Cinnamon Swirl Muffins

I have to admit I was somewhat skeptical when I saw the recipe for these. A muffin, that doesn't contain flour? Surely it would be either very heavy, or very non-muffin like?
But, curiosity getting the better of me (that and a need for low-carb goodies) I decided to make a batch using xylitol. They didn't last long. I would even go as far as saying that they were better than a normal muffin. Make them and revel in their glorious goodness!

2 1/2 c. ground almonds aka almond meal
1tbsp coconut flour
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2c milk (I used raw milk, but you could also use coconut milk)
1/2 c. honey or 1/4c xylitol of you are avoiding all forms of sugar

Topping


2tbsp honey
1tbsp ground cinnamon
1tbsp melted butter or coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 180deg c.
Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the wet ingredients and mix well.
Pour into a 12 hole muffin tin, or 24 hole mini muffin tin (they are quite filling, so if you are making them for children, the mini muffins are probably big enough).
Mix the topping ingredients together and drizzle over the top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool before scoffing the lot!

Biscuits for icing/sandwiching

This is the recipe I always turn to at Christmas to make our iced 'Christmas tree biscuits'. As it is relatively low in sugar, it can cope with any amount of icing or jam the children load onto it.
I substitute stevia for sugar too. Even with the icing, that makes it just a teaspoonful of sugar or less per biscuit depending on the size. (Using a pear or grape juice based conserve to sandwich them together instead of jam will also reduce the sugar levels, or use my sugar free butter cream recipe)

125g butter
60g sugar*
1/2tsp vanilla extract
220g plain flour**
1 egg, beaten
30g cornflour
1/2 tsp baking powder

royal icing for decorating, or butter-cream and/or jam to sandwich together

Preheat the oven to 180deg c. Butter several baking sheets.
Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
Sieve flour, cornflour and baking powder together, and mix in with a spoon. Work into a soft dough using your hand.
Roll out on a floured board and cut into shapes.
Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the baking sheets and cool on a wire cooling rack.
Once fully cold, they can be iced using royal icing, or sandwiched together with butter cream and/or jam.

*If you prefer, omit the sugar and replace with 60g xylitol, or 1/4tsp stevia powder.
**If you are eating a wheat-free diet, Spelt flour can be used as a replacement.

There is no limit to what you can do with these beauties. If you have a biscuit cutter collection to rival Nigella Lawson's, then you will have a heaps of inspiration, but here's a few more suggestions:

• Cut half with a circular cutter, and half with a ring cutter. Sandwich them together with one of the following:

                  Jam
                  chocolate ganache
                  icing flavoured with lemon or lime
                  vanilla, chocolate or orange butter-cream (especially good if you cover the top with chocolate!)

• Cut the dough into rectangles, cutting three holes in to half of them with a mini circular cutter. Fill with three different coloured jams to make traffic light biscuits for the kids.
• make a chocolate biscuit dough by sieving 30g of cocoa into the flour, and cover the baked biscuits with chocolate
• cut out mini circular biscuits. Once cold, dip into milk, dark or white chocolate using a chocolate dipper.
• Let the kids go wild with an assortment of cutters, icing and decorations

low-sugar chocolate cake

Here it is, the low-sugar, wheat-free chocolate cake recipe:

125g butter, melted
1/2 to 1c xylitol, depending on how much sweetness you are used to
2 eggs
1c spelt flour
1 1/2tsp baking powder
1/4c cocoa
1/2 c milk

mix dry ingredients together/. Add eggs, milk and melted butter, and mix well.
Bake in a 7" round tin at 180deg c for about 40 minutes until a skewer pushed through the centre comes out clean.
Cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out.

Ganache

1x100g bar guylian 'no added sugar' milk chocolate, or other low-sugar chocolate of your choosing
80ml cream

Melt the chocolate over a pan of hot water. Stir in the cream. Leave to thicken slightly before pouring onto the cake.
Depending on the chocolate you use, you may need to adjust the amount of cream. This was a soft ganache, so use a little less cream, maybe 60ml, for a firmer one. You may need more cream if you are using dark chocolate.

Enjoy your guilt free chocolate cake with wanton abandon! .

It CAN be done! low-sugar birthday cake

Today, I had to meet a rather tall order. I was to run a pre-schoolers birthday party, with food that was low sugar, low wheat and yeast free.
The criteria had been set by myself. The party was for my youngest daughter, and I wanted to provide food that my eldest girl could eat. I wanted to be able to say to her' Go for it! Eat what you like!'
And, I have to proudly say, I DID IT!

Here's the main reason for my pride:

Most of it is very low in sugar. I can't say 'sugar free', as the cake and chocolate both have milk and/or milk solids in, which contain lactose. It is however, sucrose free with the exception of a few of the bears and decorations.
The bears are made from moulding chocolate. I would have used sugar-free/low-sugar chocolate for all of them, but at $7-$10 a bar, it costs far too much, so I had to settle on using standard chocolate for some.
The food decorations are made mostly from pettinice, so again, these were not sugar free. However, the cake itself is wheat free and low-sugar, as is the chocolate ganache that it is covered with.
I also made low-sugar cupcakes, iced with dark chocolate ganache and decorated with carob buttons and carob chips in some vague imitation of bear faces.
They don't look very much like bears, but seemed pleasing enough to a house full of children, and I'm fairly certain I got away with the carob!

For the first time in twelve months, my daughter could eat shared food without restrictions. Her happy whoop said it all!