These Lower Sugar Vanilla Cupcakes are light, fluffy, and moist. They also happen to have less sugar (and butter) than most conventional cupcakes, both in the cake and in the frosting, but they are still sweet enough that no one will mistake one for a muffin. As an added bonus, the light pink frosting is made with mashed and strained raspberries, so they are even free from artificial colorings.
How to Make Lower Sugar Cupcakes
If you have a kiddo, chances are you’ve been to birthday parties with giant cupcakes with heaping mounds of frosting. I am absolutely not opposed to desserts (and I never restrict treats when we do go to parties), but I do believe that it’s possible to serve sweets with better nutritional profiles that still taste good. These Lower Sugar Vanilla Cupcakes are a perfect example.
Vanilla Cupcake Recipe for Kids
A batch of these lower sugar cupcakes would be a great addition to a birthday party, Valentine’s Day party, dinner with other families, or a special occasion. They’re even a good option for a first birthday smash cake. And you don’t need to explain their nutritional profile unless someone asks or raises an eyebrow at you for filling the kids with dessert!
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Fun Toddler Activity: Bake cupcakes together!
L helped me to bake this batch and she especially loves helping me use the handheld mixer. She stands in her learning tower and we hold it together. I keep it on a low speed for the sake of safety but she’s impressively careful. She also took her role of lining the muffin tin with paper liners very seriously—and yes, she did pick out all of the pink ones!
To make these with your toddler, just make sure you pull the butter and cream cheese out of the fridge at least 3 hours before you want to start baking so they have time to come to soften up at room temperature. This is key. Otherwise, you can do the measuring, the kiddo can do the dumping into the bowl, and as long as you don’t beat the batter endlessly, you’ll have a wonderful treat to share.
Healthy Vanilla Cupcakes from Scratch
You can bake the cupcakes with either 1/4 or 1/3 cup sugar, depending on what your kids are used to and your own preferences. 1/3 cup will more closely resemble a conventional cupcake but it’s still less sugar than in most other recipes. 1/4 cup is noticeably less sweet but the texture is what you’d expect, so it’s a great choice for younger toddlers who don’t have ingrained flavor expectations. (My two year old eats them either way, if that’s helpful to know!) And as you are mixing the frosting, stop to taste it for sweetness. Remember that it will be eaten with the sweeter cake base, but adjust the sweetener according to your preference.
Why are my cupcakes so dense?
The usual reason is that you’ve over-worked the flour. Use a very light touch when incorporating the flour to avoid activating the gluten. So beat in a lot of air to the butter and sugar, then be very gentle with adding the flour.
(P.S. Prefer to go with store-bought cupcakes for a kiddo party or other event because it’s just so much easier? Consider requesting that they use half the amount of frosting they usually do for a slightly less intense dose of sugar. There will still be plenty of frosting and the kids won’t ever know the difference.)
How to Make Lower Sugar Chocolate Cupcakes
If your kids prefer chocolate or you want to try a different variation on this lower sugar cupcake idea, try my Lower Sugar Chocolate Cupcakes. They’re similarly easy but have that cocoa flavor most of us love too! Both are definitely worth a try, depending on your mood.
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PinDescription
Lightly sweetened classic vanilla cupcakes perfect for toddlers.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter, softened at room temperature
- 1/4-1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 recipe Raspberry Frosting
- raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a muffin tin with paper liners.
- Cream the butter and the sugar with a handheld mixer until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds. Add in the sour cream, milk, vanilla, and eggs and beat to combine. Add the baking powder, salt, and flour, and mix until just combined. Stir with a spatula to make sure all of the dry ingredients are combined thoroughly.
- Spoon into paper liners, filling each cup about halfway. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until just golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Notes
Raspberry Frosting
- Mash 1/2 cup raspberries in a small bowl with a fork. Spoon into a fine mesh colander and press and scrape through the wire to release the juices into a small bowl. Discard the seeds. You should have about 1/4 cup smooth raspberry puree. Set aside.
