Spinach Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting are a lovely pairing for a dessert. So fresh and sweet. These spinach cupcakes are naturally bright green and are very soft and fluffy. They last for ages without drying out, thanks to the spinach. Popeye would be proud.
I love using spinach in vegetable desserts. The spinach flavour fades away beneath the vanilla, but it leaves an amazing green colour.
There's actually quite a lot of spinach in these cupcakes - you could almost call them salad. *almost*
I made these with strawberry buttercream so they're light and summer.
You could add a spoonful of strawberry jam into the batter in each muffin cup for a strawberry surprise in each one. Bliss!
If you want to get fancy, these are decorated with white chocolate swirls (melt chocolate, swirl onto a piece of baking parchment and freeze).
As well as crystallised spinach leaves (brush leaf with beaten egg white, cover in superfine caster sugar and allow to dry out on a wire rack overnight).
spinach desserts
Yes, I have more than one crazy (but tasty) spinach dessert recipe on my blog. Well, it is called Veggie Desserts and I started it just making vegetable cake recipes! Try these desserts with spinach:
Vanilla Spinach Cake
Spinach Yogurt Cake
cook's tips
- These spinach cupcakes also taste lovely frosted with coconut cream icing.
- Or try frosting them with vanilla frosting or lemon frosting!
- If you're struggling to puree the spinach until it's smooth, add the applesauce and lemon juice.
- The smoother the spinach puree, the more intensely green coloured the cupcakes.
get the recipe
Did you make this spinach cupcake recipe? Please let me know how it turned out for you!
Leave a comment and star rating below and share a picture with the hashtag #veggiedesserts. I love seeing your recreations of my vegetarian and vegan recipes.
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Spinach Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream
Ingredients
- 7 oz (200g) fresh spinach leaves (or frozen chopped spinach)
- 3 large free-range eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) apple sauce
- 1/3 cup (100ml) vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 cups (250g) all purpose flour (plain flour)
- 3 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
For Strawberry Buttercream:
- 3.5 oz (100g) strawberries
- 2/3 cup (150g) butter room temperature
- 2 1/4 cups (280g) powdered icing sugar
Instructions
For the Spinach Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 325F / 170C Line a muffin pan with paper cases.
- Puree the fresh spinach in a food processor, or with a hand held blender, until it is liquefied (if it isn't pureeing easily, add the lemon juice and applesauce)Note: If using frozen spinach, thaw it and squeeze out the excess water. Set aside.
- Beat the eggs, vanilla extract and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the oil, applesauce, lemon juice and pureed spinach.
- In a separate bowl sift flour, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the spinach mixture, in thirds, and combine.
- Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full and bake for approx 25 mins or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
For the Strawberry Buttercream
- Puree the hulled strawberries and set aside. Beat the butter until creamy and beat in the icing sugar in thirds.
- Add the pureed strawberries, a little at a time, until a thick frosting consistency. Add a few drops of natural red food colouring if desired. Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.
Recipe Tips
- These cupcakes also taste lovely frosted with coconut cream icing.
- Or try frosting them with vanilla frosting or lemon frosting!
- If you're struggling to puree the spinach until it's smooth, add the applesauce and lemon juice.
- The smoother the spinach puree, the more intensely green coloured the cupcakes.
Nell
So tasty! Mine were even greener. I used strawberry jam for the frosting and it worked easily.