At the beginning of the year Jon & I decided to go sugar-free for a couple months before our wedding. I was given Madeleine Shaw’s Get The Glow book for Christmas, where she talks about ditching sugar completely and the health benefits in doing so. We saw it as a good challenge which would also be good for our health. The day we decided to do it we checked the food we had and made sure none of it contained added sugar.
It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be to cut out. Green tea with lemon and Nakd bars kept any cravings away, and it felt good to not have sugar crashes. Plus both of us were doing it so we could encourage each other and make sure we didn’t slip up.
After our wedding we’ve been eating sugar (lots of wedding cake and champagne started it off), though we don’t drink squash or eat cereal anymore and still snack on Nakd bars. Although I don’t think I will completely cut out sugar again right now, I will aim to cut it out the majority of the time and save it for special occasions only (eg birthday cakes).
Today I baked lemon cupcakes with pistachios as a weekend treat from Get The Glow. They contain honey as a sugar substitute and I chose to use coconut oil as the fat. I followed the recipe but they came out a little dark on top so I think for my oven the temperature could be lowered. The cupcakes are delicious with the zing from the lemon and the crunchy pistachios, and super easy to bake.
Lemon cupcakes with pistachios from Madeleine Shaw’s Get The Glow (makes 8):
- 170g ground almonds
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- pinch salt
- zest of 3 lemons, juice of 2 lemons
- 70g honey
- 70g coconut oil
- 3 large free-range eggs
- 50g raw pistachios, finely chopped
Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4. Place 8 cupcake cases in muffin tray.
Mix the ground almonds, bicarbonate of soda, salt and lemon zest in a bowl. Separately, mix the honey with the coconut oil, then add the eggs one at a time, then the lemon juice. Pour this on top of the ground almond mixture, and mix together. Divide the cake mixture into the cupcake cases, then sprinkle the pistachios on top.
Bake for 18 minutes.
Hope you’ve had a great weekend!
S. xo