Chocolate Angel Food Cupcakes

Ducky's Note:

Once they taste these cupcakes, no one will believe that they are low in calories. Less than 50 calories a serving! Adopted from the RecipeZaar account.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 12 cupcakes

• 1/3 cup sweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 dash salt
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• vegetable oil cooking spray
• 1/2 cup whipped cream (optional)
• 12 tiny strawberries (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In small saucepan, stir cocoa and 1/3 cup water over low heat about 1 minute until mixture thickens and just begins to boil.
3. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
4. In large bowl, with electric mixer at high speed, beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks from when beaters are lifted.
5. Add sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, beating well after each addition until stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted.
6. Quickly add cocoa mixture and beat 20 seconds until just blended.
7. In a small bowl, combine flour and baking powder.
8. Fold into egg white mixture, one fourth at a time.
9. Spray 12 regular muffin cups with vegetable cooking spray.
10. Divide batter evenly between muffin cups.
11. Bake 10-15 minutes until cupcakes begin to pull away from sides of pan.
12. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.
13. Run a knife around edge of cupcakes to loosen.
14. Remove cupcakes and cool on wire rack.
15. Invert onto serving plate.
16. Garnish each with a little whipped cream and a strawberry, if desired.

Reviews

[Annas_Mom_Erin]

I am rating 4 stars because I changed a bit. I used cream of tartar beaten with the egg whites and baking soda with the flour. I did not spray the pan. They stuck a bit but came out ok. I just mixed the cocoa with the flour and folded it all in together. They were very tasty and I will be making them for my boy's 3rd birthday. Thanks for helping me stick to the diet!

[Belabean]

Quite tasty. I used ww pastry flour and regular unsweetened cocoa. And I doubled the recipe. Sure glad I did...they went very fast. Mine didn't fall. We topped them with a light vanilla frosting. It did increase the calories a bit but still each treat ended up being under 100 calories! Will make again!

[*buttercup*]

These cupcakes are great, especially for the low calories per serving (about 50 cals - I used a really great resource called Recipe Analyzer at http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php)!! I also used unsweetened cocoa powder and found that ey tasted sweet enough even when eaten plain. I didn't have baking powder, so I googled "baking powder substitute" and found one that involved baking soda and cream of tartar. I also didn't use the blender to blend in the rest of the ingredients beyond the first step after I formed the stiff egg white peaks the first time, but they turned out great anyway. I couldn't believe how light and fluffy they were, nor that a recipe with such simple ingredients came out at such a low cal count! The cupcakes did deflate a little bit as the other reviewers mentioned, but not very much. Also, I microwaved half of the batter in the plastic container that I used to mix the ingredients - it came out great that way, too! It actually resulted in a mini-cake with easier cleanup. I'll definitely be making these again and again.