Cupcakes and baking...why am I so addicted?

Love a cupcake? ME TOO!

I’m slightly obsessed. Whether it’s the look, taste, texture or just that I know it’s a treat I love baking (and eating) cupcakes. There are so many amazing products out there for cake and cupcake decorating these days it’s just so exciting to go shopping for new things to try. The problem I tend to have with my cupcake and baking obsession is that my partner is just not that into baked goods. Therefore, my love of baking tends to lead to a huge over consumption of sugar over about 2-4 days. I can fairly easily eat up to 4 cupcakes a day, just through grazing and snacking, and since it looks so pretty the icing on these cupcakes is you guessed it pretty high! Share this habit of mine?

Here are a few tips to enjoy your love of cupcakes and baking, but to also watch your sugar intake after a treat making session:

1)   Freeze a majority of the cupcakes. This way you can take out and decorate a few at a time, testing out your new cake decorating techniques without having an excess of cupcakes that are too good to go in the bin.

2)   Take your treats into work. People love baked goods at morning teatime and around the 3pm-4pm energy slump. Instead of eating a whole batch at home you can enjoy a few of your baked goodies and share the rest with colleagues. One or two treats a week won’t hurt and your work colleagues will love you for it!

3)   Freeze cookie dough. Most cookie doughs can be frozen, but if you’re unsure about your type of mixture freezing well have a search on the internet. Keep enough to bake a set of 6 cookies and then roll the rest of the cookie dough into a long roll and wrap the dough in cling wrap. A batch should last around 1 month in the freezer. When you’re ready to cook a new batch of cookies, take the roll out of the freezer, leave it for around 3-4 mins to soften a tiny bit, cut slices around 3cm thick and place them on your baking tray to cook, then return the rest of the frozen mix to the freezer. This trick is also great when you have guests, as it’s very quick, there’s no mess at all to clean up and the house will smell like freshly baked cookies! Yum Yum.

4)   Try making raw deserts (my fav is raw peppermint slice), sugar free muffins, or fruit based treats instead of the traditional baked goodies you’ve always made. Raw desserts have an added bonus of being full of good nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, healthy oils and protein so they are delicious and guilt free (as well as many recipes being able to be frozen to last longer).