Carrot and Ginger Cupcakes

Another variation on my favourite – and immensely popular – butternut squash muffins. These are dangerously moreish, but at just half a syn (less in fact) each, you can really enjoy a couple without feeling guilty. They don't last very well in the fridge or a cake tin; but they freeze well – I have placed mine in containers with six cakes (without the icing) to take out for as and when we want a little treat, without going overboard.

Makes 36

½ syn each*

* providing you use the oats as your Healthy Extra b and cheese as your Healthy Extra A. Nine cakes constitutes one HexB and HexA.

140g porridge oats

2 tubs fat free thick plain Greek yogurt

100g sultanas

2 tsp baking powder

8 eggs, separated

2-3 tbsps mixed spice

½ – 1 cup of sweetener to taste

1 can sugar free ginger beer

3-4 large carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks

a knob of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

300g cream cheese

sweetener to taste

a few drops of rum essence

First of all, in a small bow, place the sultanas and pour over enough ginger beer to cover. Leave to infuse and swell. Next put the oats in a large bowl and mix in the yogurt and the rest of the ginger beer. If you are using a thinner, runnier yogurt, cut down on the amount of liquid you use.

Leave these mixtures to soak for at least a couple of hours, ideally overnight. Boil the carrots with the ginger and leave to cool. Whizz in a food processor until smooth.

In a large bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Whisk the egg yolks and add the sweetener, mixed spice and baking powder. (Don't do as I did – thinking that I might forget to add the baking powder – I wasn't following a recipe, I was making it up as I went along – I measured it out when I thought of it earlier and just put it on top of the oat mixture for stirring in later. Wrong! By the time I came to stir it in, the baking powder had drawn the moisture from the oat mix and was one hard, white cake. Oops. I managed to break it up by whisking it in with the egg whites, but it was certainly a learning point!)

Stir the egg yolks and carrot mix into the oat mixture, add the sultanas and gently fold in the egg whites, making sure everything is mixed in well. Spoon into well greased muffin cases. I find I like to keep stirring the mixture while I am putting it into the little muffin cases, as the sultanas tend to sink to the bottom fairly quickly.

Bake in the oven at 180°C for 20-30 minutes, until they are cooked through. They should be springy, not fluffy when you touch them gently with your finger, and a skewer inserted should come out clean.

For the icing, mix together the cream cheese, sweetener and rum essence and spread on top of the cakes.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Oat Pancakes with Balsamic Strawberries

It seems everywhere I look on the net is a recipe for balsamic strawberries, and I feel that I have been missing out as I have yet to try this so-called delicacy. Until this morning that it. They were nice, but not that special, so I can't really see what all the fuss is about. I would do them again, but they didn't have the 'wow' factor I was imagining. Oh well.

On one of the slimming forums on the net I found a recipe for oat pancakes, which I amended slightly to suit the Slimming World plan. You can use whatever flavour of yogurt you fancy (checking the syn value of course), and vary the fruit too. Next time I think I will make them using toffee yogurt and serve with sliced bananas. The oat cakes would make a nice dessert too, served with some fat free fromage frais or sweetened/flavoured quark.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy providing you use the oats as your Healthy Extra B

For the Oat Cakes

70g rolled oats

tub fat free yogurt

1 tsp cinnamon

sweetener to taste

4 eggs

2 tbsp water

½ tsp vanilla extract

For the Balsamic Strawberries

punnet of strawberries

1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

3-4 tbsp sweetener

a little freshly ground black pepper

Hull and halve the strawberries. Sprinkle with the sweetener and leave to infuse before adding the vinegar and pepper.
  
Place the oats in a bowl with the yogurt, the sweetener, cinnamon, vanilla essence and a little water. Leave for several hours or overnight to soak.

When ready to cook, add the eggs to the oats, stirring to ensure they are well mixed. Heat a little Fry Light in a pan and add the oat mixture to cook a few minutes each side like pancakes. . You can either cook them as small individual pancakes using cooking rings, or as one large one using a small frying pan. I did both this morning as there was way too much mixture to go in the four rings I had.