First, I want to explain the word skinny. I used this term earlier this week for my Butternut Squash, Sausage & Mushroom Pasta dish. I saw a comment where a person wondered how “skinny” it could be if it was pasta. This is a valid question. I feel like this term describes a dish that has been reduced in some way to cut down on the fat, calories, sugar or all of these.
Now when I call these “skinny” I don’t meant that you can eat them all day long and you’ll still lose weight. What I am saying is that if you are going to have a sweet treat or wanted to have cake pops for a Valentine’s Day treat why not have these and save some valuable calories?
The great thing about these is that they don’t taste “skinny.” My husband is very picky when it comes to “diet food” but this dessert is a good compromise, we get the delicious treat but save a lot of the calories and fat.
The cake part of the pops is made with a Red Velvet cake mix but the whole eggs and the oil are replaced with egg whites and non fat Greek yogurt. Each pop is about 100 calories. If the oil and whole eggs were not replaced and we were to use regular cream cheese in the frosting it would be well over 200 calories! I found the recipe over at skinnytaste. I have been finding sooooo many great recipes there to help me get started with my change in food. If you haven’t checked it out yet take a look. I know you’ll find something for you and your family.
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 box Red Velvet cake mix
- 2 egg whites
- 6 oz. non fat plain Greek yogurt
- 1 1/3 c water
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2-8 oz. Neufchaatel Cheese softened (1/3 less fat Philadelphia)
- 1 1/4 c powdered sugar
- 2 t vanilla extract
Chocolate Coating
- 12 oz. white chocolate candy melts
- Lollipop sticks
Instructions
Cake
- preheat oven to 350 degrees
- mix cake mix, yogurt, egg whites and water together in a bowl for 2 min
- grease a 13" x 9" pan and pour batter in
- bake for 35 min and remove when toothpick inserted comes out clean
- allow to cool
Cream Cheese Frosting
- mix together cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth
Cake Pops
- crumble cooled cake into a bowl and mix with frosting
- use your hands to make sure that it is mixed well
- using a tablespoon sized ice cream scoop or measurement spoon measure out 1 tablespoon of mixture and roll them into a ball shape. (I measure them all out and then go back and roll)
- melt the candy melts following directions on bag
- dip your stick into the melted chocolate and insert into the ball
- place in freezer for an hour
- re-melt candy and dip balls into chocolate
- stand into a Styrofoam block to cool and harden
- decorate with sprinkles if you wish
