Maple Bacon Birthday Cake!!

Birthday are kinda a big deal around here! There is early morning wake ups to rip opens gifts in PJs, there are breakfasts of birthday persons choice, there is our birthday chair cover, there are birthday badges to wear all day long and of course there is a birthday cake to suit the birthday boy or girl.
Today is Mister Giggleberry's birthday. Mister Giggleberry is not too much of a 'sweet tooth' and just recently we have started to try a paleo diet at home, stepping up from just clean eating & to match our new love of CrossFit. With all these factors to consider I went cake hunting for inspiration on Pinterest and struck gold with a few ideas rolled into one EPIC cake!
One 3 Layered Paleo Spice Cake with Cashew Maple Frosting wrapped in Candied Bacon!!

The recipe for the cake and frosting can be found HERE thanks to The Paleo Mum. The recipe I followed for the candied bacon is HERE by Recipe Girl

This flavour combo is just like the Candian favourite of pancakes with bacon and maple syrup... something hubby LOVES!!

This is gluten free and dairy free but not strictly paleo due to the sugar on the bacon but it's a birthday cake after all... maybe I need to find a more paleo way to make candied bacon. Any ideas?? If you leave the candied bacon off OR found a paleo way to make it then this recipe would also be refined sugar free!!
Happy birthday hubster!!!

Grain free, Gluten free, Dairy free - Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls!

I love finding a new recipe to try and this one was just too tempting when I saw it posted by someone on Instagram. They looked so easy I had to give it them go right away.
I did have a little 'play' with the original grain & egg free recipe to make it gluten and dairy free as well (and it's also ridiculously low in nasty sugars).... Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1x 400g tin of chick peas (drained & rinsed)
2/3 Cup peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 Cup Rice Malt Syrup
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
1 Tbs Coconut flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup choc chips (I used left over dairy & gluten free Sweet William choc bunnies from Easter that I cut up but you can use their choc chips).

Method:
Blitz everything, except choc chips, in food processor to combine (if it's too 'wet' add a tiny touch more coconut flour if it's too dry add a tiny touch of water). Once it's all incorporated stir in choc chips by hand. Scoop out a spoonful of the mixture and roll into balls in your hands (I got 17 balls). Place balls on a baking paper lined biscuit tray. Bake in oven for 10-12mins.

Eat warm and gooey straight from the oven or let them cool - up to you - but I bet you will enjoy then for sure!!

Gluten Free version of the KitKat & Smartie Cake

Felicity, my step daughter is turning 11 this Sunday (goodness where did those 11 years go?) so to celebrate we had a little get together with family for a BBQ dinner last night. Nothing fancy, just a good excuse to blow up some balloons, make some paper chains (a great way to use up the growing pile of kids artworks) and of course eat cake!

Felicity is on a strict gluten free diet so when choosing her birthday cake each year it's tricky to find something yummy, fun and diet friendly. When I spotted the KitKat and Smartie cake that is doing the rounds at the moment HERE I LOVED it and had a little think about how I could do a gluten free version. Drum roll please....
Ta Dah!!



With a yummy (tried and tested) moist gluten free chocolate cake mix from Coles, some gluten free choc wafers and 2 bags of The Natural Confectionary Co. jelly beans it was looking rather swish, if I do say so myself.


Then add the gorgeous and fun paper Happy Birthday cake bunting I scored on Raspberry Lime Paperie's facebook sale recently and the masterpiece was complete!


And what a gorgeous excuse to use my pink hobnail cake stand from RubyJu for the first time!


Needless to say it was enjoyed by all!