Baking the natural way

Another bank holiday, another family get-together, another baking frenzy - only this time I'm afraid it may have to be my last at least for the short-term, as all this baking is making us all turn into sponge cakes.

With this in mind, I've been spending time trying to find lower fat ways to bake, including using as little artificial additions as I can. I don't know about you, but much as I love flipping through my baking books, I'm always slightly aghast by the rainbow coloured icing made from bottles and bottles of e-numbered magic potions. My feature that appeared in the Metro this morning covered some of the natural alternatives for food colours, which I put to the test this weekend.

First up was a batch of white chocolate and raspberry cupcakes - made from Eat Me - went down a treat. A few things that are different about these; firstly, the white chocolate in the cupcakes isn't just in chips-form; instead, it's melted down, mixed with cream, and then layered into the middle of the cupcake. (Admittedly, this is not low fat. At all). Anyway, you remove some of the cupcake sponge (once baked of course) with an apple corer, then spoon in the creamy chocolate mix, and finally replace with the "lid" of sponge you've just removed. It means that when you bite through, you get the freshness of the berries and the moreish pin points of berry seeds mixed with a light vanilla sponge, and then in the centre you suddenly get a thick oozing of rich white chocolate. Use Green & Black's white chocolate for an added vanilla shot through the middle.

Secondly; the icing. This is the more natural bit. The buttercream icing was meant to be pink, so instead of cheating with a bottle of food colouring, I stewed down a healthy handful of raspberries with a tiny teaspoon of sugar and a little water until it became almost like a jam (almost; you still don't want it too thick), and added it, in three parts, to whipped-up butter and icing sugar. The colour was fantastic; the brightest pop of berry pink, while the bite of the berries through the icing sugar stopped it from being too sweet. We kept the left-over berry jam to smear on croissants the next day.

Second up was a batch of lime cupcakes. Except, they weren't really lime. Confession to any siblings who may be reading this: the flecks of green in the sponge weren't lime as I told you they were. They were courgettes. Could you taste the difference though?! Nope, thought not. To be fair, the icing was meant to be lime flavoured, but I skipped the icing as I wanted something less decadent. These were simple, light and low-fat (there's no butter, just a little vegetable oil instead to bind) and there's a vegetable in there to boot. They basically just tasted like light vanilla cupcakes - but with one of your five a day thrown in there for good measure too. Proof that you can have your slightly more calorie-less cake and eat it too!

I'm intrigued by these vegetable-cakes, particularly if it means you can have a healthier treat without compromising on the taste. I'm planning to try out a few from Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache by Harry Eastwood (of the Cook Yourself Thin brigade) and shall let you know how I get on. Since these all incoporate vegetables in some form or the other, I figure they can do less harm on the waistline. Speaking of the CYT bunch, has anyone tried out Gizzi Erskine's new book, Gizzi's Kitchen Magic? It's on my wish list; would love to know what you make of it.