from the kitchen: late night baking

i suffer from late-night-baking syndrome.

which means to say that i bake quite regularly, very late at night (10pm and later, PST), long after my loves have surrendered to sleep.

i adore my little brood, you know i do. you might also know how much i love to involve my babes in the kitchen.

[inhale] but i have to admit, there are times when all i really want to do is fiddle about in the kitchen at my own pace. to do things out of order. to not have to worry about whether some spill, burn, or other imminent danger (which, by the way, includes petty theft of potty training treats) is about to happen to one or both of my toddlers . to know that the extent of the multi-tasking i have to do is listen to an audio book (currently listening to game of thrones, as an antidote to the end-of-season withdrawal). to be able to clean as i go. [exhale]

and i do enjoy the quiet hum of our little apartment this late in the evening. it's the only time of day when i can choose to hear myself think and catch up on pop culture, sometimes at the same time.

so i knit. i clean. i blog. i bake.

(sometimes, i work. but we're not going to talk about that.)

probably in that order... thought not necessarily all in the same night.

and in the morning, if it's baking i've chosen to do before my 2am bedtime, my little family wakes up to freshly baked goods. in the words of the barefoot contessa, "how bad can that be?" (well... there are the effects of sleep deprivation, but that's not what this entry is about.)

last night, i made quinoa banana bread muffins and a nutritious marble cake. both recipes were from la tartine gourmande, and were chock-full of gluten-free alternatives. the results were so delicious, i couldn't believe what i made without wheat flour.

in the lovely light muffins, the quinoa flakes add such a nubbly crunch. and while the marble cake was dense, the flavours were clean and full of flavour.

the kids agree. they liked the muffins a lot.

but the cake was the winner. 

so much so, i found a mauled marble cake carcass right next to the learning tower and the boy's crumb-chunked face.

i wish i had taken a picture before going ballistic on him. i didn't. and i couldn't stay mad for long. it was pretty funny... and the mark of a successful, healthy, and toddler-friendly recipe after all.