Birthday Numero Uno

My baby turned 1 this month. Although I can sit here today and think how fast it has gone…I will never forget this long year of little sleep. My little man was definitely different from my daughter. He slept worse, is way more busy and will not sit still for a minute! He exhausts me! But he has a smile that makes my heart melt and a laugh that makes my belly jiggle. So on a sunny day in Toronto I celebrated 365 days of this little boys life. I’m not big on large parties for a first birthday. In all honesty, I’m too lazy! My kids will have many years of big parties so I am relishing in these early years of being able to have a small, intimate get-together with family. We had grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins over for light nibbles and sugar-free, grain-free cupcakes. I swear the cupcakes were delish. Amazing actually. You can barely tell that there is not a pinch of white flour or sugar. And they are perfect for a 1 year old who has never tasted sugar in his life.

On the menu for the early birthday dinner: Carrot sticks and cucumber slices with hummus Cheese plate Kale salad Corn Chowder with a topping of cilantro and bacon White Bean Cupcakes This post will be devoted to the White Bean Cupcakes. I’ll post some photos of everything else but provide recipes for the salad and chowder later! I got a little rushed for time by the end and wasn’t able to take as many photos and decorate the cupcakes with as much pizazz as I would have liked! Here are some photos of the “party”. The ‘Happy Birthday” sign was the sole decoration. I am the worst. At least I had fancy straws! Directions for White Bean Cupcakes. I orginally got this recipe from an amazing blog called The Spunky Coconut. I changed it a bit to use butter, cream cheese frosting and fruit for colouring. What you will need:

For the cupcakes: 3 cups white navy beans 9 eggs 1 1/4 liquid Stevia 2 tablespoons vanilla 1/2 cup pure maple syrup 1/2 cup organic butter at room temperature 1/2 cup coconut flour 1.5 tsp baking soda 3 tsp baking powder For the icing & drizzle 1 cup of peaches, blueberries or strawberries 1 1/2 cups organic cream cheese 1/3 organic unsalted butter 1 tbs Vanilla 1/4 tsp liquid stevia Night before the Cake Making! Take a package of raw organic white navy beans. Put them in a bowl with lots of water to soak overnight. If you want, you can also add to the bowl a piece of dried Kombu to make the beans even more nutrient dense! Day of Directions.

1. First thing in the morning, take your beans and rinse well. Cook them as per the directions on the package. Usually about 1.5 hours in boiling water. When they are done strain away water and let beans cool to room temperature
2. Preheat oven to 325. Once beans are cool, start the cake making process. Take a food processor and put in the 3 cups of room temperature beans.
3. Add in to food processor your eggs, stevia, vanilla and maple syrup. Purée well until all mixed together.
4. Now add, room temperature butter (make sure it is adequately soft), coconut flour, baking powder and baking soda – purée again.
5. Pour the mixture into your cupcake pan.
6. Bake for appx. 25-30 minutes. Use a knife to see if cupcakes are ready. If knife comes out from cupcake relatively clean then they are done. If some batter comes out then leave them in oven for a couple of minutes longer. Should make appx. 16 small cupcakes.

Directions for the Sugar-free cream cheese icing 1. Take 1.5 cups of room temperature organic cream cheese and add to your food processor or mixer. 2. Add in your very softened, room temperature butter, vanilla, stevia and fruit. A note on the fruit. I use it for 2 reasons: sweetness and colour. I used strawberries for a girls birthday cake in the summer and peaches for Charles’ birthday cupcakes. The peaches did not make the icing as orange as I would have liked and they also made the icing a little too runny. I would go with blueberries next time to make a fantastic blue cake!! Add in the fruit slowly and only use as much as you need for proper colouring. 3. Puree. Do not over-puree the mixture or it will become too runny (hence not having chunks in your butter before putting into mixer is important). Take the icing and put on top of cupcakes. 4. I also took my leftover peaches and added them to a cleaned food processor to have liquified peaches. I drizzled them on top of cupcakes (I was trying to drizzle 1′s and C’s but it turned into a hot mess…the unprofessional icing decorating can be seen in pictures!). This recipe makes an excellent cake as well! I have done a double layer cake with cream cheese icing and strawberries in the middle. Happy Birthday, Charles!