Pink Cupcakes

Delicious lemony cupcakes, coloured with dragonfruit to make them extra PINK. Plant-based, vegan, & low in sugar.
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Pink Cupcakes
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Friends it’s been a while. Since I shared a recipe with you on the BLOG. Remember that old thing, the “blog”?

As you may already know, the past year I’ve been putting all my energy into my plant-based cooking school – which I launched March last year, one week after we went into lockdown here in NZ. Two kids at home, no schools, no playgrounds – just the four of us locked into our 450 m2 Westmerian walls. The perfect time to decide to start a new project right?

Plant-Based Cooking & Nutrition School

I’ve so enjoyed the process of sharing recipes, not just in a visual and written form, but through video too. Where I actually get to teach you, in person (well almost), the benefits of a plant-based diet. So much of what I love about plant-based food is not just the recipes, but considering the nutritional composition behind them, and making them as well balanced as I can, to meet what science and evidence shows us is the best way of eating for our bodies. And for our planet.

Pink Cupcakes

The past few months I’ve also been doing lots of new recipe testing including this outstandingly PINK organic dragon fruit powder.

Pink Cupcakes

Benefits of dragonfruit

So what’s great about dragonfruit? Typically it only grows in tropical climates such as Southeast Asia and Latin America, so if you’ve ever seen insta-worthy bowls being posted by Bali babes, they’ll often have a spiky pink and white coloured dragonfruit on the side.

Quite apart from their spectacular colour and ability to make anything look gorgeous, here are some of dragonfruit’s nutritional benefits:

  • High in antioxidants – such as flavanoids, phenolic acid and betacyanin. As you probably now know, antioxidants are helpful in protecting our cells from damage by free radicals, as they “catch” onto those free radicals and offset them (anti-the-oxidation).
  • High in fibre – which is an underrated food component that more and more research is showing to be incredibly beneficial to gut health as well as overall mental wellbeing.
  • Contains prebiotics – to feed the healthy bacteria in our gut.
  • Strengthens the immune system – thanks to its high vitamin C content.
  • Helps to absorb iron – the vit C content in dragonfruit helps us to absorb the iron from our other foods. I talk more about this in detail in my Iron seminar, inside of Be Good (my plant-based cooking and nutrition school), so if you’d like to learn more about nutrients like that, come join me here.
Pink Cupcakes

More baking recipes

If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #begoodorganics on Instagram. I’d love to see how you get on.

I hope you enjoy these, it’s good to be back with you.

Pink Cupcakes

Pink Cupcakes

Delicious lemony cupcakes, coloured with dragonfruit to make them extra PINK. Plant-based, vegan, & low in sugar.
5 from 1 vote
Servings 12
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

Dry

  • 1/2 c almonds ground
  • 1 c wholemeal spelt flour
  • 1/2 c dessicated coconut
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tbsp dragon fruit powder
  • pinch sea salt

Wet

  • 1/3 c plant-based milk
  • 2 lemons zest and flesh
  • 1/4 c olive oil
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Pink Lemon Icing

  • 1/2 c cashews
  • 1 lemon zest and flesh
  • 2 tbsp liquid sweetener
  • 1 tbsp dragon fruit powder

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 180°C (355°F) fan bake. Blitz almonds to a flour in a blender, then sift with the remaining dry ingredients into a bowl. Any almond and coconut bits remaining just pour on top.
  • Blend wet ingredients excluding zest in a blender, then pour into the dry with the zest, folding until just combined.
  • Pour into a lined or greased regular muffin tin and bake for 15 minutes, until a skewer in the middle comes out almost dry. Remove cupcakes from tin and cool on a baking rack.
  • Meanwhile, blend cashews to a flour, then add remaining icing ingredients and blend until smooth. Refrigerate to firm up.
  • When the cupcakes have cooled, spread a dollop of icing on top of each, and sprinkle with extra lemon zest (and fresh thyme if you want a splash of colour).

Recipe Notes

  • Gluten free: Use ½ c brown rice and ½ c buckwheat instead of the spelt.
  • Nut free: Use ground sunflower seeds in the base instead of almonds. Or just replace with extra flour, but the nuts/seeds give them fat and thus tenderness. For the icing replace cashews with ½ c thick coconut cream, and 1-2 tbsp melted cacao butter to help it hold
  • Refined sugar free: Already is!