We haven’t considered children in the year that we’ve been up and running and it’s about time we did something about it because parents have the responsibility of teaching their children how to eat and what to eat.  We play a pivotal role in the development of our children’s palates and with the onslaught of junk food, it has become critical to teach them to shun the junk and select what’s healthy and they can only do that if we, as parents, have subjected them to healthy food. The important thing to remember, though, is that children, even babies, have their own likes and dislikes because they are little individuals

and even though parents have to guide, provide and inspire, no parent may ever force their will on a child – there are some things that babies and children simply won’t eat – very often because their bodies can’t tolerate it or it makes them feel uncomfortable or even sick. Parents must respect this but always bear in mind that junk food can never even come into the picture – they need never taste it and if they’ve only been subjected to good and healthy food they will, without doubt, reject the junk by themselves.  However, it is important to remember that you may never become fanatical – children want to eat sweet things and they need sugar because they expend more energy that any adults but they don’t need candy, mars-bars or toffies – ever! To kick things off we have a recipe for vanilla cup-cakes that will cater for the sweet cravings and can be baked this weekend with your child – teach them about real butter, real vanilla, organic eggs and dark chocolate – teach them to choose what’s good for them and have fun doing it.

Ingredients

• 250g butter, softened
• 250g caster sugar
• 4 large organic eggs
• 1 large vanilla pod, seeds scraped out and pod used to flavour sugar
• 185g self-raising flour
• 60g plain flour
• 185 ml milk

Icing:

• 250 g good quality white chocolate
• 300ml sour cream or low fat yoghurt
• 1 large vanilla pod, seeds scraped out and pod used to flavour sugar

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C and grease a 12-hole 125ml non-stick muffin tray – put paper cups inside to make them more fun for you kids.
• Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until they are pale and creamy and then add the eggs, one at a time and then the vanilla and mix well.
• Sift the plain and the self-raising flour together and fold in carefully while adding the milk – stir until the mixture is just about smooth.
• Divide the mixture between the muffin cup cakes and bake for only 20 minutes – remove from the oven and allow to rest for about 10 minutes and then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool.
• If you want to ice them, melt the white chocolate over a bowl of water or as you usually do, stir in the vanilla to mix well and then stir in the sour cream or yoghurt until you have a thick and smooth icing.
• Pipe or spread over the cakes and pop a fresh raspberry or strawberry on each one if you feel there should be something more.
• These are just as good without the icing or even with a little dark chocolate melted over them – it’s not a bad idea to teach your child to start eating dark chocolate at an early age – once they prefer it, the sugary stuff will become unacceptable to them.