We’ve reached one of my favourite stages of the baby days. The squishy newborn days are behind us for now and now that William has reached 6 months we’ve moved on to weaning! In truth, we started weaning a little earlier than 6 months – probably around 5 months as he is just such a hungry little thing. I find it so rewarding cooking and preparing new meals with new flavours for a baby and watching them discover a whole new world of food!

We started with baby rice, watered down a little more than advised as he was still younger than the recommended 6 months and that’s just what the Health Visitor had told us to do when we weaned Florence early. He had this maybe every other day to start with and then we introduced some Ella’s Kitchen fruit pouches / homemade fruit purees on the days in between as he began to get used to eating a bit more.

Once he turned 6 months I started to introduce a second meal each day with one of  those being predominantly finger foods – cheese sticks, par boiled carrot sticks, cucumber, toast soldiers for example. He devoured everything I gave him within moments bless him and so before long we moved up to three meals per day.

He now has porridge every morning for breakfast, sometimes with a crust of Florence’s toast he can munch on between spoonfuls.

For lunch, he generally has a baby version of whatever Florence and I are having. A sandwich and some veggie / fruit sticks always goes down well, or sometimes we have pasta with grated cheese which he loves too. Both littles tend to have a yogurt with their lunch too. 

When it comes to dinner, unless what we’re having isn’t particularly baby friendly again he has a version of what I am serving up for everyone else. He’s had  home cooked bolognese, a roast dinner, mashed potato & brocolli, noodles, even a very mild curry and loved it all! If what’s on the menu isn’t suitable for him or we are eating later than he needs dinner, I turn to a baby food jar or pouch. After dinner he’ll tend to have some fruit purree or baby banana custard.

I’ve taken a lot more of a baby led approach this time around while still using some purees to fill in the gaps or rely on when I just need to grab something quick for him. One thing I did forget is just how messy weaning is! Even a few bits of plain pasta leads to a whole host of mess so we either cover him with a giant muslin or strip him down completely.

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As I type this, we are on the road to a little weekend away. It’s been such a long time since we went away just us, and it’s the first time we’ve ever taken William so I’m hoping for a truly special weekend of making memories with my favourite people. I mentioned on Instagram that we are having a bit of a Julia Donaldson themed summer as Florence’s imagination has suddenly been captured by her stories and one of the things on our Summer bucket list was to meet the Gruffalo. Well, after a day of exploring and visiting family today, we are heading to Chessington to do just that! So so excited.

So what better road trip snacks to take than these homemade Gruffalo Cupcakes! I quickly rustled them up this morning ready to pack up in the picnic basket and I was so pleased with how they turned out (usually I’m a bit of a baking disaster!) I thought I’d share how I made them with you guys.

I’ve also packed ‘Scrambled Snake’ pasta, ‘Little brown Mouse’ Cheeses sticks & ‘Roasted Fox’ snack size pies. I might share the recipes to all of these too in the next week or so.

I’ll warn you now, I’m a bit of a convenience baker. As a busy Mama with very little baking skill I am not ashamed to admit to using some shop bought packet ingredients so if you’re anything like me, you’ll love this recipe.

The recipe

Ingredients

125g self raising flour

125g caster sugar

125g softened butter / margarine

2 large eggs

Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Frosting

Ready made orange modelling icing

Chocolate sprinkles & balls

White chocolate sprinkles

Mini marshmallows (12, chopped in half diagonally)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180• Combine the flour, caster sugar, butter & eggs in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together until you have a smooth mixture.

Place 12 cupcake cases into a muffin tin and spoon equal amounts of the mixture into each one and pop in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until they’re risen and golden brown. I always do the knife test to check there’s no raw mixture inside.

Once baked, remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Once cooled it’s time to decorate! Using a spatula or straight side of a dinner knife spread chocolate frosting across the top of each cake. For these I scooped about a teaspoon of frosting onto each and then spread it in circular motions. Remember, it doesn’t have to be neat as you’re making a furry monster!

Next, make 24 pea sized balls from the orange icing by rolling small amounts in the palms of your hands. Add a chocolate ball sprinkle to make the pupil and then put the eyes in place on top of each cake.

Cut 12 mini marshmallows diagonally in half and place them on either side at the top of the cakes to make the Gruffalo’s horns.

Squeeze a dot of green writing icing in the middle to represent the ‘poisonous wart on the end of his nose followed by a handful of white chocolate sprinkles to make his terrible teeth in his terrible jaws!

Finally shake some chocolate sprinkles all over each cake for his fur.

These Gruffalo inspired cupcakes make the perfect snack for a day out at one of the many gruffalo trails & forests across the UK as well as fab party treats! They’re super tasty and bound to be a hit with any Gruffalo fans!