How to get your kids to eat healthy food? It's the age old problem and one that is particularly important to me as a nutritional advisor who eats mainly paleo style and would like to pass the benefits on to my kids (who are twins of nearly eleven). Dinners are not too difficult, meat and veggies and some carbs are staples and good sources of proteins and fats, vitamins and minerals. However it's the snacks that are so difficult, shop bought biscuits and cakes often contain undesirable fats such as corn oil and always contain refined flour and sugar and worst of all artificial colours and sweeteners which can be toxic to the body over time. So I decided to try and find a cake recipe that they would like, contains healthy ingredients and would be packed full of good nutrition and this is it!
I have adapted my recipe from this one http://www.thehealthychef.com/2012/02/flourless-chocolate-cupcakes/, I just added some dark choc chips and some melted dark chocolate on the top to add to the chocolate experience. I didn't tell the kids that these were 'paleo' cakes, just waited until they tried them and said how lovely they were and then let them in in the secret! Now when I put a cake in their lunchbox I don't feel so guilty!
You will need:
150g ground almonds
21g cocoa powder (I used green and blacks)
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
2 free range eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp honey
60ml avocado oil, macadamia nut oil or good olive oil
60ml milk, either dairy, coconut or unsweetened almond
50g dark chocolate chips
50g dark chocolate, melted
Method:
Mix the ground almonds, cocoa powder, chocolate chips and baking powder together
Mix the eggs, vanilla essence, milk, oil and honey and add to the dry ingredients
Spoon into 12 cup cake cases or 8 muffin cases
Bake for approximately 20 minutes on 180 degrees C (160 fan oven)
Allow the cakes to cool
Melt the dark chocolate in a pan over a saucepan of hot water (do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water)
Spread the melted chocolate over the cakes and allow to set
Enjoy!
