Baking Mad Monday - Beetroot & Chocolate Cupcakes

Our friends at Baking Mad have set us a low calorie baking challenge, over the next 5 Mondays we are all going to attempt one of their recipes and would like you lot to vote for your favourite at the end. All of the recipes use Half Spoon granulated sugar by Silver Spoon which is sugar with a touch of sweetener. It reduces the calories as you only need to use half the amount of standard sugar but because the texture doesn't change you still get the same results, excellent!

First up is Sarah, being a cupcake addict she has chosen to bake the beetroot and chocolate cupcakes

Baking Mad provided us with some of the products for this challenge:

And we then purchase the rest ourselves:

Ingredients
3 x Eggs
150g Half Spoon Granulated Sugar
250g Beetroot, peeled & grated
0.5tsp Vanilla Extract
180g Plain White Flour
180g Ground Almonds

2tsp Baking Powder

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

0.25tsp Salt

284ml Buttermilk

For the topping:

100g Plain Chocolate

2tsp Quark

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C, gas 4. Line two 12-hole muffin tray with paper cases.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk up the eggs and sugar for 4 minutes until they are light and fluffy.
• Beat in the grated beetroot and vanilla essence. Add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt and beat until combined.
• Add the buttermilk. Beat again to ensure everything is well combined.
• Divide the mixture into the paper cases and bake for 20 minutes or until the cakes spring back when pressed gently with a finger. Remove from the cake tin immediately and leave to cool on a wire rack.

The cakes come out a lovely reddish pink colour

• For the icing: Place the chocolate in a small bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water. Melt the chocolate gently. Remove form the heat and stir. Leave to cool. Add the quark and mix. Add enough milk to loosen the consistency to a spreadable icing. Spread the icing over the cup cakes and serve.

Makes 24 cupcakes, they work out at 7 syns each or 7 pro points.

The cakes were lovely and moist which surprised me with the lack of fat in the recipe and the chocolate topping added a lovely chocolate hit, mmmmm!

Yum!

Word of warning, your kitchen will look like you've massacred a few people whilst grating the beetroot but it's worth the mess. The lovely Sarah gave me a great tip for removing the staining from your hands, just put sugar and fairy liquid on your hands afterwards and wash. The colour sticks to the sugar and your hands are stain free, result!

Sunday Summary #43

Another week, hopefully another weightloss! How did you guys get on?

Gemma - Great news, I lost 2.5lbs this week. Very happy with this loss and I feel like 2012 has started really well for me. Had a night out last night which involved a lot of alcohol and I ate silly amounts of toast with butter and peanut butter when I got home but you only live once so I'm trying not to worry about it too much. Would be happy to maintain this week or lose 0.5lb Life gets in the way of a diet from time to time but what is the point of me going on a diet if I can't have a good night out and go a little wild sometimes?

Sarah V - Even though I didn't eat very well last week due to being ill and just wanting anything to keep my energy levels up, I managed to lose 3.5lbs which was a nice dent in my Christmas weight gain! I suppose coughing must burn calories. I've trying out the Jenny Craig diet for a month which I started this week, and already it's making me address some of the bad eating habits I've fallen into, so I'm hoping it'll give me a good kickstart and get me back into good habits which is something I've really struggled with this year.

Sarah - I went to WI on Thursday even though it was my birthday and found I had lost 1.5lbs. Better than nothing I guess! Since then though I have haven't been at all on plan and have had 4 meals out, beers and cocktails so am hoping I can pull it back during the week and get another lose on Thursday.

Charlene - I've just finished the third week of my diet and I've stuck to it again. I'm getting a little bored of the same meals now, and I'm glad glad to have only 1 week left. I've learned a lot from the Jenny Craig programme, but I'm missing home cooked food! I haven't stepped on the scales lately because I found I was getting a little obsessed with the numbers, but I'm going to weigh and re-measure myself when I finish the diet this week. A few people have commented on how much slimmer I look, and I feel slimmer myself!

Lucy - There's been a few delays with the Maxitone diet that I'm doing and so I haven't actually recieved any product, nor have I had my chat with the nutrionist yet but hopefully it'll all be go at some point this week. I was hoping to be able to have started it before I go to London tomorrow but I'm having the stuff delivered to me there so hopefully it goes ahead soon. It's the same old story for me this week though, I'm still not really thinking about what I'm eating. I think I've got into the frame of mind that I'll be dieting soon so it doesn't really matter - bad thought processes, I know!

