Ideas for posting home baking to support colleague during chemotherapy

[Rockfrock]

My work colleague lives 400 miles away and has begun chemotherapy. I’m trying to support him with home baking as he lives by himself and has a sweet tooth. We have had success with tea loaves and shortbread, less so scones,
I have been using some great recipes which have reduced sugar content. The parcel size is also a factor. The parcel can’t be any more than 16 cm high to qualify for Royal Mail 24. Can you give me some suggestions? I’ve dismissed tiffen because it has too much processed content, but something like that might work.
When some of the shortbread ended up as crumbs he mixed it with yoghurt and fruit for breakfast. So I know he is enjoying the packages..

Flapjack? Can be cut to the correct size

I’ve used postal brownies etc before. I’ll see if I can find the company

edit to add the company https://www.rubythecakeartist.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoppJh0M1gs6n_RG7VhqsVsd-Xfa8u_1bQ5P2NSVANOnG2iU65AS

Cookies?

I’ve never tried cookies or flapjacks. Which types are the tastiest?

How are you packing things? I get shortbread sent from Scotland (I'm on the south coast of England) and it always arrives unbroken. I've also sent a medium parcel using Tracked 24 and that's 61cm long by 46cm wide and 46cm high and can be up to 20kg in weight, which gives you more flexibility for what you can send.

@SleepingisanArt I’m on the south coast and sending to Scotland, My shortbread I’m proud to say is very short so I’ve started to make it into bigger and thicker fingers rather than rounds . Postage costs some weeks have been £11 so I’m trying to keep the parcel tight and light,

Granola, as a follow-on from the shortbread experience. Jamaican ginger cake would travel well - try Meera Sodha’s recipe in The Guardian.

what a lovely thing to do!

@Littleoakhorn i did think of oat cakes but granola might be a good call.

I’ve posted gingerbread biscuits before, they were in transit for a couple of weeks and kept really well.

I made these recently with added chocolate chips. Divine.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/chocolate-banana-muffins

Its a lovely idea, I might check with him what he would like though. Chemo affects your sense of taste and also often makes you fell very nauseous, and you can get bad mouth ulcers which makes eating anything difficult. I couldn't have eaten sweet stuff when I was having chemo, I preferred to nibble savoury salty stuff and also enjoyed nice cordials to drink. My mum sent me fruit (you can order it from local florists and get it delivered) and that was nice too.
Depends a lot on the type of chemo, as to what side effects people have.

I used to make focaccia with sea salt , rosemary and extra virgin olive oil for a friend, and she said she used to eat a ton of it after a treatment.

I used this old but good recipe

My mum is undergoing chemo and with it affecting her taste buds the main sweet treat she has been enjoying is ginger biscuits. They would post well if you make the hard ones rather than the soft gingerbread type.

Batches of comforting dinners might be nice, too, He can put in freezer and foremorst on days he is not up to it.

Lamingtons, lemon drizzle, iced ginger biscuits, rock cakes?

When I had chemo I found it difficult to eat much, so the advice was to eat things packed full of calories if I felt like it. So full of fat and sugar.

Proper, buttery, sugary shortbread fingers were successful for me. I think Viennese fingers or whirls would have been good too. I love chocolate, but I couldn't eat it when I was ill. I couldn't have managed anything that took as much chewing as a flapjack.

Quite honestly, for a while I lived on sour cream and onion pringles and coca cola. Savoury was good, but it has to be the right kind of savoury. Cheese straws wouldn't have done the job. It had to be REALLY savoury.

Ask him what he’d like. Cancer treatment makes normal things you normally love taste like shit. Chocolate caramel anything now tastes like chemicals to me. 😩 He may also appreciate a repeat of the nicest stuff. When you find something that tastes normal, you want to eat it all the time. For example, I’m currently on a 2-3 almond magnum a day routine and gained 3kg on my weigh in this month (I don’t need an extra 3kg or that would be a great outcome). 😂 Otherwise at the moment, fairly bland things are good, like malted milk biscuits as they don’t have much flavour anyway, so I’m less disappointed when they taste a bit wrong!

All these comments are making sense. He says he’s lost weight but gained a belly. ( He used to do 90 press ups a day) and says it’s the baking!

I will consider savoury and ginger and look at those recipes tonight then ask him . I’m using butter and unrefined sugar etc and trying to come up with old fashioned style treats that resonate. Maybe it’s a caramel
shortcake traybake as well?
I’ve managed to get him to buy Cook meals for his every day.