Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
Line a 12-count muffin pan with paper liners and lightly spray liners with oil. Preheat your oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sweeteners until light and fluffy. Add egg whites, one at a time and beat until light. Add half-and-half and vanilla and mix. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the baking powder, salt, cornstarch and flour. Add dry ingredients into the butter mixture and mix until combined. Gently add the chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into the lined muffins tins, filling each 3/4 to almost all the way full (you’ll have enough batter for 12 full cupcakes). Bake cupcakes until golden and a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 15-17 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool before frosting.

For the frosting:
To make the frosting, begin by boiling the water in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stovetop. Once the water is boiling, take it off the heat and add the cocoa powder, sweetener of choice and the agave inulin or date sugar. Mix until everything is combined and dissolved. If your sweeteners are not completely dissolved, you can slightly reheat the mixture until they are. The mixture will be super thick and very fudge like. At this point, it should have cooled down a bit. If it is still hot, place in the fridge to cool.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and salt together until fluffy. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture and beat until the frosting is smooth and well combined. Spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Makes enough to liberally frost 12 cupcakes

*I loved the flavor the date sugar gave to these cupcakes. BUT date sugar can sometimes soak up moisture in baked goods, so even though these cupcakes were incredibly moist and delicious the first day, the date sugar dried them up quickly! If you are not going to be serving or eating all of these in one day, I would highly suggest making these with all coconut sugar so that the date sugar doesn’t leach away all the moistness!

**If you don’t have agave inulin or date sugar, you can easily substitute both of these out for more coconut sugar or xylitol.

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcake recipe.