Healthy Cupcake Recipes

You can serve these cake-like lemon-scented, fruit-packed whole-grain muffins for dessert or brunch.

We use nonfat chocolate frozen yogurt and peppermint extract to create a flavorful and light ice cream cupcake with a chocolate cookie crunch that captures the classic mint chocolate chip ice cream combination.

Antioxidant-rich cherries and chocolate chips are folded into creamy frozen yogurt and layered on top of a crunchy cookie crust in your muffin tin for this twist on the classic Black Forest cake.

Fat-free frozen yogurt and fresh strawberries are blended together to make a healthier "cupcake" with a bonus cookie crunch in this easy 4-ingredient dessert recipe.

Strawberries and lemons make for a sweet and citrusy treat in this lightened-up cupcake recipe topped with a cream cheese frosting.

These healthy chocolate cupcakes get a soft, moist texture from their not-so-secret ingredient: beets. The beets act as a natural red food dye, plus they bump up the fiber. Use red beets to give the cream cheese frosting a vibrant pink hue.

Shredded apple replaces some of the oil and keeps the cake moist in these cinnamon-spiked cupcakes. There is a generous amount of fluffy marshmallow frosting to mound or pipe on top for a festive look. Be sure to frost them right after you make the frosting--it stiffens as it stands and becomes more difficult to spread.

Pureed prunes stand in for some of the fat in these carrot cupcakes.

These vanilla-infused cupcakes are made with applesauce as a fat-replacer for butter that's traditionally part of vanilla cake batter. Thickened evaporated milk works as a great base for the rich and creamy chocolate frosting. Dark chocolate lovers, be sure to use bittersweet chocolate.

These raspberry-lemon cupcakes are topped with an easy cream cheese frosting tinted pink with a little raspberry puree. For those unaccustomed to the mildly nutty flavor of whole-wheat flour (used in these cupcakes), the flavor of the raspberry puree swirled into the lemony cake makes the wheat flavor undetectable.

The chopped cherries blend into the ultra-rich chocolate cake, giving these cupcakes a slight cherry flavor while keeping it super-moist with little added oil. The combination of reduced-fat cream cheese and sour cream gives the frosting cheesecake-like flavor with about 40 calories and 3 grams saturated fat less than a traditional cream cheese frosting.

The “secret ingredient” in these coconut-infused blueberry cupcakes--mashed potatoes--gives the cake great texture, almost like pound cake. The fluffy frosting is just fun. Because it's low in calories and fat, you can spread or pipe a generous amount on top of each cupcake to make them look extra festive. The frosting stiffens as it stands, so be sure to put it on the cupcakes right after you make it.