ChowBaby

BabyCakes (and i'm not talking about mine--though those are nice, too ;-) are a revelation! Like thousands of others in the blogosphere, I'm a cupcake person. (Okay, really, I'm a donut person... but cupcakes come in a close second.) We skipped a wedding cake and served cupcakes instead. I serve cupcakes at every birthday, mine and Mike's. And now at Isaac's birthdays, too. Well, at the one birthday party he's had so far.

I discovered BabyCakes last year while looking for 1st birthday party sweets. At a mere 12-months-old, Isaac had never had refined sugar, maple syrup, agave syrup, sucanat... none of it. I felt kinda bad serving a sugar-virgin icing slathered cakes, even small ones. On one hand, it seemed insane to introduce sweets at such a young age when he was so blissfully unaware and satisfied with his non-sweetened diet. On the other, I needed to relax--it was his birthday. What's the big deal? And restriction is much more likely to make him a sugar fiend than anything else. Plus, when I told Mike and my mom about the bakery's agave sweetened, soy-, dairy-, egg- and gluten-free treats, they laughed at me. This was my way of relaxing? Feeling a little embarrassed (was I going to be that mom?!), I gave in and got delicious cupcakes from a conventional bakery. Of course, they were a hit. And, of course, Isaac managed not to become the sugar addict I feared he would. Because we don't really eat a lot of sugar. Every once and a while wouldn't kill him.

So, it's been a year and it's cupcake time again. This year, though, I am not afraid or embarrassed. We've had a year of food experiences and now that he's an oh-so-mature eater, he's had his share of sometimes-snacks (i.e., sugary sweets). I tried making cupcakes the other day (the pineapple carrot ones mentioned in yesterday's post), but they came out only okay. A baker, I am not. (Michelle's the queen of that domain.) So I'm back to researching cupcakes to buy for Isaac's birthday play date on Sunday. 

I've considered everything from these crazy tiny stuffed gems by Baked by Melissa to these bite size beauties by Kumquat Cupcakery. And, of course, there were the usual NYC suspects: Magnolia Bakery and Cupcake Cafe. I even considered a 1/2 homemade approach using mix from the infamous Los Angeles cupcake bakery Sprinkles (the mix is available for shipping). But I kept coming back to BabyCakes. I'd been shamed into old-fashioned, refined sugar bombs last year and needed to know if it was really worth it (cuz, you know, it might be!). So, this morning, I made the trek to NYC's lower east side for a cupcake taste test. I got 1 vanilla cake/lemon frosting, 1 vanilla cake/vanilla frosting, 1 chocolate cake/chocolate frosting, 1 pumpkin spice/vanilla frosting, and 1 brownie (because they use brownie batter to make cupcakes!).  And, I gotta say, these cupcakes kick ass.

I wanted to like BabyCakes, so I tasted them with Mike, who I knew would be a harsher critic (especially when it came to chocolate). As it turns out, these are the genuine article--we both really liked them. The best were the brownie and pumpkin. The brownie was moist, chocolaty, and had just the barest hint of that natural-y aftertaste that often lingers after baked goods like these. It was hardly detectable--Mike agreed. The pumpkin spice was perfect. Also moist, but cakey, and full of flavor, with a nice nutty undertone. I'd NEVER in a million years guess that either flavor was an "alternative" baked good. We are definitely getting these for Isaac's birthday play date.

The vanilla and chocolate cupcakes were a little more obviously "natural", but still delicious. The vanilla cake was a little bit dense and dry/crumbly, at least compared to the brownie and pumpkin (though not unbearably so). It had a mellow vanilla flavor, which I prefer to the super-sweet ultra-vanilla that you typically get. I preferred the vanilla cake with lemon frosting to the vanilla cake with vanilla frosting--it tasted just like those yummy lemon Girl Scout cookies, but lemon was Mike's least favorite. He said that it started out strong (because he agrees that the icing is delicious), but finished in a way that he didn't like. His favorite of the chocolate and vanilla varieties was the vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. He thought it was the most like a conventional cupcake. The chocolate cupcake was a little anemic compared to the brownie, but it was chocolaty enough for me... AND for Mike! The icing was yummy--started a little sour cream-y with a coconut undertone, and finished chocolate. It might not be strong enough for serious chocoholics.

BabyCakes delivers to the contiguous 48 states via FedEx, so you can get them no matter where you are. I think they are well worth it--and absolutely so if you or your child is a vegan or has food allergies. But more than anything, BabyCakes is proof that you can make a mean cupcake without a butt load of butter and sugar. (And speaking of butts, they have a great tag line: Saving your behind, one cupcake at a time!) This year, I will proudly buy and serve BabyCakes at our various birthday gatherings. And maybe next year, I'll make 'em myself with the help of the BabyCakes cookbook: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery.

