Angel Cakes in Devil's Clothing

It seems as though every city and even some small towns have cupcake shops now. Like many people, I liked cupcakes even before this craze...baking and decorating them. I wanted to make chocolate cupcakes that were less sweet than the usual standard. I used some unconventional ingredients like almond flour to make these "devil's food" cupcakes, and cut down on the sugar. They came out with a light, spongy crumb and a very chocolaty flavor. They were pleasantly sweet and reminded me of some of the cakes in Japan where I found that many "sweets" were a lot less sweet than in America. The sweet white chocolate topping is a nice contrast to the light sweetness of the cake. If a frosting like unsweetened raspberry whipped cream were used, I may add in a few more tablespoons (2-4) of sugar to the cake mix. I have also pondered ways to make these cakes gluten free, I would guess that using only buckwheat and almond flours would work. The original idea for these "healthier" devil's food cakes came from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking book -- although my adaptation is very different.

Semisweet Devil's Food Cupcakes

1/2 cup cream (or softened butter)
1 and 1/3 cup plain, low fat yogurt
3/4-1 cup brown sugar
3/4 sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup no fat/no chol egg substitute (without flavorings)
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp chocolate extract (use more vanilla if you can't find this)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup almond meal
1 cup unsweetened Dutch cocoa powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup water

Mix the 1/3 cup yogurt and cream or butter with the sugars until smooth and creamy (I used a stand mixer with the all purpose attachment). Add the eggs/egg product mixing between each addition. Add the extracts and blend further. Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and add 1/3 at a time alternating with yogurt and mix each time. Add water and mix. Divide into 24 regular sized lined cupcake cups or 48 mini cupcake cups. Bake regular sized cupcakes for 14-16 min at 350 degrees. Bake mini cupcakes for 10-12 min at 350 degrees.

Use melted white chocolate or other frosting to decorate.