Diet Rainbow Cupcakes?

I have avoided sharing something about us for awhile now.  Ed & I have been doing the Geer version of Weight Watchers since the first of the year.  I have been reluctant to disclose this info for the simple reason that if everyone knows, I expose myself to the possibility of being held accountable for failing publicly (like I always seem to do with diets.)  I joined WW like forever ago and went for a few weeks, then quit.  Paid them my money and got all of the crap that they distribute.  Well it's not crap, it's good information but you know what I mean.  In all of the house moves I have done since I was a WW member, I have never been able to throw away my weight watchers stuff.  I mean, it does work...if you stick to it.  But you see, that's my problem  Those greasy McD's french fries call my name every durn time I go there so I just give in way too easily.

Anyway, Ed said to me that he wanted to get back into shape and wanted to do it together so I volunteered my WW info.  I didn't think he would go for it.  Seriously, what dude enjoys "counting points" for everything that goes in their mouth?  Heck,what woman enjoys it for that matter?  We discovered that our phone has a free WW app that allows us to track all of our food points and our exercise points so we don't have to hand write everything down like it's 2005 or something.  Plus I already had the materials and everything you could ever need is posted on the Internet so he was on board with it.  I volunteered to cook as often as possible (gasp!) and we were ready to go.  So...since January 3rd, I have planned our meals out for the week, gone to the grocery store every Sunday and cooked a WW dinner at least 4-5 nights per week.  Ed has lost about 17 pounds and I have lost 12.  It's been 2 months and we are still doing it!  Pretty soon we will both have met our target & will just be working to maintain.  Ed keeps telling me I need to post some of the recipes out here because we have found some really good ones.

So last night I made some rainbow cupcakes in preparation for St. Patrick's day next week.  I wasn't sure how they would turn out so I made a trial batch.  This is why I was freaked out & had to make a trial batch: the ONLY 2 ingredients are cake mix & 12oz of diet soda.  Yes, that's it!  So you slowly pour the diet soda into the cake mix (you don't really want it to fizz up) and slowly stir all at the same time.  Once you have all of the soda in the mix continue to stir until it is completely absorbed and your batter is thick.  It actually looks just like regular cake batter.  If you are making chocolate cupcakes then a diet dark drink is supposed to be better.  I made white cake so I used a Diet Mt. Dew.  I actually wanted a Sprite Zero but there was none at the store and I wasn't trying to buy an entire case of them so I have no idea how much the different soda affects the flavor.  Then you just bake the cupcakes like normal!

I wanted to try the rainbow ones so I separated out the batter into 6 cups.  Then I used food coloring to make the colors of the rainbow.  I started out with just a little color and then added more until I got the color I liked.

I started with the bottom layer, which was purple.

Then I added a little of each color on top of the other.  Make sure not to spread the colors out, although you will be tempted to do so.  This will result in the the mixing of colors/layers.

I made a mistake in judging the amount of batter I used though.  You only need a little bit of each color.  When I started out I wasn't sure that I had enough of the colors and before I knew it, I had too much batter in each cupcake liner.  I also didn't keep my layers separated too well as they didn't really "layer."  Therefore, my cupcakes were huge and cooked up and out over the rim of each liner and my points were most definitely skewed. 

I calculated my points based on the batter info on the side of the box.  You don't have to calculate based on the prepared or anything because all you are using is the diet soda which is 0 points so my cupcakes should have been 2 points each.  Then I used FF whipped cream instead of icing.  This added 1 point.  Notice the layers are more like blotchy patches.  Will try harder next time!

I will say they tasted pretty good!  They are definitely not as sweet as cupcakes with regular icing so if you are biting in with that expectation you will be disappointed, but they were not bad.  Next time I might try to add some fruit to the top with my whipped cream or something.  And you can totally still do the rainbow effect with non-WW cupcakes and regular frosting!

And Deuce is learning to blow kisses & now knows how to wave bye-bye every time.

And although I hate that Ed's dad was sick on Monday, I got to stay home with the babe and I must say that I do enjoy those days where I can nap with my little guy.

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