In the meantime, for all you cupcake lovers, here is a short list of the many cupcake blogs ready for the reading: 
Cupcake Blog
52 Cupcakes
Cupcakes Take the Cake
Cupcake Frenzy
Cupcake Project
I Heart Cuppy Cakes
the Kumquat Cupcakery blog
Cupcake Fetish
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
the BabyCakes blog

-S

Ahhh. La piña. The symbol of hospitality. Worthy of mention in the title of one of my favorite recent comedies. (Have you seen Pineapple Express?!) And the new favorite fruit in my house. Yea, yea. I know. So much for keeping it local. But January is a rough time for fruit in New York City and I didn't can or freeze. (Or pickle? Check it out: pickled limes from the fabulous food blog MattBites.com, quick pickled papaya or mango from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and pickled watermelon rind from Martha Stewart Everyday Food!) Plus, with Isaac's palate still developing, I want to introduce him to a wide range of flavors. And if we go somewhere tropical where pineapple is indigenous, Isaac won't be with us--ha!

It all started with a Trader Joe's Pineapple Fruit Bar, a 100% fruit snack that is Isaac's latest food obsession. I've tried the other flavors, but he only wants "pie-nipple" (which sounds great in public). He loves these things so much that I moved him on to fresh pineapple. I wanted to see if the love affair would last in the absence concentrated sweetness. It did. So, when it came time to make birthday cupcakes for play group (Isaac turned two 2 days ago!), these pineapple carrot cupcakes were the obvious choice. (I found them while looking for a cupcake recipe that called only for agave syrup--serendipity!) Another hit with Isaac. 

         

Click here to download:

PINEAPPLE.zip (764 KB)

With one last fresh pineapple lying around, yesterday afternoon I announced to Isaac that we'd have fresh pineapple for dessert. Wasn't I such a nice mama?! Sure. Nice. But not so smart. I hadn't checked if the pineapple was ripe before making the promise. (Did you know that one way to check a pineapple for ripeness is to pluck a leaf from the top--if it comes out easily, you're good to go.) Bad move. I had to come up with something quick. Roasted pineapple was the move. It would soften the under ripe fruit and concentrate the sweetness.

I cut off the top and bottom, cut the fruit in half, peeled it with a knife, cut out the core, and made 1/2" slices. I used a baking dish that was too small to arrange the pieces in one layer. That didn't cause any problem. I laid the first layer down, sprinkled lightly with organic sucanat and cardamom, the repeated the process with a second layer. I dabbed the whole shebang with butter, but don't think it was necessary. I baked for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees, until the juices thickened into a nice, natural, syrupy coating.

I must have been overcompensating--or got caught up in the gooey sweetness of it all--because I mixed a 1/2 tsp of organic agave syrup with 1/4 c organic plain whole milk yogurt to top the whole thing off. (Plain yogurt would have worked just fine!) A sprinkle of cinnamon brought the whole thing together (balanced out the cardamom on the pineapple). (Sorry for the bad camera phone picture!)

This was Isaac's favorite pineapple dish yet. He couldn't stop saying, "MMM!" He seriously said it with every bite. Hysterical. Good thing our pineapple wasn't ripe!

I'm sure we'll have more adventures in pineapple-ville. But, in the meantime, all of this cooking with the tropical fruit got me wondering... is it even nutritious?! (Always smart to ask this question after you've stuffed your kid full of the stuff--LOL!) According to the World's Healthiest Foods, pineapple is an excellent source of manganese and vitamin C, and a good source of vitamins B1 and B6, copper, and dietary fiber. Manganese and B1 (thiamin) are both important for energy production and antioxidant defense. Vitamin C also provides antioxidant protection and immune system support. You can read more in WHF's profile of pineapple. Or check out the hard nutrition facts at NutritionData.com.

Works for me. (Phew!) So more pineapple stuff I will make. Got any pineapple recipes to share?

-S

go ahead. do a google image search for "peanut butter and jelly" and check out the results. mostly white bread, but sometimes wheat. mostly creamy peanut butter, but sometimes chunky. the one thing that's ALWAYS the same: purple colored jam.

i take this as proof that i'm not alone in defaulting to jams of purple and dark red color. so maybe my revelation about orange colored jams will be useful to others with messy eating toddlers, too--they don't stain! i'm not telling you to ditch grandma's homemade strawberry rhubarb preserves, but i am suggesting that clean-up--or at least laundry--will be easier if you feed little justin-bobby orange, peach, or apricot jam.

