Hello from Upstate New York, where I’m currently up to my ears in chocolate eggs, chocolate candy, and chocolate bunnies (never a bad situation in which to find oneself). With a very large and very Italian extended family, food is always plentiful when we get together.
On Saturday morning, figuring it’d be a good idea to make something light before the onslaught of homemade Easter pies upon out kitchen table, I came up with these simple strawberry cream cheese muffins:
I made a triple batch, and not a single muffin is left. 🙂
Then again, there are a lot of us…
Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins
Adapted from Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
- 2 loosely-packed cups diced strawberries (240g)
- 1/4 cup milk of choice (60g)
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (6g)
- 1 tbsp white or apple cider vinegar (15g)
- 3 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil (30g)
- 2 cups spelt flour (250g)
- 1/2 tsp plus 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup sugar of choice or xylitol (95g)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch pure stevia, or 2 extra tbsp sugar of choice
- 1 more loosely-packed cup diced strawberries (120g)
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F, and line a muffin tin with 12 liners. Blend first 5 ingredients in a blender or food processor until completely smooth. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine all remaining ingredients. except the extra cup of strawberries, and stir very well. Pour the contents of the blender into the dry ingredients and stir until evenly mixed (don’t over-beat). Finally, add the last cup of strawberries and stir them in gently so that they remain mostly intact. Pour into the 12 cupcake liners and put in the oven. Immediately change the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake 22 minutes, or until muffins have domed and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 minutes before removing from the muffin tin. Using a spoon, hollow out a piece from the center of each muffin, and fill with about a tbsp of Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting or filling of your choice.
Click for: Cream Cheese Muffins Nutrition Facts
Link of the Day:
They look awesome! I especially like the cross-section view- the frosting goes right through! 🙂
Katie, I rarely comment but want to thank you for a great website I visit daily. My mom loves it too. I made the lava cakes (with raspberry filling) for Easter dessert yesterday and my family raved about them. My dad is a vegan so he especially loved them. We ate them with coconut cream on top. 🙂 Also, you look great but then I’m sure you hear that plenty. Better buy yourself a baseball bat. 😉
I never comment, but am a regular reader. I just had to leave a comment to say how wonderful and healthy you look. What an amazing transformation!
Yum! These look great! I think I have a use for my frozen strawberries!;
;). You look beautiful by the way, lovely skin!
Unfortunately when you look as beautiful as you do and are as successful as you are, your going to recieve jealous sniping comments, and it is unfortunate that these people don’t realise that putting others down makes them even lower than you, silly girls
I don’t often comment but I had to leave one to tell you how absolutely gorgeous you look!! You look so happy and healthy and are truly radiant!
Thanks for the recipe and the great pics.
These muffins look fantastic and it just so happens I just came back from the grocery store with 1 kilo of strawberries 😀 You and your family are just too gorgeous! Glad you had a great Easter with lots of chocolate!
Lovely family pic…oh, and by the way, those muffins look amazing too! lol!
These muffins look like the perfect Spring treat!
I have to say, Katie, I’ve been reading your blog for several years now, and in this picture you look the happiest/healthiest I’ve ever seen you look! Your skin, hair, smile, all point to signs of a healthy woman. Keep it up, girlfriend!
Katy, this recipe looks delicious, and I mean this so respectfully but – dang! You’re definitely getting the curves you’ve been wanting! Looking great.
Ah! Katie*… how embarrassing…
Katie, I think you look absolutely movie star beautiful…. You have the body everyone dreams of… Perfectly proportioned and smokin hot. Any idiot can see that…. I’m so happy for you!
Katie, you look fabulous. First thing I noticed when I saw this post. You look healthy and happy and, as a nice perk, you have the proportions of a movie star and a beautiful smile
To go with it. I’m so happy for you!
Beautiful pictures! So sorry that people make terrible comments like they do. It’s hard enough keeping up with a blog that puts so much of your business out in the open and all some people can do is keep their own disordered lives to themselves while saying rude things to you. I think you know deep down how much the majority of your readers love your blog and you. Keep it up and don’t let the negative folk bring you down!
Going to give this recipe a whirl this weekend! And, you look AMAZING, Katie, keep it up!!
Hi Katie! I was wondering if you are still vegan? Just from your comment about pies and chocolate bunnies, it made me wonder. If yes, that’s super awesome that you’ve found mainstream VEGAN chocolate bunnies, and that your family makes vegan pies to support you during the holidays 🙂
Oh, and I just have to say in that photo it looks like you are glowing!
Aside from the recipes I’ve posted in the past for vegan chocolate bunnies and eggs, it’s actually also extremely easy to find vegan chocolate in stores… bars, bunnies, eggs, even vegan candy and peeps. And much of what my family makes is already vegan or can easily be made vegan. 🙂
While it may be easy to find vegan chocolate and candy in stores in your area, it is not always readily available for others. It really depends on location. Of course purchasing online is another option.
