Cake for breakfast

Last month I wrote about the challenges of getting older and developing an intolerance to certain foods.  I was particularly struggling with bread and baked goods with yeast in them as I have noticed that I bloat and feel generally pretty awful when I eat them in large quantities. This is tragic because I LOVE cake. I love everything about cakes: leafing through recipe books or browsing the internet to find new ones, getting all my ingredients lined up, sifting, creaming, whisking and mixing a few simple ingredients which magically turn into the food of gods after a brief stint in the oven. There is something truly divine about a home-baked cake and I couldn't bear the thought that I would have to limit my intake...or suffer the consequences. Worse still, the only food I really like to eat at breakfast - together with a pint sized mug of very strong tea - is a slice of cake. 


For a few weeks I made do with nothing at all or sometimes a yoghurt, neither which work for me at all. Eating nothing means that by eleven I am so ravenous I can't see straight but by then I don't have time for a proper sit down so I end up eating in front of the computer or on the go and that's never very satisfying. The cold, creamy yoghurt - although very nice - just doesn't marry with the hot tea. The contrasting textures and temperatures are all wrong.


So, it's back to cake. This time with my Kitchen Fairy hat on. I searched the internet for ideas and came across Nigella Lawson's Venetian Carrot Cake which ticked all the boxes. The original recipe calls for the addition of rum soaked raisins, which I didn't fancy so I replaced them with little bits of chopped stem ginger. I didn't have the required lemon so substituted with a lime and was 50 grams short of ground almonds which I made up with desiccated coconut as that's what I had in the cupboard. I made a few other minor adjustments here and there and loved the result.


I think the final product is probably a bit more Caribbean and bit less Venetian but it really works! It's moist and zingy and hits the spot with a cup of tea in the morning. In fact, it's so good I've been having it for lunch and dinner as well! So, to the recipe...


Caribbean Carrot Cake (adapted from Nigella Lawson's Venetian Carrot Cake)

• 200 grams grated carrots
• 125 ml olive oil
• 100 grams caster sugar
• 50 grams honey
• 3 pieces of stem ginger in syrup. drained and grated
• 3 eggs
• 200 grams ground almonds
• 50 grams desiccated coconut
• 1 lime: zest and juice
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger 

1) Grease and line a 23cm spring from tin and preheat oven to 180C
2) Beat honey, sugar and eggs together till well mixed and airy
3) Fold in coconut and almond
4) Add carrots, both gingers and zest and juice of lime
5) Pour into tin and level with spoon. Bake for 30 to 40 mins until a skewer comes out cleanish

Full fat or semi-skimmed?

I walked into Owen's, my wonderful local deli/butcher/grocery/cafe this morning and asked for my usual latte - made with full fat milk. They know me now, so I don’t have to specify the full fat bit every time. As she prepared my latte, Jane said she’d been listening to Woman’s Hour a few weeks ago and she’d thought of me because they were talking about the fact that full fat milk, cream, full fat yoghurt and even butter are positively good for you. She thought of me because it’s so unusual for anyone to ask for full fat milk these days it had stuck in her mind. On the radio, a nutritionist was saying that having semi-skimmed and skimmed milk prevents the absorption of vitamins and minerals. Surprise, surprise (well actually, no surprise at all to me) full fat products are better for us than semi-skimmed. They are much better. For us and for our children. We started talking about how common it is today to automatically go for semi-skimmed milk, as if somehow it’s better for us. I find it shocking that we have been brain washed to such an extent that we actually believe that changing the natural composition of a food can be better for us than eating it as nature intended. And many people have grown so accustomed to the taste and texture of semi-skimmed that they no longer like full fat milk, they find the creaminess unpleasant. What a sorry state of affairs when we prefer the adulterated version of a good, wholesome food. Is in any wonder that there has been an increase in childhood rickets (due to lack of vitamin D, magnesium, phosphorus and/or calcium - which depend on the fat in milk for their absorption) when even they are being routinely given semi-skimmed instead of full fat. Think back to your childhood, what kind of milk did you drink? Low fat foods didn't even exist 40 years ago and guess what, we were slimmer then than we are today, when we regularly ate puddings and butter and cream and FULL FAT milk.

