Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting

This morning, I was inspired to create in the kitchen so I made myself this breakfast. It was wonderfully delicious and satisfying. I sautéed some baby kale in butter and garlic and topped it with 3 over easy eggs and 4 strips of bacon. It was SOOOOOOOO good!

After breakfast, I decided I wanted to bake something delicious but healthy to share with the family after dinner. I am not really a cupcake person. I don't really like frosting. I would much rather have a cookie, a warm brownie, a milkshake or sundae, etc. I do love pound cake but, I did not want to wait that long. I used to make an awesome blueberry lemon pound cake before I went grain free and sugar free so I decided to try something along those lines. I used the THM Baking Blend in place of my flour and it worked great. I also didn't want people to say that I put frosting on blueberry muffins so, I made a filling out of the blueberries and it created a layered effect. I put 2 Tbsp of batter in each cupcake liner and then a teaspoon of the filling and then topped it with 2 more Tbsp of batter. Here are my cupcakes with the filling but before I covered them over. I was just going to make a cream cheese frosting with vanilla and stevia but, I had leftover filling and so I just mixed it into the softened cream cheese. It is amazing frosting!

Here is my finished product. My husband said that he couldn't tell that it was not a junk food cupcake and they were so moist.

These are an S treat if you follow THM. They are low carb, sugar free, and high protein. Here is the recipe:

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and either grease a 12 muffin pan or use cupcake liners like I did. Prepare the filling by blending everything in the blender until smooth.

Filling:
1/4 cup + 1/8 cup frozen wild blueberries, thawed (I used Trader Joe's organic wild blueberries)
2 TBSP xylitol (I used Xyla)
2 doonks pure stevia extract (I used NOW Organic Better Stevia)
1 TBSP Butter, melted (I used Kerrygold)

Blend and set aside. Next, add all your ingredients to a large bowl and mix with a hand mixer until smooth.

Cupcake Batter:
1 cup xylitol (I used Xyla)
1/3 cup butter, melted (I used Kerrygold)
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (I used Silk)
6 TBSP carton egg whites or 2 egg whites or 1 egg and 1 TBSP egg whites (I used Just Whites)
2 TBSP lemon juice (bottled or fresh is fine)
1 tsp pure lemon extract (I used McCormack)
2 tsp aluminum free baking powder ( I get a giant one at Sam's Club)
1/4 tsp of sea salt or pink Himalaya salt (I used the pink from Trader Joe's)
2 cups of THM Baking Blend
1/2 cup pureed yellow summer squash (steam it, blend it and measure out 1/2 cup)

Blend it all until smooth and fill each cupcake liner with 2 level TBSP of batter. Then, put a small dollop of the filling in the center of each cupcake. I used a small iced tea spoon. It was probably no more than 1 tsp measured. Then, top each one off with 2 more level TBSP of the batter. If there is any batter left over, distribute it evenly among the cups. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until they are golden around the edges and the tops spring back slightly. Mine took the full 30 minutes so just start checking at 20 minutes and bake until golden.  They should not be completely golden . . . just on the edges and little peaks. Remove them from the pan to cool on a cooling rack. Let them cool completely. OR . . . if you are impatient like me, place your cooling rack in the freezer for 30 minutes. While they are cooling, make the frosting.

Frosting:
8 ounce brick of cream cheese, softened (I used full fat)
the rest of the blueberry filling (You should have enough left to make a nice lavender frosting)

Mix by hand or with a mixer and frost the cupcakes. You can always taste and add sweetener to the frosting but mine did not need it.  Enjoy!

***NOTES . . .

I store them in the fridge because they are so good cold and because of the cream cheese frosting.

This recipe makes 12 regular sized cupcakes. The nutrition information is based on the exact ingredients I used and the exact measurements.

Each cupcake has: 168 calories, 14.6g fat, less than 1.9g net carbs and 6.3g protein.

Accidental Carb-Free Sweetened Condensed Milk and Stracciatella Cookies!!!

OK, so last night I was trying out this low carb candy recipe I saw on my newsfeed on Facebook. I didn't save it and I can't remember where it was from but, I ALWAYS change recipes based on what I have in my pantry and what I know to be suitable subs. It was supposed to be orange flavored . . . mine was butterscotch. Anyways, after changing this recipe around on paper, I made it and the candy mixture seized up on me and turned into this clumpy, sticky mess. It tasted good but, I couldn't get it into molds or even spread into a pan. It was like if you wait too long to get the hot Rice Krispie mixture into the pan. My husband was like, "What is that? It looks like baby spit up!" Hey! Thanks for the input, Hon! I could not salvage it, so into the trash it went. BUT . . . the taste reminded me of a cross between marshmallow fluff and sweetened condensed milk with the texture of sweetened condensed milk. So I started over and left out the ingredient that I was sure had caused the awful clumpy mess in the trash. Here is what I got! Beautiful, no?
 

Just so you can see how it flows. It is truly a syrup, sticky texture but smooth and delicious!

Here is what I did:

I poured 1/3 cup + 1 TBSP boiling water into the single serve cup of my Ninja.

I added 2 TBSP salted butter and 2 TBSP unsalted butter I added 1/8 tsp LorAnn Oils butterscotch flavor. If you use regular extracts, use 1/2 tsp. Also, be creative and use whatever flavor you want!!! I give you permission! LOL! I blended all this together until smooth.

Then I added 3 TBSP THM Sweet Blend (You may have to convert if you are using a different sweetener. They have a conversion chart on the THM website.).

I also added 1 measured cup of Vanilla Whey Protein Isolate (I used Jay Robb - 3 scoops). Blend until smooth and pour into a covered container and keep it in the fridge. It makes 1 and 1/2 cups. Per TBSP it has 31.7 calories, 1.9g fat, 0 carbs and 3.1g protein

I used this in my iced coffee this morning. It was delicious! One of the ladies on the THM Facebook page made a pin for the sweetened condensed milk. You can find it here.

So . . . all that to say . . . I used it to make these awesome cookies.  I am calling them Stracciatella Cookies because they look like Stracciatella gelato and the flavors are very similar.  See . . . doesn't the dough look like Stracciatella gelato???

I used my Pampered Chef small cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and flattened them with my fingers.

I baked them at 350 degrees for exactly 8 minutes. They were perfect!

I love how perfectly they browned on the bottom.

Isn't it pretty??? I ground up 1/2 cup of Lilly's Chocolate Chips to make these pretty chocolate flakes throughout.

Yum !  NOT cake-y at all! They actually have a crispy, buttery outside.  They are a great dunking cookie because they are not gooey inside and they soak up you beverage of choice.

My taste testers loved them!

So here is the recipe for Stracciatella Cookies.
They are and S treat if you follow THM.
They are low carb, sugar free!

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

Whip until light and airy.

1/2 cup homemade sweetened condensed milk from above
1 TBSP Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 Tbsp THM Sweet Blend

Blend until it is all smooth and incorporated.

1 1/2 cups THM Baking Blend

Blend until incorporated.

1/2 cup Lilly's chocolate chip pulsed in the blender to make chocolate dust

Stir in with a spoon and scoop with a cookie scoop onto your parchment lined baking sheet. Flatten with your fingers and bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Enjoy!

NOTES:
* My husband said they reminded him of Pecan Sandies. They are buttery and crisp on the outside and porous on the inside making it a great dunking cookie.

* You can just make these as chocolate chips but, then you can't called them Stracciatella Cookies. LOL! * If you use salted butter, leave out the sea salt or these cookies will be too salty.