Friday 5 June 2015

Honey v's Caster Sugar in baking

I love baking; there is something so nostalgic about the act of bringing together, quite often very basic ingredients to create some sort of sweet creation....however (the eternal question?!) is it possible to make cakes healthy? I have stuck by "Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache" by Harry  Eastwood religiously for the past few years, and although some of her reciepes have turned out better than others, I am a huge fan. I think because she uses vegetables in her cakes I somehow feel a little less guilty (excuse the pun but I like to have my cake and eat it!). I love that she uses rice flour and ground almonds. For some of my future blogs I will be focusing on other ways of hiding veggies (as this is obviously a great way of tricking little bear into eating another one of his 5-a-day - 1 point to mummy!) but for now I am going to try and swap the caster sugar for honey in my baking and see how it turns out. I shall keep you posted! My test reciepe will be Harry's Courgette and Camomile Cupcakes. As I write this the first batch are in the oven and I have started by simply following the reciepe as it is, using caster sugar so I have something to compare to.

Monday 25 May 2015

Introductions

So this is my first post and as you can probably guess I am fairly new to this blogging stuff, so please be gentle. Just a bit of background on me and my little family though first; I am a full time mum (or "homemaker" as the bank now refers to me) to our 16 month old little boy (aka Fred-bear). My husband (who has just recently started a new job, working long hours and sometimes through the night) was my childhood sweetheart. We met when we were just 17; ten years on and he finally popped the question and three years after that our little bundle of joy arrived. The first year of motherhood was not as easy as I'd naively expected and pretty much every day for the first six months there were tears (and I am not referring to the baby's!). As well as the usual breastfeeding problems, sleepless nights and constant questioning our abilities as a new parents, I also started to realise that I could not return to my old job as a project manager and leave my "new job" as a mum . I am fortunate enough that my husband can support us, but sacrifices have still had to be made and we may be stuck in the renters generation for sometime yet! Having now passed the 1st Birthday mark I feel slightly more settled and I am on a mission to embrace this new chapter. I have a few fingers in a few pies but this blog is intended to be written from our little kitchen; what we buy, what we use, who inspires us, what we make and most importantly how it's received! I love cooking; I love food (possibly the reason why I have struggled to return to my pre-baby body!) and since having a baby I love taking him along on this journey too. My other passion is good health and natural living, there is nothing more satisfying than to discover/create a new recipe which tastes amazing but is also good for you. One of my main challenges is that I am feeding 3 different needs; my husband works long and sometimes odd hours and has a big appetite, my little bear also has a big appetite but I want to make sure he is getting the right balance, and me, well I guess I have a big appetite too but I really need to loose the baby weight as the baby is now a toddler!? On top of this, like everyone, we need to stick to a budget, oh and Did I ment it needs to taste good.....am I asking too much?