4th of July Whole Wheat Cupcake Recipe

I’ve been scanning pinterest in search of the perfect July 4th dessert recipe, but nothing jumped out as me as being that perfect combination of cute, yet kind of healthy, but still obviously dessert.  I found all sorts of gorgeous red white and blue July 4th cakes, but they were a little too complex for me and my current energy level.  There were lots of fun variations of fruit on a stick, but I was really feeling the desire to bake (which is rare for me!).  After sifting through so many 4th of July dessert recipes, I decided it was time to make my own!

For my grandfather’s 90th birthday, my mom had made a cake with whipped cream for frosting then topped with coconut flakes and berries.  Eric and I were so happy we’d taken video of grandpa at the party because we were able to share that with everyone at the memorial.  Anyway, the cake was a big hit, and I’d been thinking about it ever since.

I didn’t want to use a boxed cake mix (although I do have one boxed mix recipe on the site), so decided to see if I could come up with a whole wheat cupcake recipe.  Fortunately, Brooke from Cheeky Kitchen had already thought to create one!

I modified her recipe a little for the amount of cupcakes and to work with the ingredients I had.

Then I went with my go to whipped cream recipe, only this time, to stick with the health(ier) organic theme, I used sucanat that I powdered instead of white processed sugar.

If you’ve been reading very long, you know that I’ve been working to switch us away from all processed sugars to natural sugars like sucanat, honey or maple syrup.  Sucanat is processed differently by your body, it’s kind of like the difference between eating white rice (instant blood sugar spike) or brown rice.

When you buy sucanat, you’ll notice that it’s a lot more coarse than powdered, brown or granulated sugar.  For this recipe I just ground my sucanat in the blender until it was much finer.  I got it to about the same texture as granulated sugar for the cupcakes, and powdered sugar for the frosting.

Of course using sucanat, which is dehydrated cane juice and still contains molasses, means that my whipped cream is more of a beige color than white, but the coconut helps cover that!

The final touch is fresh red and blue berries.  You can use raspberries, cherries, strawberries and/or blueberries.  Now is the season so get them while they’re cheap!  I was able to pick my own raspberries and strawberries this year, and had to work hard to save some for the cupcakes.  It was kind of a “one in the basket, two in my tummy” morning.  Am I allowed to blame the baby for that?

Now I won’t claim that this is a healthy cupcake recipe.  The calorie count on these is still pretty much the same so this is not the answer if you’re trying to lose weight, and it’s not something to eat regularly.  It still has sugar (although a healthier sugar) and butter, plus heavy whipping cream for the frosting, but I used all organic, unprocessed ingredients.  I also ground my own soft white wheat into flour (because it’s cheaper), but you can also just buy white whole wheat flour.  It’s definitely better for you than a box mix or than cupcakes made with white flour and sugar.  Plus it’s got heart healthy coconut oil!

The best part is that this is the first whole wheat/sucanat dessert I’ve made that didn’t have Eric saying “It’s good but it tastes healthy.”  He was really surprised it wasn’t a “normal” cupcake recipe.  In fact, he was happy to taste test more than one just to make sure they were blog worthy 😉

We’ll be bringing these to a fireworks viewing party on the 3rd.  The 4th will be a crazy busy day for us as I’m in charge of the cultural stage at the City of Auburn’s 4th of July Festival.  But I have one more red, white and blue recipe up my sleeve if I can get it written up in time!

Do you have any special July 4th food planned this year?