Photo by Nalin Bhutt
Well, for all the emphasis on eating well and right, it seems as if the biggest challenge is that of the sweet tooth. I always like to say that as the granddaughter of German and Danish grandmothers who were always baking cakes, cookies, and breads and treated chocolate as a next of kin, I came by it honestly. Who knows. We all love excuses. So, as the afternoon arrives, and we've been out and about at the museum, doing a bit of shopping, and driving along the lake as our little ones sleep, Nalin and I naturally gravitate toward the subject of something sweet to go with our afternoon tea. And we know someone else in the backseat who will love the idea of a cupcake from the Bleeding Heart Bakery. (Nice how you can start to blame it on your kids as you indulge yourself, right?)
Sidenote: We always prided ourselves on the fact that Ettu never liked sweets prior to the age of two, and we were pretty great at keeping the sugar at bay during these formative months. But soon he was craving those goodies just like the rest of us. And how he loves his chocolate and ice cream. Nooa is still in that lovely little bubble of indifference, even though with the second child we haven't been quite as good at the "no sugar" rule, but Ettu goes crazy for the sweets.
So, while the kids were still asleep in the back, I hopped out the corner of Damen and Belmont and picked three lovely cupcakes: one chocolate with peanut butter, one vanilla with sea salt and caramel, and one dark chocolate soaked in whiskey and stout (for Nalin, of course). When we do indulge like this, we do like to either make things at home or go to places where we know the ingredients are good. Bleeding Heart tends to use all natural and mostly organic ingredients and has quite a few vegan options. I guess as long as we can keep the high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and flavors, etc. away from us at all possible, then maybe a bit of indulgence isn't so bad. As for Ettu, he was one happy boy when he woke up from that nap. The first thing he asked for was a fork.