Green cupcakes…ham optional

When I was pregnant with Nate I picked up a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld (yep, Jerry’s wife), but I had never tried anything.  All of her recipes use pureed fruits and vegetables in things like burgers, chicken nuggets, pizza, etc., so that you can sneak vegetables into dishes without your kids knowing.

I had a few vegetables in the fridge that were about to go bad, so I decided to puree them, then pull out this cookbook and see what I could make.  The first recipe I made, Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes, turned out so well that I wanted to share the recipe with you.  (Be forewarned: These cupcakes come out green…dark green, due to the spinach.  So I’m not sure if you could really fool older kids into thinking these are real cupcakes, but luckily Nate hasn’t yet figured out that green + cupcakes don’t go together, so he liked them.  And so did I!  Just ignore the fact that they’re green, and that there’s spinach in them, and they taste surprisingly good.  Also, let them cool completely before eating, and don’t heat them up before serving, because the spinach taste disappears only after they’ve cooled completely.)

Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Prep: 10 minutes, Total: 35 minutes; makes 12 cupcakes

Filling:

• 4 ounces reduced-fat or nonfat cream cheese
• ½ cup confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar)
• ½ cup yellow squash puree
• 1 large egg white
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Cupcake batter:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup nonfat (skim) milk
• ½ cup blueberry puree
• ½ cup spinach puree
• ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.

2. For the filling, beat the cream cheese, sugar, squash puree, egg white, and salt in a bowl until smooth; set aside.

3. For the batter, combine the sugar, milk, blueberry and spinach purees, and oil in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until smooth. Add flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix until just combined.

4. Using about half the total amount of batter, fill each muffin cup about one-third full. Drop a tablespoonful of the filling on top of each, and cover with the rest of the batter. Bake until the tops of the cupcakes are lightly browned and spring back to the touch, 20 to 25 minutes. Turn the cupcakes out onto a rack to cool.

5. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or wrap individually and freeze for up to 1 month.