- Beat 8 ounces softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup sour cream, and 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup with an electric mixer in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. Add additional sweetener if necessary.
- Beat in raspberry puree.
- Spread or pipe (I use a zip top plastic bag with one corner cut off as a piping bag) onto cupcakes. Garnish with a raspberry on each if desired.
These cupcakes have a terrible texture and it’s definitely off. I tried to make these twice following the recipe exactly. They came out rubbery and awful.
Hi Rebecca- I do make every recipe 2-3 times and share them with my family and friends, so I am sorry that these did not turn out well for you.
I made these with spelt flour and molasses and they were vanished by the whole family 🙂 thank you for the recipe!
Those sound like delicious variations—I’m glad your family enjoyed them!
I made 4 dozen for everyone at my son’s daycare for his 4th birthday. I used the 1/3 cup of sugar and 1 ginormous double yolk egg in each batch. They came out with the perfect amount of sweetness. Also, a bit small which may have to do with slightly less egg? But I prefer them this size for the little ones. Might be a little difficult to decorate as I am attempting pirate faces. In the end, they don’t judge my artistic abilities, thank goodness. Thanks for sharing!
I love hearing that you are making them for your son’s birthday and I hope that the decorating goes well—it sounds like the kids will love them! (The egg might have something to do with it, but my cupcake recipes generally are on the smaller side since I agree with you about portion size for little ones.)
Can I substitute whole wheat flour in the cupcakes?
Yes, though whole wheat pastry flour would be a bit better since it’s less dense. If you use regular, maybe sift it first and be sure not to overmix it. Enjoy!
I’m a novice at all this and the cupcakes themselves came out great, but the icing twice was too runny. It’s still in the fridge in case anyone can respond quite soon!!
Reading the instructions again, I may have only mixed a bit before I added the fruit puree, could that be what made it go wrong? Even though I mixed with handheld mixer for like 5 minutes after that, it only ever got slightly thicker, or should I mix even longer?
Or could it be I didn’t use exact right proportions of the soft cheese to sour cream?
Or is soft cheese not the same as cream cheese? (I’m in england but used Philadelphia brand which I guess is the same in the US?)
Hi there. If you used more sour cream than the cream cheese (Philadelphia brand is right) that would make it runnier. If you have more cream cheese, I’d add that in or you could try beating in some softened butter. I’m sorry you have trouble it I hope they work out!
How long will the cupcakes keep in an airtight container? Also if I don’t ice them could I freeze them?
They are best on the day baked or the day before but I wouldn’t make them much earlier. You can freeze them for up to 3 months but again they are best on the day they are baked.
I love your recipes! I plan on making these for my daughter’s second birthday. Can you sub Greek yogurt for sour cream or is the sour cream a crucial component?
I haven’t tried it but I’d think plain Greek yogurt would work!
heyy there,
im just wondering how many calories are in these per cupcake ?
Hi, would your recipe work for a large cake rather than cupcakes?
Can I make these for adults also?
If I wanted a blue coloring for the frosting (my sons favorite color) what would you recommend?
It will be hard to get blue from a fruit or veggie (things like blueberries will look purple). You could try a product like this though: http://amzn.to/2cXX3xQ
I see. Thank you! Any adjustments if I wanted to do mini cupcakes?
You’d need to bake them for less time—likely around 14 minutes, but start testing them 2 minutes before. You want a cake tester inserted into the center to come out cleanly.
Can I substitute the milk with almond milk? Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I haven’t done it but I’d think it would be okay. Just use plain (not vanilla) if you can!
I made these last night without the frosting and they were absolutely awesome. They came out real moist and I love how they aren’t overwhelming sweet. I added two chopped granny smith apples and all my sugar-addict co-workers loved them. I’m not diabetic but normally when I eat a lot of sugar or normal cake batter I get a real bad headache, with this recipe I didn’t!
Also used greek yogurt instead of sour cream and it worked great.
Hi I’ve made the frosting but it’s very runny like thick yoghurt and can’t put it on the cupcakes? What can I do to thicken it?
