Real Food Friday Feast - Grain-free, refined sugar-free, dairy-free, chocolate cupcakes

Tomorrow is my nephews 1st birthday party. That's all THREE of my nephews incidentally;) Our family was HUGELY blessed when my younger sister gave birth to three bouncing boys last year. I was PARTICULARLY blessed when she chose to give birth to them on my birthday! So I share my birthday with my three, incredibly adorable nephews. How lucky am I;)

The cute little face peeking through the middle is their very proud big brother and my other treasured nephew. Yes, there are now FOUR boys;)

So anyway, since I started this blog, things have changed rather drastically in my family! It started with a very dear family friend finding out he had cancer. As him and his wife are my parents besties, there was no question that EVERYONE would change their lifestyle and go organic, free-range and chemical free with IMMEDIATE effect in support and solidarity. They were a big part of my motivation to actually start this blog.

My mom became an avid reader of my blog and, apparently, so did my sisters:) Over the last few months, all of them have taken steps to change their lifestyle. They have found farmer's markets in their area, they have hunted high and low for organic produce in local stores and they have started moving away from conventional beauty and household cleaning products. My mom even started making her own mouthwash and deodorant;) There have been a few back and forth bbms and phonecalls with numerous questions but that only lasted for a few weeks before everyone found their feet and their rhythm which involved weekly shopping at the local farmer's market and making their morning smoothies and their own beauty products. I couldn't be MORE proud!

The triplets were the final nudge my parents needed to return home to South Africa after living in the UK for over 10 years. My sister and her husband just couldn't do it alone. My parents moved into the granny flat and became an integral part of my nephews, and my sister's, lives. When my parent's friend became ill and THEIR lives changed, by default, my sister and her family's lives also changed.

It's not easy when your family could suddenly contribute to one quarter of a soccer team, even for those who lead a very conventional lifestyle. Try and feed an instant family of six, organic and free-range and you will NEVER complain again that it's too expensive for you and your family of three or four! Yet somehow, between my parents and my sister and her husband, they are DOING it! They, and their kids, eat organic and free-range EVERYTHING these days. When I was there for a few days last week, I watched with pride at a family picnic we had for mine and the babies birthday as everyone scoffed down organic fruit and veggies and free-range pork sausages and eggs, NO sweets and chips in sight and no-one felt like anything was missing!

So now it's the babies 1st birthday party tomorrow (which I sadly can't even be at!) and what to feed kids at a birthday party if they are eating only real food?! It's especially important for my older nephew because he has quite a nasty cow's milk allergy which led to a constant upper respiratory problem, and, since taking him off it completely, he's been absolutely fine. My mom asked me for a recipe for wheat-free, dairy-free cupcakes and I obliged of course!

I think it's wonderful that they are STILL sticking to their kids real food diet as much as possible. This is just proof that it can be done. Most people think a kid's party has to be all about sweets, chips and fizzy drinks. I disagree. I think kids will be happy with anything that is colourful and tasty. Read this post to see how strongly I feel about how important it is for kids to eat properly. They are the LAST ones who should be eating rubbish. And it's so easy to make things colourful and tasty WITHOUT having to give them processed, refined rubbish full of additives and preservatives and fake colourants. I know because we made all sorts of good stuff for my godchild's first birthday party last year. The colourants we use included beetroot juice and turmeric and they worked like a bomb!

Does that look like something a kid WOULDN'T enjoy?

I myself haven't tried this exact cupcake recipe because I just haven't had time to bake for the last couple of weeks so I was very curious as to how they would come out! I've made a big cake with it though so I was fairly confident of the cupcakes. Thank goodness that confidence was well-placed. My mom bbmed to tell me they came out AMAZINGLY! She decided to go with vanilla instead of chocolate but she used this recipe to make a big chocolate cake for the party as well and it came out perfectly.

The theme was "Three little pigs;)"

I modified this recipe so that my lactose intolerant nephew could indulge on the day but, if you have NO dairy allergies then, by all means, use cow's milk instead.

Chocolate cupcakes (makes one dozen cupcakes)

1 ½ cups chickpea flour (buy this at Dischem)
1 tsp bicarb
1 t aluminium-free baking powder (buy this at Dischem)
1 tsp salt (himalayan rock salt or unrefined sea salt)
5 free-range eggs
2 Tbs plain goat's milk yogurt (or 2 egg whites OR cow's milk yogurt if you are not lactose intolerant)
½ cup coconut oil (or butter if you are not lactose intolerant)
1/3 cup honey*
*1/2 slab organic dairy-free chocolate, melted (this can be found at Dischem or a health shop) OR 2 Tbs raw or organic cocoa (buy this at Dischem)

* If you use cocoa powder instead of the chocolate then add ½ cup honey INSTEAD of 1/3 cup honey or it won't be sweet enough. If you want vanilla cupcakes, add a tsp of vanilla essence (dischem sells the real deal, not the processed rubbish one) and take out the chocolate obviously!

Method

• Sieve all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix 
• In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and egg whites (or yogurt) with the coconut oil (or butter), honey and melted chocolate (if you are using chocolate)
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat with an electric mixer on HIGH for 2 minutes (this is important for a good, fluffy texture) 
• Spoon into your lined cupcake tins to about ½ to ¾ full (or they will overflow) 
• Bake at 180º for 25-30 minutes, until the cupcakes are lightly browned and pass the toothpick test 
• Allow to cool before adding frosting 

The vanilla, grain-free, dairy-free cupcakes
were a hit!

Now, what would a delicious cupcake be without frosting to match!? The problem I have found with most vegan frosting recipes is that they just DON'T WORK. I have struggled to find the right one but this time I think I have! The concept sounds bizarre, and my mom was skeptical too but she's changed her mind after tasting it:)









Hummus frosting  (Yeah, you read that right!)

This is how my mom's came out and she LOVES it!

1 can organic chickpeas, drained (Woolies sells these)
1 slab organic, dairy-free chocolate, melted (or 2Tbs cocoa powder)
1/3 cup honey (again, if you use cocoa  powder instead of chocolate, make this 1/2 cup honey instead, to make it sweeter)

Method

• Put all ingredients in a food processor (or blender) and mix until it's nice and smooth
• Keep it in the fridge until you're ready to use it

Isn't this gorgeous?!

That's it! There are so many other things you can make for a kids birthday party that are not going to mess with your child's hormones or health. Instead of taking the easy, but toxic route, put a little more effort into it and make it good for ALL the kids involved. Your child will thank you by feeling good and having loads of healthy energy and you'll be thankful for the lack of the grumpy mood swings usually brought on by all the rubbish that you would normally find at kid's parties.

It's a win-win!