I am also curious as to whether or not you are still vegan. You kind of tip-toed around the issue by stating that it was extremely easy for you to get vegan candy and veganize any family recipes that are not already vegan, but you failed to answer Jen’s question above asking if you are still vegan. Maybe it was a simple oversight because you feel that you clearly are, but if the question was asked I’m sure there are others wondering the same thing.
I know that you are working on a cookbook that will be coming out soon, so I’m sure that is taking up a lot of your time, but the tone of your blog just seems quite different recently. Maybe you are just in a much happier place than you were previously, and that is starting to come through your writing.
Please feel free not to respond if you don’t want to or don’t feel that you need to answer this question.
Why do you need to interrogate Katie?? So what if she is strictly vegan or not. I’m not saying she isn’t, but truly it isn’t your business. Please, have a little respect. If you like the recipes that Katie posts then appreciate what she has to offer. If you don’t like them or don’t think they are vegan, then don’t read the blog. But please leave Katie alone! Clearly she is trying to make healthy choices for herself. If you don’t have anything positive or uplifting to say, then please just keep it to yourself.
Sorry if that came across harshly. I understand your curiosity but I feel protective of Katie. I want her to feel safe and able to make whatever choices she wants, even if readers do not approve.
Emily,
I apologize if it appeared that I was interrogating Katie, as that was not my intention. I wanted to remind her that things are not always as easily accessible to some people as they are to others. I’m sorry if that seemed impolite.
I don’t believe that I said anything negative about her recipes or that I didn’t approve if she was no longer vegan. I was just genuinely curious and since Jen had the same question above, I wanted to let Katie know that other readers may be wondering the same thing.
Katie has readily shared a lot of recent changes in her life. She writes a vegan recipe blog and is working on a vegan dessert book so it is a legitimate question, and I tried to phrase it as respectfully as possible.
It is natural for a reader to question a blogger’s personal connection to what he/she is writing about. Even if the “About” page describes it as a “healthy dessert blog”, there are quite a few breakfast recipes and some “healthy meal ideas” as well, but all of the recipes are vegan.
I did not mean to make Katie feel unsafe or unable to make whatever choices she wants. Again, I’m sorry if it came across that way. It is her blog and she has the right to divulge or keep private whatever information she wants.
Looking back at my comment I see that maybe I was projecting my own feelings and experiences onto her and just speculating what may be going on. I will work on trying to be more positive and uplifting and hopefully it will come through in my writing! 🙂
I think that your question was legitimate, as I am curious myself as well. And I will agree about the ‘tip-toeing,’ although, I likewise acknowledge that that could be unintentional. I also sometimes wonder about these people commenting, especially those on behalf of Katie… I must outwardly wonder if some of them are…not…real. I don’t know, but there does not seem to be so much drama on other blogs I follow. And that anyone would be protective over a blogger he or she does not even know seems very strange. In fact a lot of people commenting are very defensive of Katie, before she evens has a chance to reply herself….
I agree with everything you said. Asking a vegan food blogger if he/she is vegan is not rude in my opinion. Katie mentioned a couple of posts ago that she wanted to have a more personal blog – maybe she is planing to do a post on this topic? 🙂
I totally agree. I am disappointed in the blog since Katie stopped running. I felt a huge connection and now the tone has completely changed. It is like she is a different person with a different personality. I will have to read the archives from now on 🙂
Wow what a bitch. And blatantly passive aggressive right down to the fake smiley face. You’re disappointed Katie’s blog is now more upbeat and she is glowing and happy? Sounds more like jealousy than disappointment to me.
You probably don’t see that level of devotion on other blogs because the other bloggers you follow don’t have as many readers. I am a former anorexic, and Katie’s blog single handedly saved my life by getting me interested in food again. I will defend her to the death.
And yes I am a real person.
My best guess is that Katie is still vegan but steering her blog away from that aspect and focusing more on being healthy versus on a particular diet. After the whole “Guiness brownie” debacle, and people getting bent out of shape over the use of honey for “strict” vegans, she’s probably trying to focus on healthy living versus what people believe to be “correct” forms of veganism.
That would be my guess too. It’s not a big deal. I love this blog and Katie’s recipes. 🙂
The comments are the problem. Asking a question in a polite way is fine IMO, but some comments are so rude. Not only against Katie but also against each other…
I think some people are just looking for a scandal à la “Peas and Thank you”.
That and with a cookbook coming out, it opens her up to a much wider audience by marketing the recipes as “healthy” instead of blatantly categorizing them as vegan.