I LOVE Carrot Cake and PUMPKIN Muffins, but, I think even more, I LOVE WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING. This recipe combines all of the above and puts them together in a healthy fashion! You save on calories and fat by replacing the oil and eggs in the cake recipe with a can of pumpkin so you can indulge a little with REAL frosting~ YUM!
This is one of my favorite Weight Watcher Recipe go-to methods and you all might remember a little about this in Kristi’s guest post. You can use pumpkin in ANY cake mix to replace the fats. In this mix the pumpkin enhances the flavor and with chocolate cake, you don’t even taste the pumpkin!
Carrot Pumpkin Cupcakes w/Whipped Frosting
INGREDIENTS:
1 Box Carrot Cake Mix
1 15 oz canned Pumpkin
1/2 c water
** Optional: Add in raisins, chopped walnuts and/or 1 c shredded carrots with an additional 1/2 c water or possibly 1/2 c mini chocolate chips to add to the flavor of these E-Z cupcakes
INGREDIENTS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees or according to your box directions.
2. Combine cake mix, pumpkin and water. Beat for 2 minutes.
3. Line 2 muffin pans with liners and fill each cup about 1/2-2/3 full.
4. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until the cupcakes are cooked through and spring back to touch.
5. Allow to cool and frost.
** Frost with Homemade Whipped Cream, your favorite frosting or enjoy plain.
Makes 24 cupcakes, 2 Weight Watcher Points Each
Here is everything you need to make the Carrot Pumpkin Cupcakes. Sugars added for decoration 🙂
They fluff up BIG in the oven and are super moist when eaten.
WHIPPED FROSTING
1/2 pint Heavy Whipping Cream (sometimes you just have to!)
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Beat whipping cream, sugar and vanilla until fluffy ~ about 1-2 minutes. Do NOT overbeat or you will end up with cream cheese.
1 Tbsp = 1.5 Weight Watcher points.
** Since you saved a little on the cake mix (omitting the oil, eggs, etc), you can indulge a little in REAL whipped frosting. However, if you choose, you can use Fat Free Cool Whip for 0 Weight Watcher Points.
Frost, decorate & enjoy. I left a few not frosted for those who do not like frosting.
LOVE these fun pumpkin cupcake holders.
Happy Almost Halloween all! Enjoy these as a healthy treat!
Ohmy, so yummy looking!!
xo
K
those look delish!
jenna
I love whipped frosting, too! Frosting is often my favorite part of cupcakes, haha. Though carrot pumpkin cupcakes do sound amazing 🙂 You did such a cute job decorating them!
Hi Danica! Thanks for your comment on my blog. Looks like Zesty did good work on both of our blogs! Yours looks fantastic.
Carrot cake and pumpkin sounds like a heavenly combination. And that frosting job looks so professional…how did you do it?!
Lara ~ I used a “Dessert Decorator” that I picked up at Walmart. It’s so cool – it has a bunch of tips and you simple fill it and squirt it out. It’s so much easier to use than a bag and tip. I highly recommend it!
Hi Danica! I just wanted to let you know that I had two cups of pureed pumpkin in my freezer from around Halloween time and a box of carrot cake mix in my cupboard. I was going through websites looking for a way to use the two up together and came across this! Perfect! I also have a container of whipped cream cheese frosting that i used on top…OMG SO GOOD! Thank you SO MUCH for posting this recipe. It is wonderful! The cupcakes are so moist and VERY healthy 🙂 how exciting!