That’s yummy Mummy – Michele de Winton

Last week I celebrated my wee man’s first birthday. Wowsers. He’s one, and he’s taking his first steps all of a sudden. As so many of you are yummy mummies, or know others who are, I thought I’d share my first birthday cake recipe.

You’ll know if you’ve read any of my other posts that I’m a big fan of chocolate. But I’m trying to delay the introduction of processed, salty and sugary foods for as long as I can for Mr One. I figure he’s going to get inundated with the world of sugarsnacks soon enough, so why not keep his little system as pure as I can ‘till a bit later.

So – Here is my First Birthday Cake recipe – We had it as a Mr Happy cake. Not fine art, but fine fun. I let Mr One literally face dive into the cream. Hil.Arious.

You’ll need:

1 cup rolled oats.

2 ½ cups flour (you can use whole wheat, all purpose or a mixture)

1 tsp baking soda.

2 tsp baking powder

3 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

½ cup unsalted butter, melted

1cup blueberries, chopped (I used fresh as they were in season but you could use frozen berries thawed and drained)

¼ cup sultanas

4 eggs, beaten well

1 small cup stewed apple (You can use apple juice concentrate instead I guess, but stewing the apple took no time and gave it more fruit for his tum)

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F (180 deg C).
Put the first four ingredients into a large bowl and mix them together.
Add all the rest of the ingredients and stir well until thoroughly combined.
Grease a cake tin and pour in the mixture.
Bake for around 45 mins to one hour, until a sharp knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely. I made this as two cakes (so I had enough cake for the body and feet. It cooked in about 40 minutes like that.)

 Because it’s legitimately sugar free I needed to do something else for the icing. I figured cream would do it (yummm cream). I tried coloring it with natural colouring from a packet but that curdled the cream and I had to start over with a fruit based color. It meant that Mr Happy was sort of pink instead of yellow, but it also meant his creamy topping tasted of the punnet of cherries I blended into the cream. Yum! The outlines are done in traditional liquorice but he didn’t actually eat any of it.

This is of course, a sugar free cake, so it’s not bursting with chocolaty goodness or anything. But I tried it, and with the cream it was totally passable. A sort of “light” banana cake. With the cream it could count as indulgent, sort of…just sugar free.

So there you have it. And the other bit of fabulousness that day? My debut Indulgence release, The Boss and Her Billionaire, snuck into the #5 slot on the Amazon Romance Series List. Dream!

I’d love to hear what you got up to with your wee ones, so hop over and say hi! Happy reading, and cake eating!

xMichele

The Boss and Her Billionaire

Cruise director Michaela Western has everything she wants—everything except a sex life. But there are no secrets on cruise ships. She risked her job once for a dalliance with the Captain, and won’t do it again for a few minutes of toe-curling pleasure. Until a devilishly handsome new staffer with a body made for sin tempts her to walk on the wild side…
Investment billionaire Dylan Johns always gets what he wants. He is used to giving orders—not taking them—until he’s forced to go on hiatus from his investment company. To bide his time and carry out an old dream, he takes a job on a cruise ship—and ends up taking orders from his gorgeous, but uptight, new boss. He is determined to loosen her up with a fun onboard romance, but their no-strings fling turns serious and Dylan is forced to confess his lies.
When the affair threatens to shatter Michaela’s own career dreams, she finds herself caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

The Boss and Her Billionaire is available now from Amazon and Barnes and Nobel. Read the first chapter free.