Eating whole foods, the way they come from the animal or the ground makes so much more sense to me than putting them through any kind of processing to make them ‘better’. The only people who really benefit from the processing are the food producers who can charge a premium for this ‘improved’ version the food in question. At Beyond Chocolate we have been saying for over ten years that eating low fat, low sugar, low carb, low anything food is counterproductive both for weight loss and overall good health. Even the nutritionist on Woman’s Hour confirmed that you’d have to drink a lot of milk for the fat content to make a real difference to your weight. Eating the real thing (whatever it is) is far more satisfying and when we feel truly satisfied, we are far less likely to overeat, which is what really causes weight gain.

So, maybe it’s time to re-educate ourselves and our palates. Maybe it’s time to start eating real, honest, full-everything foods. If we are concerned about good health, then the things to avoid are surely the processed, artificial foods - and that includes low fat yoghurts (look at the ingredients on the back - they look more like chemical formulae to me!), low fat spreads, sweet things full of artificial sugars and stuffed with corn syrup. Bring back good old fashioned puddings with custard, bread with butter and delicious creamy yoghurts (the real thing, which you’ll find has very few ingredients: milk, yogurt cultures, maybe a bit of sugar, some honey or some fruit. That’s it.) real ice cream and home made cakes….

I am so glad that this common sense is making it’s way to Radio 4 and hopefully beyond. That really is good news.

Fruit flakes or fruit pastilles?

Like most children - and indeed many adults - my four year old loves sweets. He is particularly fond of the gummy, sugary, chewy type (I wonder where he gets that from?) and is having a current love affair with Fruit Pastilles. He is always starving when he comes out of school and because we almost never go straight home, I bring a snack bag - usually some sort of sandwich and a piece of fruit - to tide him over till his evening meal. I also always include some sweets.

Anyway, on to my story. The other day we had arranged a play date with one of his class mates and we paused in the playground so they could eat before going off to play. I pulled out the snack bag, as did the other mum, and the children dived in. When the other little boy saw the Fruit Pastilles he asked Oscar if could have some and Oscar (reluctantly) handed him a few. His mum though, didn't want him to have any, explaining that he was allowed sweets only on Saturdays and she made him give them back and pulled out a bag of Yoghurt covered Fruit Flakes and offered that up instead. She also offered one to Oscar who took it, tasted one then gave it to me making a face (I don't like it) before running off to play with his Fruit Pastilles.

Later on at home I found the bag of Fruit Flakes in my pocket and, as I always do, glanced at the ingredients out of curiosity. I shouldn't have been surprised by what I read - I should know better. But I was...

Fruit Flakes with a yoghurt coating

Ingredients: For the yoghurt coating (58%) - Sugar, vegetable fat, whey powder, yoghurt powder, wheat flour, emulsifier, flavouring. For the fruit flakes (40%) - concentrated apple puree, concentrated strawberry puree, fructose-glucose syrup, sugar, wheat fibre, vegetable fat, gelling agent, natural colouring, natural flavouring. For the Glaze (2%) gum arabic, glazing agent.

Then I looked at the ingredients on the packet of Fruit Pastilles

Ingredients: Sugar, glucose syrup, fruit juices from concentrate (grape, apple, melon, blackcurrent, pineapple, lime, cherry), gelatin, gum arabic, modified starch, acids, acidity regulator, naturally sourced colours, flavourings.

Can you tell the difference? Because they look pretty similar to me!

Do you know what really gets me? What makes me furious and want to run around the playground tearing my hair out?

It's the fact that millions of well meaning mothers are being conned, day in day out, into buying what they believe are healthy snacks whilst in reality what they are giving their children is nothing more than sweets in disguise. Here they are, battling daily with their kids, banning and restricting sweets while unwittingly feeding them the very thing they are trying so hard to avoid.

