Paleo inspired cupcakes

The sky matched my mood today; grey, murky and blurred around the edges.

I'm sick of grey skies, and grey moods too.  I want to see sunshine and all that lurks under the greyness. In the words of Oriah, I want to see, beauty even when it's not pretty.  I know that really, even when times feel tough, I do live in a beautiful world.  I need to make the effort to see it, particularly when it's difficult to spot.

Ah well, I had a plan today to take my mind off the grey skies.  Feeling all inspired by this blog post, and a chat I had with a good friend the other day, about how it was probably possible to make a cupcake which is much more nutritious than most breakfast cereals, I set out to create something special.

I adapted the Paleo Mom's recipe slightly in keeping with what I thought would best suit the small peeps taste round here.  Instead of 1/4 cup of cocoa powder I used 1/4 cup of quinnoa flour. Not sure if that disqualifies them from being paleo?  Did paleolithic man eat quinnoa?  I don't know,  but then I suspect he didn't eat chocolate cupcakes either!

 Also, I used four large duck eggs instead of six hen eggs.  I like to feed my children duck eggs; they contain more vitamins and minerals than hen eggs.  Also, cakes tend to rise ever so well with duck eggs.

It wasn't a quick and easy cake to make as it took time to melt the chocolate and coconut oil.  I didn't have the patience to follow instructions to the letter and resorted to the usual 'bung it all in the mixer' style.

The batter was lovely and glossy but not very smoothe. It must be said, I wasn't optimistic and felt quite queasy at the thought of such expensive ingredients all going to waste.  Have you seen the price of coconut flour?  I was shocked.

Well, my fears were unfounded.  The cakes rose wonderfully and the texture was good too.  Miles really liked them and polished a couple off in no time.  It was clear from Hermione's face that they didn't come up to scratch on the cupcake front, but as breakfast options go, I think she's quite impressed.

Will I make them all the time for breakfast?  No, probably not, but I will make them again.

Later we popped into town to check the river levels after a monsoon like downpour.  Surprisingly the river levels were only a few inches elevated.  Perhaps we hadn't allowed a significant time lapse for all the runoff water from the hills to make it's way in.

The streets were nigh on steaming in the muggy heat following the rain.  We wandered into a cafe for an iced drink and sat inside, out of the heat.  Were it not for all the jubilee bunting still hanging out throughout the streets, I could possibly have fooled myself I was somewhere exotic.