Angela Shepherd is a wellness coach and freelance copywriter specialising in health issues. With a lifelong interest in health, nutrition and complementary therapies, she is also a qualified massage therapist and aromatherapist. Her interests include running, cycling and not eating ready meals… but she also enjoys the occasional cake, curry or glass of wine because ‘life’s too short not to’! You can find out more about Angela and what she does on her website.

Is baking the new rock and roll? It certainly seems like it sometimes! The Great British Bake Off has recently become something of a national obsession, ex-supermodel Lorraine Pascale made baking suddenly cool with her Baking Made Easy TV series and even A-listers like Gwyneth Paltrow are getting in on the act.

In our house we aim to be fairly healthy most of the time, but we do love a bit of cake. This being the case, I like to actually make the cake we eat whenever possible rather than buying it, as I then know exactly what’s gone into it and can try to keep the ingredients as healthy as possible. If you get the urge to bake during National Baking Week but don’t want to pile on the pounds in the process, why not have a go at one of my favourite ‘healthier’ cake recipes below? They use vegetable oil rather than butter, so that’s good fat rather than bad. Of course if you eat them with cream that’s a different story!

If you want to make your cakes even healthier (or suitable for diabetics) you can substitute the sugar in these recipes for Perfect Sweet, a natural xylitol-based sugar substitute available at health food shops. Most sugar substitutes (such as those you might add to coffee or tea) aren’t really suitable for baking as they don’t behave in the same way as sugar when heated, but you can use xylitol weight-for-weight and it works fine. The cakes are also suitable for those allergic to dairy (use soya milk in the chocolate cake).

Enjoy!!

Chocolate Express Cake

This recipe is completely idiot-proof – ideal for time-pressed Mums who have to whip up a cake at short notice!

You’ll need:

175g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tblsp good quality cocoa
120g sugar
¼ pint rapeseed or sunflower oil
¼ pint milk (dairy or soya)
2 eggs

Pre-heat oven to 170°C.

Grease two sandwich tins with oil spray and base line with greaseproof paper.

Put all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix together.

(To make a plain sponge just use 200g flour and leave out the cocoa.)

Measure the oil and milk in a jug, then add the eggs and beat in.

Add to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Divide the mixture between the two sandwich tins.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the cakes are springy.

Cool on a wire rack.

Fill and top with whatever you like. I like to put low-sugar strawberry jam in mine, then melt dark chocolate over it!

Low Fat Banana Bread

Being a cyclist, my husband is a proper cake fiend, so I often make this to put in his lunchbox (not a euphemism!). It’s a great way to use up bananas that are slightly past their best.

220g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
150g sugar (I like Billingtons unrefined Demerara for this)
1 tsp mixed spice
2 medium eggs
125ml rapeseed or sunflower oil
2 medium bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 160C/Gas 2½. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, oil and bananas. Mix well and pour into a greased loaf tin. Sprinkle the top with a bit more sugar and bake for around an hour (depends on your oven and tin size – test with a skewer to see when it’s done). Simples! I guess you could add some dried fruit to this if you like, but I think it’s sweet enough as it is, and also moist enough to eat without buttering it.

Blueberry and Orange Muffins

You might think it a bit odd to use olive oil in a cake recipe but trust me, these are lovely. You do need to use light olive oil though, not extra virgin. They’re great for elevenses, and very easy for kids to make too.

80ml light olive oil
180ml orange juice
Finely grated zest of one orange
2 medium organic eggs
275g plan flour
2 tsp baking powder
100g sugar
½ tsp cinnamon or mixed spice
150g blueberries

Preheat the oven to 190C/gas 5 and place 12 muffin cases in a muffin tin.

Whisk the oil, orange juice, zest and eggs together in a bowl.

Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and spice in another bowl.

Tip the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir lightly to combine – don’t go mad with the mixing.

Fold in the blueberries.

Divide evenly between the muffin cases.

Bake for around half an hour until risen and golden.

Today’s guest post is from Cass who writes the hugely successful (and great to read) blog The Diary of a Frugal Family. She writes about her experiences of cliques. Does her story sound familiar?

I’ve always thought that cliques existed in most areas of society – I guess it’s natural really that like minded people gravitate to each other, close friendships are formed and it’s difficult for outsiders to break in to the group once that’s happened.

But why is it difficult to break into an established clique, is it because the people in them don’t want to involve others? Is it because they want their little gang to be the ‘in gang’ that everyone else is jealous of? Or is it simply that people looking in perceive the group to be impenetrable and therefore, don’t bother to try and make friends.

I always thought it was the first two reasons but lately I’m not so sure after a recent experience with the school mum’s ‘clique’.

When my children started nursery, I worked full time so either my child minder or their Grandma used to take them and collect them afterwards which meant that I didn’t really get to know the other mums very much. By the time I changed my hours at work and was able to drop the kids off and collect them again, all of the other mums had formed their own little groups and even though I wanted to, I didn’t make any effort to be a part of any of these groups. I think I was intimidated and a bit scared if I’m honest, I’m a worrier and I always worry whether people like me or not.

Don’t get me wrong I’ve spoken to the other mums and both children always have plenty of play dates (is that what they’re called?) with their friends but by and large, at the end of the school day, my position in the school playground is usually at the back of the crowd away from the groups of mums – usually pretending to do something with my mobile so I don’t look pathetic all on my own.

Anyway, after the Mad Blog Awards last weekend where I met some gorgeously lovely bloggers who couldn’t have been nicer to me, despite my shyness and my annoying cough (since diagnosed as a chest infection) I decided that enough was enough. If I could go all the way to London to meet people I have only ever spoken to on Twitter before then I was pretty sure I could ‘infiltrate’ one of the school mum cliques.

So off I went to school on Monday afternoon to collect the kids and instead of taking up my usual position at the back of the playground, I marched (well, edged is probably a more appropriate description) up to the front and stood right next to one of the little groups. I thought about it for a bit, then took another step towards them and asked one of them a question, I can’t even remember what it was now but the mum answered me and another one of the group joined in. Someone then asked me a question about something else and by the time the kids came out, we were chatting away.

By the end of the week, I feel comfortable in walking straight over to them and joining in whatever conversation going on at the time, they’re genuinely friendly to me and I feel accepted. Except now, I don’t look at them as a clique, they’re just a group of women picking their children up from school – just like me.

I guess the point to this story is that it’s up to you to make an effort to get more involved and to befriend people. If you don’t you could be the lonely one stood at the back of the playground but if you do, you could be the one who is going to a girly night this week at one of your new friends houses ;-).

Have your (healthy) cake and eat it!

Low Fat Banana Bread

Blueberry and Orange Muffins

When a clique isn’t really a clique….