Well, that was a (semi) bust...

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes, low-fat and sugar-free

Yesterday was a friend's birthday and I had told her last week that I would bring her a sweet treat  to celebrate.  She is diabetic, so limits her sugar, but I thought "no big deal, I'll just substitute Splenda."  That was before Ben and I decided to join Weight Watcher's (WW).  So now I wanted to make something not only sugar-free, but also low-fat.

A search of the recipes that WW has online provided what appeared to be a gem, a dark chocolate cupcake, sans the icing that I don't really like anyway.  You can get the original recipe here.  The only changes I made were to replace the sugar with Splenda, bump up the chocolate to a full 3 ounces, and replace the water with strong coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor.  Since these were traveling to a scout meeting, I made a double batch, topping one with sea salt and the other with powdered sugar.

The verdict?  The response to theses "ultra" diet treats (I mean, really, low-fat AND sugar-free?) SEEMED positive, and the boys certainly seemed to enjoy them, but it is a safe assumption that 11 to 13 year old boys will like it if it is sweet.  Personally,  I view these as a learning lesson in that while they weren't bad, they weren't all that great either.  I should probably add that eating too many sweets has not been an issues for me, so when I do get the urge to indulge, I'll be spending my "points" on the real thing, but for those who like to eat sweets regularly, these may be a great option.

WW PointsPlus value: 4 per cupcake