Rhubarb Cake

Rhubarb is such an odd fruit.  It's almost a twisted fact of nature that rhubarb is great at this time of year, just as we should be donning our suncream and sunglasses.  Then you have a spring like this one.  Days of dismal rain and almost tempted to switch on the central heating.

So rhubarb suddenly has a strange purpose.  The joy, if you like, in the drizzled disappointment of British weather!

After initial reluctance, my son loved this cake and so did I.  It lasted for 2 further days in a tin and I also froze some wedges which defrosted in the microwave beautifully.

Great served warm as a pudding with silky double cream or custard or cold as a cake.  Ok, I'm not winning any prizes on health here but I figure it's still healthier than a chocolate bar, and, cream aside, it's pretty low in fat.

Weetabix Cake

Weetabix cake?  Am I serious?  Well I'd been trying different ways of using cereals quite a bit recently what with rice krispies with mackerel but I'd never found a way of using them in cakes like I had with bran loaf.  Shreddies seemed promising but were a bit of a failure when I gave them a go.  Who knew Weetabix would work?

This tastes similar to my bran loaf, loads of fibre, sweet whilst being low in added sugar, dairy free fat free and lovely with a pot of tea!

Chocolate Custard (low sugar)

Custard.  I never make it from scratch but I do make it from custard powder.  It occurred to me when making some custard from custard powder the other day that custard powder is simply cornflour (cornstarch) natural flavouring (vanilla) and colour (normally a natural colour like annatto).  I don't have much annatto floating around the house and there feels like something wrong about making white custard even though that's the colour it would be if not made with eggs, so my idea was to make chocolate custard.

This would be great hot with chocolate cake, poured over banana (if you want to keep on my 7 a day routine), on it's own or allowed to cool in small pots and eaten cold like blancmange.  It's pretty low sugar too with only 1 tsp added sugar per portion.  There's more sugar in a fromage frais!

Fruit Crumble Bars

I'd looked online for a fruit crumble bar recipe which I thought wasn't a load of faff.  I failed to find one so this is what I came up with.  It's simple and you could switch in whatever fruit you have in the fruit bowl looking past it's best.

Although plums aren't seasonal in the UK at least, they are in South Africa and the UK are a major export market.  Irrespective of what you think of imported fruit and vegetables, these plums were lovely.  Juicy, delicious and sweet but unfortunately my son on a whim has decided he doesn't like plums or maybe he's aware it's not UK plum season.  Who knows?  Stranger things have happened than my son deciding to put his foot down on carbon footprints.  Well he is 3.

If you are sticking to more locally sourced fruit, why not try using frozen fruit instead?  Raspberries might work well but will probably need boiling down more so they're not too wet.

Fruit Cobbler

Cobbler.  It's such a long time since I've eaten one and I'd forgotten how lovely they can be.  Essentially it's stewed fruit topped with a scone like topping.  On a whim I decided to make this while making my Spanish style sausage and beans.  This fantastically tasty pudding then happily cooked away using heat in the oven and then was left cooling slightly while we ate our first course.

This was also devised as a way to use up some past their best apples and some frozen raspberries which had been kicking around the freezer for a while.  Not massively high in sugar either.  Probably around 60g, 2 ounces of added sugar in the whole dish and a fantastically warm cuddle of a pudding when spring has more than a hint of wintery bite about it.  This is great Sunday lunch fodder.

Best Pancake recipes

Pancakes; I'm a bit of a fan; in fact, one of my very early recipes was for a sugar free American style pancake recipe so I thought, with Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Day or Mardi Gras) looming on 4th March this year, I'd tell you about my favourites!

The point of Shrove Tuesday was to use up all of the rich ingredients in the house like eggs and sugar before the traditional period of fasting and reflection of Lent.  Pancakes though are a fantastic way to make food quickly and easily and make a meal out of eggs (mostly, see below!)  Eggs are a great way to include vitamin D into your diet which is often lacking in our bodies at this time of year (as I look outside to the frosty ground and sun shining weakly on my garden!)

