Designing all day and incessant April showers can lead to even cuddlier, cuddly bits! In an effort to add a little more goodness to my diet from the inside out, I turned to the celebrity equivalent of marmite, Gwyneth Paltrow.

It turns out Gwynnies new book, “It’s All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great”, actually fulfils it’s promise – who knew! It also looks beautiful, and could pass as a coffee table tome to the perfect ‘make it look effortless’ lifestyle, so there is no need to hide away your healthy recipe book.

Being a newbie to ‘healthy’ bakes, the Sweet Potato + Five Spice Muffins seemed a good place to start. I adjusted some of the ingredients according to what I had in the cupboard (and the fact that I don’t have a gluten allergy, but do have a nut allergy), so here’s my version of the muffins…

For the muffin mix (makes 12):

1 large sweet potato

1/2 cup sunflower oil

1/2 cup unsweetened soya milk

1/2 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup white spelt flour

1 cup wholemeal spelt flour

2  tsp baking powder

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 1/2 tbsp Chinese five-spice powder

1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, prick your sweet potato and bake for about 40 mins until soft, then let it cool (you could use a microwave if you are feeling naughty just don’t tell Gwyneth!).

2. Peel and mash the sweet potato once cool, then whisk in the oil, milk, honey and vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl sift the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, five-spice powder and salt.

4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet, be careful not to overmix.

5. Spoon the batter into Muffin cases and bake for 20-25 mins, brush the tops with honey as soon as they come out of the oven and leave to cool.

The muffins turned out scrummy, although hard to tell if they are sweet or savoury, even Mr Crumpet gave them the thumbs up and they didn’t even have frosting!

It’s true some of the recipes will need a trip to Wholefoods Market for ingredients and you will need to invest in a set of cup measures, but I can’t wait to try some of the amazing salads and dressings as the weather warms up.

- Miss C x