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Tag Archives: raspberry


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favourite muffins for when you need to feel better

My usually ravenous four year old has almost no appetite at the moment. I guess swarms of angry looking pox marching across your face will do that. I baked his favourite muffins today to try and coax him into eating something. Happily it worked. How could it not?

100g melted butter beaten together with 1/2 cup of raw organic sugar and a large soup of natural yogurt. Then in with 2 eggs and 2 cups of flour. Today I used one cup of plain flour and one cup of ground almonds (figured if it was going to be all he ate today we’d at least get some nuts in for protein… but then he somehow found some space for a little ice-cream this evening so turns out he was doing quite well on the protein front!). 1 tsp baking powder. A cup of frozen raspberries / blueberries and a few chocolate chunks.

The smell of baking certainly makes a pleasant change from the rather overpowering aroma of pine-tassel / calamine that’s been dominant around these parts of late.


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free-style friday baking ; chocolate and raspberry cake (gluten free)

I often find myself amongst the minority. I find politics interesting, I find watching sport dull. I vote Green. I don’t like cats. I don’t even like kittens. I enjoy free-style baking with the kids.

It’s not like I’d put it up there on my wish list of things to do in an afternoon alongside a few quiet hours browsing a bookshop alone, but when we’re all at home with nothing pressing to do, I’m pretty keen to let them get in amongst the mixing bowls.

To make an easy gluten free cake I’ve found a mix of 3 or 4 eggs with 1/2 cup sugar / 70g butter / 2 cups of ‘flour’ (mix of ground almonds / rice flour / puffed amaranth ) is a good base and then you can freestyle a bit.

This cake is a simple chocolate and raspberry. Get the kids whisking up some eggs (I used 4) with 1/2 cup raw sugar. Melt a couple rows of dark chocolate over some hot water with around 70g butter. Add a cup of ground almonds, cup of brown rice flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 cup cocoa to the eggs. Add a couple of spoons of full fat natural yogurt. Pour in the melted chocolate / butter. Add a cup of frozen raspberries. Bake for about 30 mins.

There are several highlights for the kids in making a cake like this. Whisking ; always a winner. Scooping yogurt. Licking the yogurt spoon. Sneaking frozen raspberries. Scraping the chocolate off the melting plate. Yes they make a mess, but they make a mess regardless,  and with baking  there’s a chocolate cake fresh out of the oven at the end of it all.


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fresh raspberries, the sweetest treat of all?

 Today at Hill Street Farmers’ market the raspberries were perfect. It’s been several weeks since we last had a punnet (the NZ raspberry season is short, with the affordable season even shorter still)  and the kids fell upon it like a pack of wolves. It seems appropriate to make this my Food Revolution Day post. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.


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blueberry, raspberry, apple and chia lunchbox muffins

The kids decided not to take advantage of the extra hour in bed with the clock change. Seems to go that way every year. No point feeling resentful.. they’re only little, after all. So we had a whole extra hour this morning, and baking is always a good way to use up a spare moment.

Cover about half a cup of chia seeds in a little fresh apple juice to hydrate (or water is OK but we happened to have some apple juice open). Beat together about 50g of melted butter with 1/2 cup sugar (I used granulated but probably any kind would be OK – or maybe replace with honey and grated apple / pear if you don’t like sugar),  2 spoons natural yogurt. Then in with 2 eggs, 2 cups self raising flour – the chia seeds which will be a think gunk by this time and then 1/2 cup of blueberries and 1/2 cup of raspberries – or any other kind of fruit… hell, throw in some chocolate chunks if you like ..it is Monday morning after all. You could use coconut flour and rice flour and an extra egg if you wanted gluten free but they would be a bit denser.

Slap it into some muffin cases and bake for 15 mins – this made 9 this morning but it really depends whow much mix you put in each one, plus as I never measure anything (aside from with an assortment of tea-cups – whichever are to hand) it’s always pretty random. I think  one of the world’s great myths is that baking is an exact art, that requires preparation, and beating, and fluffiness, and creaming, and weighing, and processing, and makes lots of mess (although this bit is always true baking with kids). Honestly, as long as you put roughly the right amounts in, and the ingredients are good, then you will get a good result without too much faff. Obviously if it’s something special, or you have plenty of time to spare, then you can break out the scales and the kitchen aid.. and probably get a better result.. but in my experience it’s rarely a disaster if you don’t follow an exact formula (or any formula at all).


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little stewed prune, apricot and blueberry chocolate almond cakes with drizzly raspberry icing (gluten free)

These little beauties are seriously good. They may sound a bit busy but they are a triumphant collision of ingredients that will put a smile on your face after a long day (or indeed in the middle of it). They are good fun to make too – especially the drizzly icing which is quite literally child’s play. So OK they require a bit more ‘stuff’ than some other recipes and OK there is a bit more clearing up.. but what’s a little extra washing up when we’re talking pink icing?

