Frozen Mascarpone Cupcakes with Sweet Cherries

This is a delicious berry-sweetened mascarpone mousse turned into cute frozen cupcakes! It is finger-licking good, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and you can quickly adapt this recipe to make it a perfect Keto-friendly dessert!

Sometimes I feel that my house is like one big playground during summer break. Toys are laying around everywhere; a play tent that hasn’t been taking down for days is taking up too much room, and there is no end in the number of crayons, stuffed animals and Lego I can find in about every room of the house. And although the mess might drive me sometimes insane, the belly laughs, the imaginary worlds being built and the cute conversations I hear during my daughter's playdates are priceless. And I’ll admit, for a bunch of 5 to 7-year-olds, they are pretty good in trying to help me and my husband clean up at the end of the day. Ahum, sort of!

For those playdates, I better have fruits or healthy snacks laying around. But the biggest request is frozen treats. These cute mascarpone cupcakes are luckily easy to make and heavenly creamy. The fresh strawberries and sweet cherries add a pleasing pink color and give this treat a fruity sweet taste. We only slightly make it sweeter with dates and some raw coconut sugar. However, you can quickly adapt this recipe, adding different flavors to the mix or make it a friendly low carb or Keto dessert. Let's have a look!

MAKE MASCARPONE CUPCAKES A KETO-FRIENDLY DESSERT (LOW CARB)

Use only strawberries: instead of using cherries which have higher sugar content, use 15 fresh strawberries. They are a better choice for people who are watching their carb intake. Sometimes I go for the berries because I don't even have to remove any cherry pits. Yep, I am sometimes lazy in the kitchen too!

Replace the dates and the coconut sugar with Stevia Powder: here I encourage you to taste test. I would start with ½ teaspoon and go up if you want a sweeter berry mixture. A lot of it also depends on how naturally sweet your berries are. You can always add more Stevia powder later to the mascarpone cheese and coconut cream while mixing it. Be patient here, because that mixture tastes so good that it might not get to the cupcake molds!

ADD SOME DARK CHOCOLATE AND OTHER THINGS

• Feel free to garnish it with dark chocolate shavings or dark chocolate sprinkles. It adds an extra dimension of flavor and a bit of a crunch.
• I sometimes add a little bit of blackstrap molasses to give it a distinctive taste and a light brown chocolate color. 
• Make it a mascarpone mousse: you can replace the cup of coconut cream with an extra cup of mascarpone cheese. So you mix 2 cups of mascarpone into a mousse, add in the berry mixture and then freeze them in the cupcake molds. Or instead of freezing, you can decide to serve the mousse chilled in beautiful glasses topped with extra berries and dark chocolate shavings! 

These mascarpone treats are soft and creamy. They also are incredibly cute and simply divine! Serve as a snack, dessert, or treat with your afternoon tea. 

Enjoy!

Other dessert recipes you might like:

• Peach-Banana Ice Cream Sandwiches with Warm Sweet Cloves
• A Creamy Guilt-Free Raspberry-Chocolate Nice Cream
• Grain-Free Avocado Strawberry Cheesecake in a Cup

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