Have Your Cake And Eat It

Just a quick one for Easter Weekend. I won't lie, it wasn't as fun as last year, when I'd abstained from chocolate AND sweets for six whole weeks, then was handsomely rewarded, by myself, with a Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Cake mix (suspiciously similar to the Pizza Express one btw, a DIY tip off which shouldn't be taken lightly since I used to waitress there).

Which brings me neatly round to a serious affliction that us Beauty Editors have to endure on an almost weekly basis. Cupcake Overdose. We are gifted with delicious, sweet, beautiful, did I mention delicious? butter iced cupcakes from Hummingbird Bakery, or Lola's Kitchen with cholesterol boosting frequency. Usually by beauty PR's to launch a lipstick, sometimes just to say 'happy wednesday' or something, but always to rapturous delight from, first my desk, then the rest of the office who get our leftovers.

When news first spread about my other serious affliction, I got lots of sympathy cupcakes, which was lovely in theory, but lovelier in reality for the team, since I couldn't eat them. For me then, they were more like prettily iced torture.

This week I received this on my desk.

Oh lord, more tempting torturous deliciousness I thought. But no - these are vegetable cupcakes from Petit Pois at Selfridges. Yes veg-e-table, as in Petit Pois, as in peas. Sceptically I tried the 'chocolate' one. It tastes exactly like a delicious, beautiful, sweet, iced chocolate cupcake. But since the main ingredient in this chocolate cake is in fact beetroot, I was fall-off-my-chair surprised and excited in equal measure. Add in the fact it's gluten and dairy free, and only half the calories (170) and fat of normal cupcakes, and I'm swooning with relief at the end of my dessert withdrawal.

Also love the orange and lemon (mostly courgette), and vanilla (pumpkin) varieties, and am hoping this might put an end to the usual cupcake OD's, and kick off a new and slightly less dangerous habit, courtesy of those sugar-pushing PR's.

In the name of the resurrection of Christ of course. Or Passover or whatever. Or because aside from actual medicine, laughter is apparently the best for you, but I reckon cupcakes should be vying for that number 1 spot too...

www.petitpoiscakes.com