I’m sorry to hear that. You could try adding more cream cheese!
I just made these cupcakes for my daughter to take along to daycare for her birthday – thank you. The cakes themselves are lovely, but I’ve also run into issues with the icing – as previous commenters have mentioned, it has the consistency of yoghurt. It seemed fine up until I added the maple syrup & vanilla, was very runny from there (I notice there’s no mention of adding the vanilla in the frosting recipe, but I doubt this would be enough liquid to be responsible for the loose consistency!). Cupcakes still taste great – thanks again.
These are very good! I used greek yogurt instead of sour cream, perfect for toddlers. I cheated and used strawberry yogurt for icing and it was fine.
Great, and that sounds like a great option!
These are great. I was out of sour cream so I used yogurt. They turned out perfectly light.
Also no frosting needed with 1/4 sugar.
Have you ever made this recipe as a cake? I want to do a cake for my son’s 1st birthday, how would you adjust the recipe or cooking times?
If you want to make it as a cake, you can do it in a 9 inch round pan for 24-26 minutes I believe. If you want to make a two-layer cake and put frosting in between, you’ll need to double everything. (I did this recipe which is sort of similar if you want to check it out: http://www.superhealthykids.com/lower-sugar-vanilla-cake-strawberry-frosting/)
These turned out just OK. They ended up tasting eggy which didn’t appeal to me. The icing was runny so I added powdered sugar to thicken it up which worked but I had to add a lot which defeated the purpose of my low sugar mission.
My toddler and I have just made these. We did them without frosting and substituted the sour cream for Greek yogurt. We did the lower sugar version. They are absolutely delicious!!!!! We had them warm from the oven. I did need to cook them for an extra 15mins x
Yay!
This is my go-to cupcake recipe every time I need to make Birthday or party treats for my daughter. They are always a big hit! I’m trying the recipe with the cocoa frosting today 🙂
How you tried this recipe with whole wheat flour? Just wondering if it makes a difference since that is all I have in the cupboard at the moment.
Yay! I haven’t made it with all ww flour and suspect it would be muffin-like. If you can do half and half, use ww pastry flour, or sift the ww flour first to get some air in (and mix really gently) that might do the trick!
Hi, Do you think I could make the batter the night before and bake in the morning with no ill effects? Thank you!
I haven’t tried it, but if you do it, store it in the fridge and then let it come to room temp (or close to it) before baking. You wouldn’t want to bake super cold batter. Let me know if you try it!
thanks amy!
I added cut up raspberries and blueberries to the batter. Looks amazing!
That’s a great idea!
Am I missing it somewhere but I do not see how much cream cheese, maple syrup & sour cream to add to make the frosting? ty
It’s at the bottom! 8 ounces softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup sour cream, and 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
THIS RECIPE IS PERFECT FOR MY LITTLE TODDLERS, MY HONEY BUNCHES. THEY LOVED THIS!! IT WAS PERFECT FOR MY TWO BABIES, SEEING HOW THEY LICKED THE BOWL STRAIGHT CLEAN. A PERFECT RECIPE FOR MAXIMUS’S 2ND BIRTHDAY. SORRY IT’S IN ALL CAPS, I CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO TURN IT OFF.
Hooray, I’m so glad to hear that and I like the all caps—it just sounds like you’re excited!!
Could I double the recipe to make this a cake? Wanting to make a low sugar cake for my daughters 3rd birthday, and it’s pretty hard to find good recipes but this one sounds yum!
I think that should work, though I haven’t tried it myself! I would think that you could double the batter, then split it between two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans to make a layer cake. The cooking time will be about the same (I think) though use a cake tester inserted into the center to test. It’s done when the edges of the cake are lightly golden brown and the cake tester inserted into the center comes out cleanly. Does that sound like what you were thinking?
These cupcakes are wonderful!! Perfect amount of sweet for little and big people. I made them for “special person” day at my son’s school and they were a big hit – thank you for this great recipe!
★★★★★
Hooray! I’m so glad to hear that!