Guest post - Jogging by Becca

I’m Becca from Diary of a Diva and I have been allowed to commandeer the Where Are My Knee’s blog and do a little post on jogging and the benefits it brings to me.



I do have to admit, I am a fair-weather jogger, I go through cycles of being highly motivated to days where I just can not face the cold/wet/foggy weather. When I do go though, there are noticeable advantages. I often suffer from stomach cramps after eating, or I can feel a heavy meal sitting in my stomach for hours after. When I’m in a good jogging routine though these problems seem to disappear! I have my own idea on why, and as a disclaimer I have to tell you that it is based on no scientific knowledge and is just the result of me sitting around thinking about things. I reckon that because I jog in the morning, I get up earlier, I eat breakfast at a regular time and I earn the right to be hungry. This is opposed to me lying in bed until 10 (I’m currently unemployed), stuffing my face with bread and then sitting at the laptop all day. The most important point is that it sets me up in a good routine, for a while I just skipped breakfast and had a brunch. Having a wheetabix after jogging means that I feel ready to eat, I know that I am eating at a sensible time and that I will then eat lunch at a sensible time and not just snack throughout the day.

Being unemployed (woe is me) jogging also means I get up early, mainly through fear of being seen if I try running during the day or evening. When I get home I’m high on endorphins and I get excited for the day. I do half an hour of pilates from Margot Campbell’s ‘Pliates On The Go’ book (which I highly recommend, you really feel it working and it means I can do it whenever I want) and I am ready to face a day of job hunting. I have to admit, I am lucky enough to live within 5 minutes of the beach and it is far easier to drag myself out of bed with the promise of a sunrise and a bracing run along the sand! One problem I have, being a fair-weather jogger is that I always imagine myself running along the sand with ease, the wind in my hair and going at a good pace. The reality is quite different, I’m huffing and puffing away, red as a tomato and slipping on stones… Don’t get put off though! Especially if you experience stomach problems like me, or just want to feel better in yourself. Jogging gives me structure, means I can eat the cookies I love to bake and my skin has never looked better, as for my legs and bottom, I can feel the difference already!

Thank you for reading and I hope I've inspired some people!

Sunday Summary #42

Lucy - I'm still not in a eating well frame of mind, I'm still not really thinking about what I'm eating, I think that's because I know in my mind I'm going to be starting a new diet next week so I'm kind of thinking it doesn't matter right now. I know that's not the right way to go about it, but I'm so, so determined to do well in this Maxitone diet that hopefully it won't matter. I know I won't see results straight away but I'm already excited for the days when I can start noticing them!

Gemma - I lost 1lb at weigh in on Tuesday, very happy with this as last weeks loss was pretty big. I think I may do even better this week as I have been sticking to the plan 100% I started taking acai berry supplements yesterday, I'm rather sceptical but will give them a chance. I've got a few days off this week so I'm going to try a few new recipes from the Weight Watcher cookbooks and try and get some exercise in, not really done any in the new year.

Sarah V - I've been really poorly for most of the week which meant I missed my second Rosemary Conley class of the year. Unfortunately I didn't lose my appetite at ALL - I actually ate worse than usual as I couldn't get out to the shops so just ate what I had around which often meant not the healthiest of things. But I weighed myself this morning and it looks like I'm still down 3 or 4lbs from my post-Christmas weight. I would have liked more considering I gained over half a stone in December, but I know I haven't been trying so just not gaining is a result. I'm back to my usual routine this week and starting a new diet regime so I'm hoping that I'll have some better results to show next week.

Sarah -  I was 100% on plan the whole of last week and I gained 2lb's :( It's so disheartening when this happens.  I am really, really struggling at the moment.  I am not really enjoying what I am eating and am missing all the stuff I can't have and when being good leads to a gain it makes you want to give it all up.  I am writing everything down this week so keep your fingers crossed for me.  I am going for an early weigh in on Thursday as it's my birthday and I think I deserve a nice meal and a little bit of cake :)

How was your week?