All of my recipes are made without added sugar or are low in sugar unless you add some with the topping with syrups or icing sugar which makes them great even for babies.

Sugar Free Apple Scones

I'm sorry, these must be the ugliest scones ever made but they do taste nice.

My son used to have this huge thing about dried apple, then, overnight, with a huge bag left in the cupboard, he decided he didn't like it anymore.

So I tried these for size and I think they're lovely (if extremely ugly!)

Dairy Free Bran Loaf - great for the whole family

People who have been here from the start might recognise this recipe.   Well I've reviewed it, changed it slightly and photographed it.  It is a great one though, loads of fibre from the cereal and dried fruit and very low in sugar so I felt like it needed more prominence!

Sugar Free Raspberry Mousse, great for babies and toddlers

It can be easy with toddlers to ease up too much on the 'naughty' snacks and treats.  I'm certainly more relaxed than I used to be but occasionally I try to challenge myself to cut back a bit on the sugar again so I made this mousse with all natural ingredients and no added sugar or sweeteners.  The result was creamy and gently sweetened.  My son said it was "fantastic".

This would be great for all ages including babies.

Baked Vanilla Custards - suitable for babies, children and adults

A very simple and not massively unhealthy pudding.  Less than 2 tsp sugar per serving.  Pretty thrifty ingredients too!

Baked Cherry Custard

This isn't a sugar free recipe but at only 2 tsp added sugar per portion and a step towards your five a day, it's not terrible!

I started trying to think of a custard recipe, then thought "what fruit could I include" and before I knew it, it was almost a clafoutis except a gluten free one.  Best served warm or cold not hot.

Low Sugar Mini Cherry Tarts - Great for kids or grown ups

I'm showing my age now, the urge to type "damn fine cherry pies" was very strong.

As I said in my last post, I promised to write up a recipe for the pastry leftovers.  Because I don't know how much pastry you might have, the quantities are per tart.  Please adjust for the number you have!

This isn't sugar free.  Jam is laden with sugar but there is around 1-1.5 tsp jam per tart and only half of that is sugar, not massive amounts of sugar at all, much less than a commercial tart.

Gingerbread men

...or considering the time of year... Gingerbread Mummies!!!

I posted a recipe for Gingerbread men a while back (or ninja bread men, I do like a play on words!)  This though is adapted to give a lighter result which is less dominated by anything other than the ginger flavour.  I found the treacle in the old recipe tended to drown out the spicy warmth.

No Refined Sugar Breakfast Muffins; great for adults but also for kids

I have some 'cupcake' cases in the cupboard, bought in a moment when I actually needed fairy cake cases but picked up the wrong thing.  They were somewhere between a cupcake and a muffin in size, nearer a muffin so I decided to cook something more substantial to fill them.

Ok, they may look 'parent sized' but my son has a large appetite so he still ate two.  No refined sugar though which can't be bad.  Sorry, just for over 1 year olds though as under 1's can't eat honey.

Ooh, I've just realised while I was writing this up, this is dairy free!  Purely accidental!

My favourite apple recipes for kids

Apples aren't the most glamourous of fruits but they're one of the fruits we grow really well in the UK and they're great in sweet or savoury dishes.  Soon it's going to be apple season as we approach the autumn and I thought I'd share some of my favourite recipes.

My wholemeal apple pancake recipe might be appearing in a magazine soon which is kind of exciting! I will keep you posted...

With only a drizzle of honey (for over 1s) it's a great way to get fruit into breakfast time.  Bircher muesli is another great way to do this.

Watermelon Ice Lollies Great for Toddlers

If I can encourage you to do one thing this summer, which is setting out to be a scorcher, is buy an ice lolly mould.  Ice lollies are so expensive to buy and often full of sugar, artificial food colourings and other stuff which isn't all that great for kids.

