Healthy hummingbird cupcakes.
I’ve never been so in love with a cupcake recipe, healthy or not.
These cupcakes are moist, sweet, and absolutely irresistible with healthy cream cheese frosting. Perhaps being in love with a cupcake sounds crazy… but just try one and I promise you will completely understand!!
Hummingbird cake, which made its culinary debut in a 1978 issue of Southern Living Magazine, is a delicate and lightly-spiced cake bursting with the sweetness of pineapple, banana, and coconut. To this day, it is still the magazine’s #1 most popular recipe of all time.
These seductive little hummingbird cupcakes perfectly capture the charm of Southern Living’s famous recipe, and they’re even healthy enough to eat for breakfast if you so choose.
Healthy Hummingbird Cupcakes
Adapted from: Healthy Blueberry Muffins
- 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained (120g)
- 1/2 cup mashed banana (120g)
- 2 tbsp milk of choice (30g)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp white or apple cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp vegetable or coconut oil (30g)
- 1 cup spelt or all-purpose or Bob’s gf flour (135g)
- only if using the gf flour, add 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp plus 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 cup xylitol or sugar of choice (65g)
- pinch stevia or 1 extra tbsp sugar of choice
- 1/3 cup finely-chopped pecans, optional
Hummingbird Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 F, and line a muffin tin with 10 liners. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together first 6 ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine all remaining ingredients and stir well. Pour wet into dry, and stir until just evenly mixed. Pour into the 10 muffin tins and bake 19-20 minutes or until muffins have domed and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to sit 10 minutes before removing from the tins. Frost with either coconut butter or Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting, shredded coconut, and pecans.
Click for: Hummingbird Cupcakes Nutrition Facts
Question of the Day:
Does it feel like Spring yet where you are?
I’ve been attempting to trick myself into believing it’s Spring by baking Eastery cupcakes and carrot cake crumble. Sadly these attempts aren’t fooling anyone. Every morning, upon checking the weather forecast and seeing stars snowflakes, I’m that much closer to just dropping everything and boarding the next plane to a tropical location whose inhabitants have never heard of snow. (Seriously, how good does Fiji sound right now?)
Link of the Day: Copycat Chocolate Brownie Vitamuffins
These look amazing! About how many bananas do you think makes 1/2 cup, is one enough or closer to two?
one large one should be enough
Thanks! That makes it easier
These look delicious and so springy! But it’s snowing hard right now, so no, it does not feel like spring at all!
Awwwww they look amazing.
L x
http://workingmumy.blogspot.com
I have all these ingredients… hmmm. Might be time to make some cupcakes! I lived in the south for a long time and haven’t had hummingbird cake in ages. It’s springtime down there, but still snowing here. Always snow here.
Other than the oil, I don’t see any actual coconut in the cupcakes. Doesn’t that make them taste quite different from the traditional?
I made these the other day for the first time as snack for my daughters for school, and they LOVED them! So did I. Will be making these again very soon! Thank you for the great recipe.
Just made these and they are PHENOMENAL. No frosting needed! Although I did just make some coconut butter with a bit of cinnamon and maple syrup (delicious!) so I might throw a bit on top of my next one… Seriously amazing recipe, I think this will become my go-to. Thank you!!! (Oh and in Toronto it does not feel like spring; it hasn’t in a loooooooong time…)
Hi! I’m very new to vegan baking … what options does “milk of choice” encompass? Would coconut milk be alright? Also, is it possible to substitute water or juice for milk in some/all recipes? Thanks 🙂
Yes on the coconut milk. Depends on the recipe on whether or not it will work with juice or water instead, so that would have to be an experiment.
Thanks!
I made these and they are as described .. delish !
Made these yesterday and everyone in my house devoured them immediately! So delicious!!! I used my gluten free flour/xanthan gum for the first time and it worked great. Amazing recipe.
These look great, but why can’t you just make the original Hummingbird cake and turn it into cupcakes, as you would other recipes? The cupcake recipe is really different.
Hi Katie,
Love your recipes and have so many favorites in our home from your blog, can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of your posts 🙂 Excited to try this one and wanted to know if you think I could use purse maple syrup instead of sugar and if so, should I adjust the other ingredients? Just wanted to know since I would be subbing a dry ingredient with wet. Thank you 🙂
*I meant “pure” maple syrup
I just made these with honey instead of dry sugar (used a little bit less than the recipe calls for) and they seemed to turn out just fine, consistency-wise, if you haven’t already just tried out maple syrup!
These cupcakes are what led me to your website, but I got so intrigued by your other recipes I neglected the very thing that brought me here! Until tonight. I made them exactly to the recipe (apart from omitting the pecans as I don’t have any) and they’re really good. So good my son stole two while they were still cooling *rolls eyes*
I made the hummingbird cupcakes today. My 11 year old grandson ate two and asked for the recipe for his mom. Sent 2 more home with my 2 year old granddaughter who wanted her second cupcake. My daughter-in-law texted, “Those muffins are amazing….” So made two copies of the recipe to send to both girls. Gonna have to make a bunch more!
This were soooooo good!!! The whole family loved them! Will definitely be making again. The pineapple really makes it!
I’m wanting to make these for my daughter’s birthday this weekend, but with a twist…the famed cupcake cones. Any reason this wouldn’t work, being baked in an icecream cone? Thanks.
If this wouldn’t work, are any of your other cupcake recipes a better option? Thanks.
I don’t see why not!
Turned out great!