This is quite the time we’re currently living in. While the main rule of Just Stay Home seems pretty straight forward, it’s kinda not. Things happen, random unexpected things, and you’re torn whether you actually need to go breaking the rules or not. A big one for this is shopping. Where popping in to the shops on your way home to grab milk was an incredibly common, normal thing, now it’s not. If you’re lucky enough to even find the type of milk you want, fantastic, but leaving the house to go get it is something else. It’s a hard one, do you wait until the very last minute to buy something, or drag the kids out with you and cop judgmental stares when you only buy a couple of things? Or risk the kids touching something they shouldn’t or getting too close to other people? What if something essential to you isn’t classed as essential to others? Tricky situation.
I know I’ve said before this is not the time or place to comment on the current political state of affairs, and I won’t, we’re not about that here. All I will say is that more and more of us are looking to kill time, and baking, whether it be alone or with your family, is a great way to do that. And that’s where we step in!
If, like me, you’re home with your kids, it’s a constant battle trying to find them something to do. Finding the balance between educational and regular play can sometimes to a real challenge. But something we all seem to forget, it is the school holidays. If this was a regular Easter break, we wouldn’t be harassing the kids to do school like work all the time. Reading, games, fun maths activities yes, otherwise, meh, let them have a break. That’s where baking comes in!
My youngest son Louis is a real pain with fruit and vegetables. If I hide them in things, he’ll eat them, otherwise forget it. So when he asked for apple cupcakes I nearly fell over. We scrambled directly to the kitchen and made him some. Winning! Got some fruit into the kid, and the other two who eat plenty of fruit anyway were stoked to have cupcakes on the bench again.
The beauty of these is because of the high fruit/oat content they are a perfect breakfast, but also, a filling snack. The holy trail is finding something that actually fills you between meals that is healthy. These are perfect for that. Absolutely no harm in getting the extra antioxidants and fibre into us either.

Breakfast Blender Apple Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 cup of rolled oats
1/2 a cup of wholemeal self raising flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 a cup of full cream milk
1/4 of a cup of unsalted butter
1 heaped tbls of honey
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 egg
2 medium sized apples, green or red will work, I used pink ladies

*Makes 9 regular sized cupcakes

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°c.
2. Chop and core the apples into bite sized pieces, leaving the skin on.
3. Cook the apples in a pot of boiling water until they soften, for about 10 minutes.
4. Melt the butter and honey in the microwave until it is liquid, for about 40 seconds.
5. Add the cooked apples, butter and all other ingredients into the blender, blitzing it all until a batter forms. Using oats, it won’t be as smooth as a regular batter but it will bake evenly as if it did (excuse the shadow, couldn’t find the right angle).

6. Grease or line a cupcake tray and pour the mixture directly into the patty pans from the blender, until they are about 3/4 full. It’s super easy and mess free this way.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Allow them to cool on a wire rack.

So incredibly simple, these a great little nutrition powerhouse to keep us full for longer. Added bonus? A great activity to do during this hard time. Stay safe and healthy everyone.

Nutrition facts based on one cupcake.