A Welcome Recipe!

I'm Noeleen. This is my blog. I love to sing, bake, and create many things.

Okay, enough with the First Grade Level introductions. I just need an outlet for everything going on in my head, and this is what I've got. I'm enamored with blogs that I read about the recipes that I want to try and such. I haven't read much about music or crafts, but I figure I'll incorporate them anyway.

So for today, why don't we start with a recipe?

I've been salivating over sensational sweets on flickr recently, especially cupcakes. I finally got to the point where I was so fed up with craving them, I needed to make my own. The problem is, no one in my house will eat cupcakes except me due to the fat content and everyone watching their weight...so I went fat-free. I also had an 8 oz. block of fat-free cream cheese, so I looked up a recipe for fat-free cream cheese icing...and I found the same recipe in many places, so I'll re-post here.

Fat-Free Cupcakes

1 cake mix (take your pick)
1 12 oz. can of diet soda (the type depends on the cake you pick)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, or whatever the box says to do. Put the cake mix in a bowl. Add the soda. If it's a yellow, white, red velvet, strawberry, or any other light or colored cake mix, use a clear-colored diet soda. If it's a chocolate cake mix or any other dark variety, use a caramel-colored diet soda. Mix well. DO NOT add any of the other ingredients printed on the box...the glory of this cake is that all you need is the mix and the soda! Mix on medium speed for a minute to get the mix wet, then on medium-high to thoroughly mix it together. Once it's mixed, spoon the batter into lined muffin pans. The batter will fill 24 cups about 1/2 full or so...maybe a little more than 1/2. To evenly distribute the batter, I use a cookie scoop, or one of those nifty spoons that has the lever inside to get all the batter/dough out of the scoop. Mine is of high quality because I just bought it for a great price at an outlet store in Lancaster, PA, and I am super excited to use it for whatever I can...but I digress.

Bake the cupcakes for about 17-22 minutes or so, depending on what the box says. Mine was a Duncan Hines Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix with a Diet Coke, and it took about 17 or 18 minutes to bake evenly. Take out of the oven, and let cool in the pans for at least an hour. Once cooled completely, you can ice them. Which leads me to...

Fat-Free Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8 oz. package of fat-free cream cheese, softened
1 8 oz. tub of fat-free whipped topping
1/2 cup Splenda (okay, I cheated and used granulated sugar. It was delicious!)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (it doesn't have to be clear. Your icing is still going to be bright white).

Whip your cream cheese with a mixer. Mix in the whipped topping. Follow this with the Splenda (sugar) and vanilla. Voila! A lovely icing.

When I made mine, I let the whipped topping and cream cheese sit out for a while, so it was super soft. After I mixed it, the frosting was almost a liquid texture. So I refrigerated it for 45 minutes, which helped a little. I took a disposable piping bag and cut the tip off so that I had a wide circular opening, and then piped the frosting in a swirl. Well, the frosting was so creamy, it sort of collapsed. I guess this is a frosting that you can't expect to pipe and keep its shape, but it's definitely a spreadable frosting.

So there you have it! A guilt-free dessert for you to try! Sad to say, I did not take any pictures...but they really aren't anything to write home about, aesthetically speaking. I just bought some diet Orange Crush, so I think next time I'll try an orange creamsicle version...orange crush in yellow cake mix with cream cheese frosting.

Enjoy!