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.
Darcy Vale
Do you think I could replace the sour cream with plain full fat Greek yogurt? (Or is there any other substitution?)
Amy Palanjian
I haven’t tried it but they’re a similar consistency so I think it should work!
Jessica
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!
★★★★★
Amy Palanjian
Hooray! I’m so glad to hear that!
Joccoaa Van der hulst
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!
Amy Palanjian
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?
Katherine
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.
Amy Palanjian
Hooray, I’m so glad to hear that and I like the all caps—it just sounds like you’re excited!!
pam
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
Amy Palanjian
It’s at the bottom! 8 ounces softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup sour cream, and 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
Lily
I added cut up raspberries and blueberries to the batter. Looks amazing!
Amy Palanjian
That’s a great idea!
ka
Hi, Do you think I could make the batter the night before and bake in the morning with no ill effects? Thank you!
Amy Palanjian
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!
katherine
thanks amy!
Amy
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.
Amy Palanjian
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!