Any recipes for 'wholesome, nutrient rich' cupcakes/muffins please!

[MrsBojangles]

DD and Ds love cupcakes and muffins. So wondering whether I can get some wholesome food into them that way. Any tried and tested (i.e. willingly eaten by fussy toddler/pre-schooler) recipes anybody?

THank you

I like cupcakes too.

But don't know any healthy recipes I'm afraid. I tried blueberry muffins once and they were just awful.

dd wouldn't touch blueberry muffins I think only likes berries fresh. She loves the banana ones from down the bakery though. Pondering whether there are veggie muffins to be made???

nigella has a banana muffin recipe, and i expect you can do carrot ones.

Try any cake recipe but put it into muffin cases instead of a cake tin, and leave in the oven for slightly less time (15 mins approx)

I have done carrot cake muffins and banana cake muffins, which are both lovely.

keep them coming ladies and what do I use instead of sugar? trying to avoid sugarhype but still have sweet flavour and obviously don't want to use sweetners

You have to buy this book. It is fantastic! There are loads, and loads of suggestions for muffins containing fruit, nuts, oats, seeds, veg (carrot ones IIRC), they are really easy, freeze well etc, etc. I cann't speak highly enough of this book. Plus she gives loads of information if you want to make the muffins healthier (they are pretty healthy anyway in comparison to most cakes).

oh that looks good will tell dh to get it for me he's got amazon vouchers

I used honey, but then realised that dd is less than 1 year old, and had a major panic.

Having said that, honey is apparently harmless for over 1s. It is sweeter than sugar, so you don't need to use as much. I see apple juice used as a sweetener in many children's foods, but am not sure how this would be achieved at home.

You can buy fructose, which is sold as a "diet" aid. I know this is also sweeter than sugar, and it is metabolised more slowly.

I've got a lovely healthy muffin recipe with no sugar and loads of good stuff in, will go and try to dig it out

8 oz wholemeal self raising flour
pinch cinammon
pinch nutmeg
2 oz chopped pecans (I always use ground almonds for little children, just put slightly less in)
2 oz desiccated coconut
6 oz grated carrots
6 oz grated apples
3 oz chopped dates
2 small beaten eggs
100 ml / 4 fl oz sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and all the wet ingredients in another (I am never sure what is wet and what is dry but it never seems to matter). Add dry to wet and mix thoroughly (this is ds's favourite recipe to make because all it involves, after an adult has done the grating and weighing, is lots and lots of mixing ). Spoon into muffin cases and cook on baking tray for 15 - 20 minutes, at 180 / 350 / GM 4.

This recipe is from Optimum Nutrition for Babies and Young Children, by Lucy Burney. It has some other excellent healthy cake recipes as well.

Thanks GQM but dd hates honey for some weird reason!

F&Z oh that sounds yummy... gotta put the ingredients on the next shopping list! And dd loves mixing

It makes a naturally sweet tasting, lumpy textured muffin - quite yummy. I have been happy to give these for breakfast during fussy eating stages as they only have good things in them.

I've also found you can adapt most ordinary muffin recipes by swopping wholemeal flour for ordinary, and just leaving out about 1/4 to half of the sugar (most are very sweet IMO). Adding raisins or banana means you can drop even more sugar.