-S

i thought i'd never have to say my son is a picky eater. after all,
food, in all its many splendored varieties, may just be my greatest
pleasure. planting it. growing it. picking it. reading about it.
cooking it. sharing it. and, especially, eating it. no surprise i fell
hard for my husband since he's a (now retired) professional cook. and
even if i'm not the best on-the-fly savory cook, i can follow (and
even tweak) a recipe with the best of them. plus i'm a rocking good
baker.
 
anyway, i was hell-bent on having a kid with a good palate. one who
could go to any restaurant and eat off the menu (and i don't mean the
kids' menu!). one who could travel unencumbered by any special foods
from home. one who proved, once and for all, that if we feed our kids
a varied diet we'll raise kids that will eat just about anything.
 
and that was true for the first 2 years of atticus' life. spicy
curries. dark and bitter leafy greans. fennel olive breads. i admit
it. i was proud. and then, one day, out of nowhere came the cry: i
want plain! plain pasta. plain yogurt. plain chicken. plain bread.
plain rice. i was ready to kill myself. or him. what had gone wrong?
 
i did some digging and found out it's not me. some say it's biology.
evolution, in fact. this article describes that kids get picky between 2-years-old and 4- to
5-years-old because taste buds "shut down" around the time toddlers
start walking to prevent them from putting just anything in their
mouth and eating it. i also learned from one of my favorite baby food resourcs that some say it's a development issue. an opportunity for kids to
flex their independence and experiment with cause and effect (ie, how
funny it is when he says "no, yucky" and i roll my eyes and sigh).
suddenly, i didn't feel so bad.
 
so until this phase passes, what is the parent of a picky toddler to
do? don't make a big deal of it. but don't give in to it either. i
don't support, and neither do many experts, the strategy of hiding
veggies in foods your kids like (ie, hiding pureed butternut squash in
macaroni and cheese)--because kids aren't learning to appreciate the
food in question. i do, however, like the idea of continuing to offer
the foods they reject along with the foods they enjoy. and not making
a scene if they don't eat it. it helps that we cook so much at home
since we're invariably making some staples (like rice or pasta or
chicken) that he will eat. so before we plate our meals and let every
food (gasp!) touch the other, we make a special plate (like this fancy schmancy BPA-free and phthalate-free one from Skip Hop) for atticus where the foods he doesn't like remain far from the foods he does. and
sometimes, if we act over-the-top excited about how yummy the yucky
food is (but not so over-the-top that atticus gets suspicious), he'll
ask for a bite. and sometimes, just sometimes, he forgets it's yucky
and eats it all up. yum!
 
--m

we usually do our grocery shopping on friday or saturday. but we're leaving early next week for a visit with the grandparents (make that both sets of grandparents. and, yes, we will be driving on christmas day. sigh.), so we're trying to run through what's left in the pantry. the good and bad news is that there's not much left. so today, i was trying to piece something together that would warm our bones when atticus and i got back from our icy afternoon adventure. i found some rice, some dried fruit, some almonds, and a wayward can of coconut milk and figured i should be able to make something yummy with that, right?
 
here's what i came up with. a slightly sweet sticky-ish rice. it'd go great with a chicken curry. if only i had some chicken....

final tip: when the rice cooled, atticus "helped" me roll the rice into little balls that make great healthy hand-held snacks!

coconut apricot sticky rice
2 cups rice (i used white, since that's all i had, but next time i want to try a short-grain brown)
1 14 oz can coconut milk (i used low fat, again since that's all i had, but whole fat should work)
2 cups plus 2 oz water
1 teaspoon canola oil
1/2 teaspoon sucanat (you could also use cane sugar, brown sugar, and maybe agave nectar)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon alcohol-free vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 cup diced dried apricots (you could use just about any dried fruit like raisins , prunes, or mango)
1/4 cup crushed, sliced, or chopped almonds
combine all ingredients in a rice cooker (if you don't have one, this is a super convenient kitchen tool—and the cheapest version works as well as the more expensive varieties). turn it on. when done, fluff/mix with fork (especially since a lot of the add-ins float to the top).

-m

heading into the weekend, especially a cold windy new york weekend, i know we'll be spending enough time indoors to make us all a little crazy. or, at least, a little more crazy than normal. i predict lots of plastic-wiffle-bat jousting, washable-marker tattoo drawing, and flour-all-over-the-floor playdough making. when we spend this much time at home, we usually do more snacking than normal. one of my favorites? edamame in the shell. i get the cascadian farm organic brand in my freezer section. high in fiber. full of protein. rich in pretty much all the essential amino acids. easy to make (boil, lightly salt, and eat). and atticus loves the experience of maneuvering the beans out of the pod by sucking on one end while holding the other. nutrition plus a sense of accomplishment. what could be better?
 
-m