Much better is to make your own lollies out of fruit or fruit juice with a little added sugar if needed.  Even if you do add something to make it sweeter, it's still far more natural, lower in added sugar and can count towards their 5 a day!  In fact, one of these ice lollies contains 60g of fruit and only around half a teaspoon of added sugar.

So here is my latest ice lolly recipe.  My 3 year old said "I like pink lollies best" when he had one of these and was upset when I wouldn't give him one at 6:30pm because it was bath time!

Honey Digestive Biscuits - no refined sugar

I'd been thinking about making a simple, no nonsense, "no bad stuff" biscuit for a while and I'd had some attempts at making some sugar free.  If I'm honest though, I was never happy with them.  Unlike a cake, a sweet biscuit is very difficult to make without sugar.

After a few attempts though I settled on this recipe.  Not strictly sugar free because it contains honey but no refined sugars and pretty low in sugar overall.  Yet it's still sweet but in that sweet / slightly savoury way that digestive biscuits are which make them as at home with a cup of tea or with strong cheddar.

I was impressed and will make them again.  Just keep an eye on them, the temperatures and times are for my oven and after I overcooked a previous batch, I lowered the temperature to what you see below.  You want to take them out of the oven when they're just starting to colour and firming up.

Obviously due to the honey, these won't be suitable for kids under the age of 12 months.

Ninja bread men for kids (or Gingerbread men)

My mother is my inspiration in life in general.  Incredibly intelligent she didn’t have the breaks in life nor the education.  At the time giving a woman an education was seen as a waste of time and money.  How much we have moved on.  I was lucky enough to have all the opportunities she didn’t and she encouraged and supported me through everything in life, every bump, every triumph, every disaster and here I am with two degrees a Dr of Chemistry and she still is far my superior.

It’s funny how we learn how to love and be loved first from our parents.  My Mum shows people she loves them through food and I have inherited this from her.  This was the first ever recipe I made with my son and I remember making it with my Mum when I was little.  I also handily got some cool “Ninja” bread man cutters from an online shop which I loved and so did my son but he made some hearts for me too.

This does make a very traditional, crisp gingerbread man with a strong ginger flavour which is how I had them when I was little.  If you prefer them a little softer, take them out a little earlier or it might be an idea to substitute the flour for self raising (they will spread though).  If you like a milder flavour, cut down on the ginger a little.

Low Sugar Yogurt Cake for the whole family

I hate food going out of date.  On realising some yogurt was approaching use by, I gave this a go.  Lower sugar and lower fat than a normal sponge and a slightly different texture, a bit more like madeira cake but none the worse for that.

Sugar Free Apple Pies for babies, toddlers and grown ups

A great way to not need to add sugar or reduce sugar in baked goods is to use fruit.  When fruit is ripe there is really no need to go on sweetening it, especially if you have a bit of dried fruit too.

From talking to parents I find that so many get really het up on what they should do if a child refuses part of their meal or holds out for dessert.  I think you have to do the thing which works for you but I'd also advocate making sure the meal is pretty balanced anyway, e.g. having fruit as a dessert or choosing a no added sugar option rather than a sticky cake or chocolate.

Anyway, it's the way I've always approached it and from my sample of one I now have a pretty open minded toddler when it comes to food who was asking for more broccoli yesterday but saying "no" to sweet potato.  Fair enough, I just go with it.  I sometimes feel like kids are born with personalities and my son has definitely inherited my stubborn streak.  There are times when I stand my ground but if I don't allow him some control and choices in his food, he digs his heels in and it gets worse.  Likewise though just because he's refused something once, doesn't mean he won't be offered it again.  This only reinforces fussy behaviour in my opinion.

A great way to get kids trying something they think they don't like is to change the way you offer it, so perhaps mashed sweet potato next time rather than roasted?  He went off broccoli for a while so I used to give him broccoli nuggets and well he's now back to loving it.

So if you do have a fussy child, don't give up, don't stop trying but do make lovely little things like these mini apple pies.  Not only will your child probably wolf them down but also parents think they're pretty good too!