Easter is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy some favorites foods, while honoring the holiday traditions with family and friends. There are many easy ways to make delicious treats just a little healthier without any flavour sacrifice.
Create colorful easter cupcakes with ease! Just replace the common artificial food colorings, with natural ingredients to create perfect easter pastels. In addition, you can lighten up your favourite frostings by reducing the sugar up to half and adding a tbsp of milk(coconut, dairy, almond or rice) or pure fruit juice. This will enhance the flavour, and lighten the texture tremendously.
Pink: Best choices: Black cherry juice, or red beet powder. You can still use your favorite white frosting recipe or whipped cream, add 1 tablespoon of pure black cherry juice or 1 tsp of beet powder. Mix well for a fresh flavour and pastel pink tone.
Green: Best choices: Super concentrated liquid chlorophyll. Again use your favorite frosting recipe or whipped cream and add 3-5 drops of concetrated liquid chlorophyll plus 1/2 tsp of pure peppermint extract. This creates a refreshing, light frosting that will tempt your taste buds.
You can also create simple white cupcakes that reflect the freshness of spring by adding organic shredded coconut on top. We made little nests with the frosting by using a very small piping tip and loosely circling it atop the cupcakes. I then added some organic jelly beans, available at most natural food stores, to resemble eggs. These were served at my kid’s school and loved by everyone.
Natural food colorings are available at many health food stores if you want brighter colors. Remember that Easter does not need to have the sugary hang-over that Halloween caused us, and can include healthful, delicious treats.
NOTE: You can make your frosting a little healthier too, by simply making the following swaps:
- Pure unpasteurized honey in place of sugar
- Real butter in place of margarine or lard
- Coconut oil/coconut butter in place of butter (use 1/4 cup coconut butter + 3/4 coconut oil to replace 1 cup of butter or lard)
- Coconut whipped cream in lieu of dairy based whipped cream (for those with dairy issues) and add pure maple syrup to sweeten it instead of sugar.
- Real flavourings instead of artificial ones (Pure vanilla extract, not imitation; use actual almonds or other pure nut butters in place of extracts or peanut butter; orange juice and zest instead or orange extract, etc).
You can also make healthier muffins instead of cupcakes, which are usually lower in sugar, higher in finer and contain more whole food ingredients. The kids will love them just as much and they will be slightly less overloaded with sugar. Remember, every little step counts!
