Baking!

Some days only cake will do.

I struggled with this a lot when I first changed my diet. Custard caramel doughnuts, rocky road slices, coffee shop cakes, chocolate brownies... And my view on deciding not to eat something is that you don't attempt to replicate it (I could never understand vegetarians who eat "fake" meat), but just sometimes cake just makes everything better.

So I looked for something I could cook at home, starting with the theory that if the ingredients themselves were less processed then surely a "healthier" cake would be possible. This was when I discovered spelt flour, now thankfully available from most supermarkets and health shops.

The popularity of this type of flour was such that actually my first baking project was from a very mainstream cookery book - Nigella Lawson's Kitchen from which I adapted her Apple and Cinnamon muffins adding in porridge oats for a slightly heavier muffin. And they are now a firm favourite - a proper old fashioned style cake with substance, not one of these flighty, fussy, lighter than air fripperies in the form of a cupcake that are sickly sweet and insubstantial. I have decided I like my cakes brown and tasting of something other than just sugar.

I am now reading my way through two books - Love Bake Nourish by Amber Rose (given to me by my friend Jon) and also Spelt by Roger Saul. I am planning my next baking projects with much anticipation. I love cookery books so half the fun is being able to look at a whole bunch of recipes feeling that there is nothing to stop me making, and eating, them when for a while baking seemed no longer an option.

So expect a few more baking blogs to come.