You start by putting half a cup of organic dried apricots with half a cup of pitted prunes and half a cup of blueberries (straight from the freezer is fine) in a pan with a little water. Now I’m not much of an organic fanatic because I’m not quite ready to re-mortgage the house over the issue, and buying everything organic is seriously wild price-wise – but I am yet to find any non organic dried apricots / prunes that don’t have nasty stuff in – you can kind of tell by the colour differential that there’s something odd going on with non-organic dried apricots right? Anyway.. over the pan with the fruit stewing you melt some dark chocolate (about 50g at a guess) with 50g of butter. When the butter chocolate is melted the fruit will be stewed and you can blend it all together. Sounds a bit of a faff but it’s not really. If the blending sounds like a step too far in terms of effort then you could chop the apricots and prunes before you stew them and they’d be fine just mixed into the chocolate I would think.

Meanwhile whisk 3 eggs with half a cup of soft brown sugar, add and whisk in a cup of ground almonds, 1/2 cup of brown rice flour and 1/2 cup of cocoa and a teaspoon of gf baking powder – it’s quite thick at this point but then you add the fruit / chocolate mix and it goes into a rather pleasing consistency that is easy to spoon into muffin cases. These took about 15 mins to bake.

For the (entirely optional) pink icing I defrosted some frozen raspberries (you don’t need many – maybe 1/4 cup) when defrosted raspberries turn into a juicy slush which can easily be munched through a sieve to extract just the juice. This is a great job for a little person. If you add a bit of icing sugar and a teaspoon of yogurt you get a nice drizzly icing that is also a beautiful pink colour (without any need for food colouring) – the more sugar in ratio to the raspberry juice then the thicker the icing will be. I like it nice and thin so it’s more of a glaze – scooping it on and smearing it over the top of the cakes is also an excellent job for a little helper…OK so I did say these were slightly messier than some other cakes didn’t I –  but it was a rainy day and we were at a loose end after lunch so why not?


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raspberry, yogurt, pear and chocolate chunk muffins

50g melted butter beaten together with half a cup of soft brown sugar, a couple of scoops of yogurt and a grated ripe pear. Then beat in 2 eggs, 1 and 1/2 cups of self raising flour. Then around a cup of frozen raspberries lightly stirred in so they don’t mush up too much. Finish with a handful of chocolate chunks if you are of the disposition to add chocolate chunks to as many things as possible.

I have been baking with lots of gluten free flours recently with great results but there is a certain pleasure (for those of us lucky enough to be able to eat gluten with wild abandon) in pulling apart something made with good old self-raising flour – it has a certain fluffiness to it that is hard to replicate.


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peach and coconut slice with raspberry icing (gluten free)

A little bit of summer for afternoon tea on this hideous day. We’re all stuck inside and cabin fever is rampant.. time for more baking.

Started with about 50g melted butter mixed with 1/2 cup soft brown sugar and a couple of scoops of yogurt – then added about 1/2 + of peach puree (was making some for J anyway so decided to sling some in this cake). Then 2 eggs, 1/2 cup coconut flour, 1/2 cup almonds and 1/2 cup rice flour. Beat everything together and baked for maybe 20 minutes. This was actually my first attempt at baking with coconut flour and I’m impressed with the result. The flour mix is way more nutritious than using wheat flour and the kids were fighting over the last slice – very nice and fluffy although I’m guessing best straight from the oven (I have hidden a slice away for later so I can test it’s durability).

The icing is just made with defrosted frozen raspberries pushed through a sieve and mixed with a little icing sugar.


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wholemeal raspberry, plum, yogurt and chocolate chunk muffins

Baking with the kids – always something of an experiment and more about involving them in the process of creating something to eat than getting a perfect result.

60g melted butter, 1/2 cup soft brown sugar , 3 spoons of live natural yogurt – mixed (by the kids) , 3 eggs (would have been 2 but I had 3 helpers) 1 cup sf flour, 1/2 cup wholemeal flour, pulp of a plum, handful of chocolate chunks, 1 cup raspberries. Baked in over for about 15 mins.


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accidental chocolate and raspberry brownies (gluten free)

This was going to be a cake but I made it in such a stressed out rush without measuring stuff or really thinking much at all and it came out as a brownie but was actually really good.

About 100g butter (melted) 1/2 cup soft brown sugar, 3 large scoops yogurt, 2 eggs, 1 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup rice flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1/ 2cup raspberry. Combine everything adding rasberries last. Baked for about 20 mins till knive came out clean but still quite soft – lightly moist consistency .. very tasty.


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little chocolate, almond and raspberry cakes (gluten free)

70g butter (melted) mixed with 1/2 cup of soft brown sugar, 2 large scoops of live yogurt (put in by T) 3 eggs, 1 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1 tsp gf baking powdwe, 1 cup frozen raspberries . Mixed and put into muffin cases, took about 20 mins to bake. Told the boys just one each as wanted some left for before football tomorrow but came home to find they’d been unable to stop at one!

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