Vegetable Dessert Recipe - Spinach Cupcake Recipe with Pictures
I understand that nobody wants to bite into a mouthful of stringy spinach when they eat a cupcake, and you can rest assured this recipe won't give you that horrendous experience. Instead, you'll find a thin layer of sweet and creamy spinach paste, just enough to add some healthy fiber and a nice green color to your dessert without overwhelming it. I actually came up with this creative cupcake recipe after watching the cooking show, Chopped. When I saw one of the contestants making a financier cake stuffed with a huge ball of Mascarpone cheese, I immediately questioned myself, "Damn! How come I've never thought of using Mascarpone in my dessert before?" Mascarpone is the cream cheese to worship. It's very sweet, very rich and vividly gives you a mental image of a very fat cow! To balance the "yang" of this fatty cheese, I decided to add the "yin" of spinach to my cupcake. My cooking experiment went very well, and I hope you enjoy this fun vegetable dessert as much as I did.
Spinach Cupcake Ingredients (for about 10 - 12 cupcakes)
- 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cup brown or white sugar (I used brown sugar.)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vanilla vogurt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/3 cup milk
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- a pinch of salt
For the spinach mixture
- 1/2 cup chopped spinach
- 1/2 cup Mascarpone cheese (softened)
- 1 tbsp. sugar
Spinach Cupcake Recipe with Pictures
- Chop spinach in a food processor.
- Mix the spinach with sugar and Mascarpone cheese. Set aside.
- Preheat an oven to 350°.
- Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Beat eggs, butter, vanilla yogurt, vanilla and milk on high speed for about 1 minute.
- Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture. Beat together on high speed for about 1 - 2 minutes.
- Line your cupcake pans with paper liners.
- Fill a cup with cupcake batter about half full.
- Add about 1 tablespoon of the spinach mixture to it, then top with more cupcake batter. The cup should be about 2/3 full.
- Repeat with the rest of the cupcake batter and spinach mixture.
- Bake the cupcakes for about 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow to cool in the cupcake pans on a wire rack.
- Frost the cupcakes with your choice of frosting.
Frosting the Cupcakes
Although these are cupcakes with a little spin, they're still basically vanilla cupcakes and therefore can go well with various types of frosting. I have to confess I didn't make my own frosting from scratch for these spinach cupcakes. What I did was mix about a teaspoon of Matcha green tea powder with ready-made vanilla frosting to highlight the "green" theme of this vegetable dessert. It gives the frosting a soft hint of green and a complementary aroma, which I really like.
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Comments
Hi Om,
We also like watching the TV show Chopped and all of those contestants certainly have to think outside of the box...and quickly. Will we be seeing you on an upcoming episode? Looks like you enjoy creating new and different recipes! :))
Wow, you sure knows how to make cupcakes with a healthy and unique twist to them!
I'll try this recipe out soon. Voted up and Thanks!
The cake looks great (despite the spinach :-)), it's very special. I love the ingredients, I think, vanilla yogurt
gives a great texture to it. Voted up!
You are so creative I love hearing people thinking on new innovative ways to cook. These are beautiful and very original. great jot Om. I will try these out.
@RTalloni - Oh, you're lactose intolerant? I guess soy products would work just fine for this recipe. Many non-dairy substitutes taste almost just as good as the real stuff!
@Peggy - Haha I would freak out so badly if I got to be on that show. Some of the ingredients they give the contestants are just too weird. I remember one time there were an eel and peaches in the same basket. And one of the chefs made an eel-flavored peach soup!!! I guess that's why it's so much fun to watch.
@SanneL - Thanks a lot. Glad to hear that you'll give this vegetable dessert recipe a try.
@plinka - Yep, that's exactly why I like to use yogurt in most of my cake recipes. Thanks a lot for dropping by.
@jenubouka - Thank you. I get bored very easily so I have to keep coming up with new ideas and projects just to entertain myself. LOL
I am going to try these out! Thanks for sharing!
How clever--the spinach cupcakes look so yummy. Way to sneak fiber and iron into desserts. Love it and rated it up.
Yummy! Dessert that is good for you who would have thought.
Well, as a cook, I have to admit this is a little different. I'm not fond of spinach, but it looks like a fun way to make cupcakes. Goodnight.
Fascinating recipe! So unique. I honestly can't imagine what it would taste like but I'm intrigued. Thanks for sharing.
Tingling taste bud, yes everyone are bound to have it when they try your recipe.Thanks.
wow what an interesting recipe Popeye would certainly love it and so do I!! the green frosting is like a cherry on the cake:))
carrie
@AllSuretyBonds - That's great! Thanks for the read and feedback.
@Anglnwu - Ah, yes! Good point. Besides fiber, spinach is also rich with iron. It's so good for us.
@tirelesstraveler - Thanks a lot!
@mary615 - Maybe this recipe will make you like spinach a little better :)
@randomcreative - It tastes sweet and yummy, the way cupcakes should!
@mathira - Tingling tastebuds! I like that!
@carriethomson - Yeah, Popeye has hired me to be his personal pastry chef! LOL
Whaaa? A spinach cupcake? I have seen strange cupcakes before, but NOTHING like this! How cool!! The cupcakes themselves look so cute.. and the recipe is so intriguing! Thanks for sharing it!
Yeah, give this recipe a try sometime! It's yummy. :)
A yin yang yogurt cupcake with mascarpone and spinach? How intriguing! And healthy too! Got to try this sometime although I'll go with a ready made cupcake mix and then just add the yogurt and filling. I'm a bit into baking too and I can almost imagine the taste of the cupcake recipe. It's so flavorful! :)
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, itops. Glad you're going to try this vegetable dessert recipe. =D
Om, the spinach cupcakes look delicious. I have never heard of using spinach in a dessert but if we can use carrots why not? I am so intrigued by the idea I will have to try them.
Exactly! Like carrots, spinach can be used in desserts just as nicely. Thanks for stopping by, Koffeeklatch. :)
These do look good, but I would HARDLY say they are "healthy". It's ok to eat a cupcake now & then. But don't fool yourself into thinking sugar, marscapone cheese, etc is healthy just cuz there's a tiny dab of spinach in it!
@Julia - What you said is true. And I never said it is a super healthy dessert. The only time I used the word "healthy" was when I described the fiber in the spinach. The health factor is NOT the focus of this article at all. I even made it clear in the first paragraph that mascarpone is a very fatty cheese. I wasn't trying to portray this as a healthy recipe for weight loss, but simply as a fun and creative recipe. So honestly, I didn't try to fool myself or anyone.
RTalloni 6 months ago
Mmmm, Om! I would have to do a lot of substituting, but I think it would be worth it. I've been thinking out of the box on a bread that's not one of my favorites. You're encouraging me to try a new version, and I'll try to let you know if I get around to my cow milk substitutions on this yum recipe. The spinach twist is such a neat idea! Voted up. I expect to see this in the Hub of the Day category soon!