Zebra Cupcakes - Low Fat

I've been looking for a decadent chocolate dessert that has some substance, but is not too fattening! Is there such a dessert or am I just dreaming? Well if I'm just dreaming, then my dreams just came true!

I found this recipe called Root Beer Float Cake and decided it was the one for me! It had lots of positive reviews and one of the ingredients was root beer...which I had some that needed to be used up since my family hasn't been drinking it lately! I decided to tweak the recipe to make it lower in fat and calories!

It was a huge success! I didn't taste the root beer in this cake, but I loved the spongy texture and the decadent chocolate flavor! I made them into cupcakes and decorated them with a root beer drizzle (my own idea) The cupcakes were such a lovely dark chocolate color. The drizzle really stood out and resembled a zebra print, mainly because I have poor drizzling skills! The drizzle, just like the cupcakes, didn't take on any of the root beer flavor, but I thought I would use the root beer to continue the theme!

Here is my version of the recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

 2 cups root beer

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

4 tbls. butter

4 tbls. applesauce

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

 

DIRECTIONS:

 Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Put 24 paper cupcake liners in a cupcake pan.

In a medium size sauce pan heat root beer, cocoa powder, butter and applesauce until butter melts.

 Then add both sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a small bowl beat eggs with salt and baking soda until combined.

Then add to cooled root beer mixture.

Add in the flour and mix until blended. There will be lumps but that's okay.

Fill all 24 cupcake liners and bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Cool completely then drizzle with glaze.

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 DRIZZLE RECIPE

 1/2 cup powdered

2 oz. fat free cream cheese

1/2 tbls. root beer

 

DIRECTIONS:

 Mix the 3 ingredients together until smooth.

 If glaze is too thin add more sugar. If the glaze is too thick add more root beer.

Dip the tip of a butter knife into the glaze and drizzle over cooled cupcakes
 in a thin stream.