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Active fat

Not quite 'The Good Life'

but hey I'm no Felicity Kendal either....



Having grown up surrounded by fields and with a huge garden and a father who is the king of allotments, I have decided that the restrictions of city dwelling are not going to prevent the fruit of my loins from knowing where all these lovely nutritious fruit and veg. come from (and I am clinging to the hope that growing it may encourage some of it to pass their pursed lips).

We did make an enthusiastic start last year ,only to be quickly thworted by the resident slugs inviting all their mates over for a gourmet dinner.

So we made a new start last weekend by planting our freebie seeds (thanks BBC). Now all I have to hope is that my plant recognition is up to scratch because our youngest gardener was a little too enthusiastic with the seed scattering. So everything is indoors keeping warm and getting the best start.



I am under no illusion that this will replace our supermarket shop but even if we get the odd pea pod or salad leaf, then I can smile smuggly to myself before loading the children into the car and heading home to get grandad to show them how its really done...

SDC10616

SDC10616,
originally uploaded by littlehunts.

So what better ingredient in a Bunny cake than a bowl full of carrots!
But the test will be in sampling, will it get past the real critics, the party guests?

Every Bunny loves chocolate cake

So with the usual amount of fuss and panic, the party preparations began. Just as every year the same repetion was followed, drastically searching for a different party provider that can do entertainment, food and fun all for a reasonable price for the amount of 'best' friends on the list this year and take the pressure of us parents. As always the prices were just too much and to meet the ever growing guest list, it was just more straight forward to do it ourselves!! (But 10x as tiring but as i'm a secret control freak its the only way really!)

Ok so the request this year was for another bunny cake and to make it different I decided that this year it shoud be chocolate. Time to fill the chocolate bunny cake with carrots. 'What?' I hear you shriek, 'what kind of idiot puts carrots in chocolate cake?'
Well this one does and so does Harry Eastwood author of Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache.
(as reviewed in my previous blog)

the recipe can be found here Bunny cake recipe.

This recipe didn't rise as well as others I have used in this mould, however, the cake was light moist and tasty, not a hint of a carrot and although not completely fat free because of the chocolate chips is considerably lower in fat. I also like the fact that the recipe can be gluten free, if rice flour and ground almond are used, which is always a useful option to have.

No complaints were received from any of the party guests and I was quietly content knowing they were getting a few additional nutrients along with their chocolate cake.

Have your cake and eat it

You don't get a waistline like mine through not eating cake, so imagine my glee when an old school friend recommended a recipe book which had virtually fat free cakes. Well as I have learnt, you don't get something for nothing in this life now do you - so what was the catch? Vegetables thats what. So needless to say I was more than slightly skeptical but intrigued enough to want to experiment.

With Mother's Day on the horizon, I put in a subtle request and low and behold the book miraculously appeared on my bed. So what is this incredible book?


Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache by Harry Eastwood (1/4 of the Channel 4 Cook Yourself Thin team).






The book itself is truly beautiful, if a little gooey and girly, however the layout and photographs are clear and attractive. The author is a self confessed cake lover and believes that cake should be part of everyday life.

Her theory is that by replacing the butter with a combination of ground almonds (for natural fat content and texture) and by adding vegetables (for moisture and light fluffiness) no taste compromise will occur. This is a truly remarkable claim to live up to and a challenge i decided to take head on. (well it would be rude not to!)

My first trial had to be a chocolate cake, after all I needed the kids to be on board. So I set about grating the 250g of carrots required! (This could also be a great form of exercise and I could end up with one very large bulging bicep)

The recipe and method can be found in the Every Bunny Loves a Birthday and the quantities made 12 generous sized cupcakes, which I promptly smothered in chocolate butter icing , in case they tasted awful. Nervously, I drew back the paper case and peered at its contents, fully expecting to see a series of orange flecks, instantly recognisable to the discerning eye of a fully trained veg phobic (or child under 7), but nothing. No, nothing, no hint of a vegetable, no orange tint.

But what about taste? They couldn't possibly taste ok, could they? There would surely be a bit of an earthy taste and textural differences. Well, it has to be said I was truly astonished, but only speechless because I had soft moist chocolate cake stuffed in my mouth. These cakes were in fact some of the best cupcakes I'd made in ages.

Ok, so I could no accept that this recipe was fine and in fact grudgingly might say good, but we've all heard of carrot cake, so no news here, nothing to see. Lets move on to courgettes, after all that's just insane surely, they are green for a start, and no-one's going to eat green cake, are they? (not unless truly desperate).American Vanilla Cupcakes - well they sound fairly normal don't they - that is apart from the 300g of finely grated courgette it asks you to whisk in!

All I could think of was how on earth was I going to get this past the trainee mealtime micro-surgeons that regularly frequent my dining table. Its green, oh so green and the mixture's stringy and slimy!

In a vague attempt to hide the greenness I decided that pale green glace icing was the solution (that was bound to fool them).

However, after baking I was pleasantly surprised at the shade, they looked fairly normal with just a pale green hue, which I wasn't sure if I was imagining just because I knew the content. On close scrutiny I could see very tiny green flecks, barely visible to the human eye. (Note to self at this point to peel the courgette more carefully next time).

I ran these past the resident household quality control and they passed the test, in fact to quote one QA technician (age 5) 'you can't even taste the green bits with this lovely icing'. Obviously my eye sight is failing.

Recipe trial number three was a Victoria Sponge containing potato - sounds very strange and my immediate preconceptions were that it would have a very starchy flavour and would stick unpalatable to the roof of your mouth. So 200g of King Edwards later and I have a whisked sponge cake, with stringy potato evenly distributed through it. 20 minutes later and the results are in a seemingly perfect sponge! After filling with jam and butter cream and decorating with candles, it was served up as a 6th Birthday cake, with fingers crossed behind my back.

Luckily it was brilliant, moist and tasty, no signs of extra starch flavour.

So if you can get past the vomit inducing style in which this book has been written, to the recipes at the core you can encounter its true brilliance, an inspired book with real purpose and recipes that work.

I have yet to trial recipes containing ; butternut squash, parsnips, sweet potato and beetroot but will keep you updated with my findings..

A kick up the arse and a large injection of confidence

So as a complete blogging newbie I am going to attempt to stumble my way through this technology riddled world in vague hope that by producing this I provide some kind of interest in health, nutrition and mainly in the love of food.

So in 38 years of searching I still haven't found that ideal that is the job that I love which means I never have to work again, but what I do know is that some of the happiest times of my life have involved food and cooking. That said, one of the hardest questions to answer each day is 'what shall we have for tea?' Like most people , my weekly recipe reportoire consists of a few simple recipes that are repeated week after week. With this in mind I will be sharing my experiences of trialling new recipes and the success rate as voted for by the most critical people in my life - my children!

So lets hope as the title suggests this provides me with a kick up the arse and a large injection of confidence to carry this through and provide the inspiration for you to give it a try.