I suppose it's a pretty easy mistake to make for a frazzled mum rushing around the supermarket. The Fruit Flakes with a Yoghurt Coating are sold in the dried fruit aisle (which is reassuringly miles away from the confectionary one). The packet features pictures of plump, juicy strawberries and a big splash of creamy looking yoghurt. So wholesome. There's a little red square on the front with the words "Ideal for lunchboxes" and a checklist on the back with outrageous claims that are presumably there to reassure parents that they are giving their child a truly healthy alternative. Let's take a closer look:

• "Made with real fruit" - And? So are the fruit pastilles! It's also made with real glucose-fructose syrup but they don't mention that!
• "Contains real yoghurt" - Oh yeah? The ingredient that comes closest in the list is yoghurt power and there's only 3% of that - not of the total ingredients mind, that's 3% of the 58% that makes up the 'yoghurt' coating. That's just about 1% of the total ingredients! I'm sorry, but this does not warrant a claim that this food contains real yoghurt. It's totally misleading.
• "Natural colours" - Well thank goodness for that! I don't think there's a company out there making food for children using artificial colours these days. Even Smarties have gone natural! Oh, and so have the Fruit Pastilles...
• "Great for energy" - Says who? What type of energy? The same type of sugar fuelled energy my son gets from the Fruit Pastilles?

I'm not finished. The Fruit Flakes cost more than than the Fruit Pastilles (about 30p more) and, frankly, they taste absolutely revolting.

The problem is that these Fruit Flakes are not the exception, they are the rule. There are literally hundreds of companies out there pedalling their wares as "healthy snacks" for children and they are nothing of the sort. The supermarket shelves are groaning under the weight of so called healthy foods aimed at children which often contain as much as, or even more, sugar than sweets. Let's call a spade a spade - or a sweet a sweet. Shouldn't there be some kind of legislation in place to make sure these food manufacturers can't get away with it?

It's wrong. Just plain wrong.

Courgette bolognese anyone?

I haven't ranted on this blog for a while so indulge me while I have a go at my latest bugbear - the so called "Healthy Food Swap".

It's everywhere. In leaflets my son brings home from school, in magazines, on web sites...at the supermarket. Everywhere I look I am being urged to swap crisps for carrots and biscuits for apples. Although I understand the underlying principle and agree that it's better for our health - and to some extent weight - to eat more fresh foods and less of the processed stuff, this type of message makes me want to scream and tear my hair out and rant. So it's a good thing I have this blog to vent my frustration!

Do they really think that people are so ignorant? Do they really imagine that someone about to dive headlong into the biscuit tin is suddenly going to decide to opt for carrot sticks instead? That all they needed was a reminder because they'd forgotten all about the existence of carrot sticks? Isn't that just missing the point?  Frankly if I've had a crap day and want to drown my sorrows in a bag of chocolate buttons, a fistful of dried apricots just ain't gonna cut it, Mr. Government-Healthy-Eating-Campaign-man - no matter how many times you shove your healthy tips in my face! 

As usual, this type of diet advice completely ignores the fact that 99% of us know very well that a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice is better for us than a bucketful of Caramel Frappuccino with whipped cream, mini mallows and chocolate shavings...or is it? What if a Caramel Frappuccino with all the trimmings hits the spot? What if it's exactly what I fancy, right now, right here. What if it's part of a healthy, balanced diet which includes lots of apples, oranges and carrots (just not in this precise instant). What if I really fancy something creamy and smooth? How is an acidic, lumpy glass of orange juice going to help? Maybe I'll just have to eat a double choc chip muffin to take the edge of it - a muffin I wouldn't have had if I'd stuck to the Frappuccino. Back to square one....

Worse, and even more ludicrous are these "Healthy Swap Tips" I saw in a magazine recently:

"Replace spaghetti with thinly cut ribbons of courgette and serve with Bolognese sauce."

"Swap bread soldiers with your boiled egg for celery sticks."

I mean, come on! Spaghetti and bolognese...soft boiled eggs and toast - these are foods made for each other, they have been married for ever. They are classics, eaten by generation after generation, in the four corners of the world. Seriously, WHO is going to swap spaghetti for courgette ribbons??!  Spag bol is spag bol, if I want courgettes, there are a million ways  to eat them that don't involve smothering them in a sauce intended for pasta. Same with celery. Quite apart from the fact that the idea of celery dripping in egg yolk makes my stomach churn, surely there's better things to do with celery than dunking it in a boiled egg? 

So please Ms. Resident Nutritionist at the magazine I won't name because some of the recipes are fab - choose some other foods to pick on and spare us your weird and improbable swaps.

Rant over. Thank you for listening.