of each cupcake.  I made wide circles at the top but kept the point of the knife towards the center so each plug came out looking more like a cone.  (If your knife is sticking while you cut, dip it in some flour.) Next, to make more room for the yummy filling, I cut off the tip of the “cone” and Charlee and I ate them. :)
2. Grab a ziplock or piping bag.  I have a piping bag but find them a pain to clean, so I opted to use a ziplock bag.  Spoon your cream filling into the bag (don't seal it) and squeeze it into the corner.  Then grab some kitchen shears and cut out ¼ inch of the corner and TWAH-LAH...you now have a piping bag.
3. Squeeze cream into each cupcake and then “plug” back up.  Now, the tops won't look super great so you can make a chocolate glaze and frost them OR you can just use the extra cream and pipe different designs on top.

REFRIGERATE REFRIGERATE REFRIGERATE!!!!

*YOU WILL HAVE LOTS OF EXTRA CREAM.  So...tomorrow, you can whip up some of my clean buttermilk pancakes and add some whipped cream on top, add it to your morning coffee, or heck, I just might try and freeze ours and see how it does.

Enjoy!

Fresh out of the oven!
Cutting out center, "plug" in shape of a cone and then tip of cone cut off to make more room for cream filling.
Ready to fill!
Cream Filling Ingredients! Let's compare these ingredients to that box of hostess cupcakes. :)
My homemade "piping bag"...all I need to do now is cut out a small section in the corner.
Cream filling!!!!!
Plug back up. I really hate the word "plug". It sounds gross to me.
My little helper!
First BIG bite!
YUMMY!!!!