babiesloveweaning

These sugar-free cakes are a perfect healthy snack for toddlers, babies and grown ups. I’ve called them sugar free because there is no added sugar, but there is still natural sugar in the strawberries. If you’d like more recipes with no added refined sugar check out my recipe for Sugar-free Apricot and Coconut Flapjacks, or if you’re looking for savoury snacks try my pea and broccoli fritters or my thyme, corn and cheddar loaf.

 

It’s been a little while since I last posted a blog, but it’s been for the best of reasons. Mr M and I have added JB to our little family and are besotted.

It wasn’t the easiest of pregnancies with having horrendous sickness and nausea for the first 6 months, even the thought of food made me feel ill, let alone cooking! I was also diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes at 8 weeks, so had frequent trips to the hospital for monitoring.

We then a very stressful build up to the birth, where we had to to be induced at 37 weeks because his growth had slowed right down. But he’s here now and OB is as obsessed as we are!

JB is nearly 4 months old now and my brain is already thinking about starting the weaning journey again, although there’s still a couple of months yet, I will be sharing our journey from the start on the blog.
I will share some trusted recipes as well as  creating lots of new ones. So make sure you’re following the blog, my  Facebook, Instagram or  Twitter,

This weekend has a been our last weekend before nursery and school starts again. Mr M is starting work in a new school and OB is starting at the Foundation unit in his nursery, while JB and I have a very busy week going to Baby Sensory, drinking coffee and blogging (if only maternity leave was really that easy and chilled!)

Being on maternity leave means I am able to pick OB up from nursery a bit earlier than I used to, which means I’ll be getting him before he has tea there (they eat tea at 3 O’clock!). I’ve found over the last few months OB has been getting increasingly fussy with his food and unfortunately his weight gain is reflecting that with a drop on his percentiles. I think part of that is due to eating at nursery, where even though they are fab’, he has a fairly limited selection. This means I’m on a mission to get him back to the way he used to eat and fatten him up a little.

I started my mission at the beginning of the holidays and it’s already paying dividends with him not only eating more, but eating a bigger variety and becoming more adventurous again. Last night he had a Malaysian noodle soup for lunch with a supply of milk for when it got a bit spicy!

 

As I’m picking him up early I need a range of snacks for him to be able to eat, either in the car or as soon as we get home. These strawberry and vanilla cakes are perfect. I’m also employing the age old tactic of encouraging him to make them, so he wants to eat them, plus he likes to eat the ingredients at we go.

 

Ingredients:

This quantity makes approximately 8 muffin sized cakes.

230g self raising flour,

1 tsp of baking powder,

150g of fresh strawberries, chopped up (approximately as OB scoffed half of them),

125ml of oil, I used Olivia, a mix of olive and vegetable, but I’ve used all vegetable or all olive before.

125 ml of full fat Greek yoghurt, natural yoghurt would work just as well,

80 ml of whole milk,

1 tsp of vanilla,

2 medium eggs.

 

Method:

Making this cake is really simple, I’ve put all the ingredients into separate cups because I was cooking with OB and I find this the easiest way to manage it, plus I get to pretend I’m cooking on the telly!

 

First mix all the dry ingredients in to a mixing bowl.

Then add the strawberries and stir well.

Next mix the wet ingredients together in a measuring jug.

Whisk together before pouring into the dry ingredients.

Mix together well and spoon in to cake cases that have already been placed into a muffin tray.

Cook in an oven preheated to 180 degrees, for 15 to 18 minutes. This time will vary depending on how large your cakes are, so to check them, gently push the top down and if they bounce back up they’re ready.

These are delicious fresh, but can be frozen for a couple of months. I always wrap each cake in cling film before putting them all in a sandwich bag and freezing.

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