Here’s something for those of us who should maybe cool it on the treats for a while…without really cooling it on the treats.

I found this “recipe” in a number of places around the internet and felt compelled to try it. Let’s have a look at the finished product and then investigate the ingredients.

Mmm. A fudgy chocolate cupcake studded with chocolate chips. How bad. How sinful. Right?

HAHA! IT IS MADE WITH PUMPKIN. Vitamin-rich, fiber-having pumpkin.

Check it out:

Chocolate Mupcakes
One box Betty Crocker Super Moist fudge cake mix (or any chocolate cake mix)
One 15-oz can of pumpkin
1/4 cup coffee
1-3 teaspoons of cocoa powder to taste
Handful dark chocolate chips (optional)

In a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, combine cake mix and pumpkin. Add 1/4 cup coffee; mix. You should taste the batter at this point. Don’t be put off by how PUMPKIN it might smell. Does it taste chocolatey enough for you? If not, add a teaspoon of cocoa and continue mixing. I used the whole three teaspoons because I wanted a very chocolatey cake, not a pumpkin cake with a weird hint of chocolate.

Now. These muffins do not taste exactly like cupcakes which is why I have called them mupcakes, the reason being their more dense, slightly more muffin-y texture. (Muffcakes seemed a little…well, porny.) They’re a little less sweet than you would expect from a piece of chocolate cake but you don’t really miss it with the dark chocolate chips on top. I think next time I might put the chips into the batter instead of just sprinkling them on top, but it’s perfectly fine this way too.

So, yes, boxed cake mix is not exactly free from weird additives and preservatives so this is not a recipe that is pure as the driven snow. However it is free of eggs and oil and butter, if those are things you could do without sometimes. I think this would probably make a decent cake, too, and there’s certainly nothing keeping you from frosting it. Also FIBER. Canned pumpkin is a fiber bonanza.

According to my calculations, if you portion the batter to make 24 cupcakes, each cake has around 55 calories and less than 1 gram of fat. I only got 18 cakes out of the batch so mine are a little more caloric, but only slightly. This tally does not account for the chocolate chips but really, the point is, this is a delicious chocolate treat and will have a minimal impact on your fanny or whatever else you might be worried about, if in fact you worry about such things.

Apparently this trick also works well with spice cake mix and carrot cake mix.