Baking fairly for Sweet New Zealand

There are so many good Fair Trade and Trade Aid ingredients for baking, and although I have already submitted my entry for the Big Fair Bake I thought of using more 'fair' ingredients for Sweet New Zealand. The August edition is hosted by Munch Cooking as a celebration of Wellington on a Plate, so they have suggested using a Wellington ingredient, like Whittaker's (in my pack of Fair Trade goodies!)

I made some cupcakes using 3 eggs, 130 g of Trade Aid cane sugar, 1 tbsp of Trade Aid baking cocoa,  120 g butter, 1 banana and 150g of self rising flour. And then I added one square of milk chocolate in each cupcake. 

We ate half of them very quickly they were so good, and the other half Arantxa decorated and took to a sleep over to share with her friends.

 I made them again after a few days, but this time I put some of my date and chocolate truffles in the centre, plus I topped them with some whipped coconut cream, thus using 4 more Trade Aid ingredients.

I like to enter this post for Sweet New Zealand #37, the blogging event open to every one blogging in NZ, and all the Kiwi bloggers living overseas! This month of July is hosted by Munch Cooking. Click here to enter! And let me know if you are keen to host Sweet New Zealand in September!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Raw, vegan, sugar free and gluten free chocolate truffles

Yes these are raw, vegan, sugar free and gluten free chocolate truffles, but what's more they are made using only 4 Fair Trade ingredients: Trade Aid Palestinian almonds, Trade Aid cinnamon, Trade Aid Madjoul dates, and Trade Aid baking cocoa,  plus one local ingredient, Hazelz hazelnut flour from Canterbury. There is no sugar, no dairy product, and no need for cooking. And although this is not a baking recipe I still like to propose it for The Big Fair Bake, although I may actually enter a proper baking recipe later on… time permitting :-).

I like using Fair Trade products because they are in line with the Slow Food principles of Good, Clean and Fair food. And with my philosophy. Furthermore the quality is really good! Take the Medjoul dates for example, they are so sweet and delicious, they can substitute sugar in many preparations. The baking cocoa is so good that you don't need to use it just for baking, it is perfect for puddings and hot chocolate too. The Palestinian almonds are different from my favourite Italian almonds, but they are quite unique, a bit spicy in fact. The cinnamon really aromatic, you need just a tiny bit, I like to say 'a hint' :-). And the hazelnut flour is what's keep everything together so nicely! 

Ingredients:

4 Trade Aid Madjoul dates

20 Trade Aid Palestinian almonds

50 ml water

1 hint (i.e. a tiny pinch) Trade Aid cinnamon

1 tbsp Trade Aid baking cocoa, plus more to dust

2 tbsp Hazelz hazelnut powder, plus more to dust

Makes 12 truffles

Remove the stone from the dates and break up in rough pieces. Place in a cup with the almonds and 50 ml of water. Wait for 30 minutes to let the fruit soften a little and then blend with an immersion blender. 

Add the cinnamon, cocoa and hazelnut powder and mix with a spoon. Shape into 12 balls and roll half in cocoa and half in hazelnut flour. The best way to do this is roll the truffles first in cocoa or hazelnut flour, and then pass them between the palms of your hands quickly a few times so that you will get an even coating, and not too much of it, just the right amount. No need to refrigerate, just let them dry a bit on a tray before piling them into a serving bowl or glass.

I like to enter this post for Sweet New Zealand #36, the blogging event open to every one blogging in NZ, and all the Kiwi bloggers living overseas! This month of July is hosted by Libby at Ditch the Carbs. Click here to enter! Libby, I hope that this is your kind of sweet treat!! 

Please Support Fair Trade!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Slow Food, Fair Trade, and Oxfam, for the ethical Mum on Mother Day

On Sunday Slow Food Waitakere hosted Oxfam Biggest Coffee Break in West Auckland. It was also Mother's Day, and my kids learned to make coffee for me :-). Then I spent the morning cooking for the event, I made a banana flowers and potato salad with the two banana flowers I had in the garden (recipe here) and some mini vanilla cupcakes decorated with chocolate and chocolate and coffee ganache. Arantxa make chocolate daisies and chocolate coffee beans to decorate the cupcakes, and I cannot believe I didn't take photos!!! The Chocolate coffee beans looked real!!

Mother's Day card from my kids, an owl with apron and wooden spoon? Yes!!!

Cleaning the banana flowers to make a salad 

Fair Trade ingredients to make cupcakes for the Slow Food event

The event was great, and we were honored to have Julia Collins for All Good coming over to talk about Fair Trade. We learned a lot about what it means to choose Fair Trade for the farmers in producing countries, and also several interesting facts about New Zealand too: did you know that we eat 400,000,000 bananas each here in this country? Julia also gave us all a bunch of bananas, so thank you All Good Bananas. If you like to see photos of the event (and food) please click here.

A special thanks to Slow Food Waitakere members Penny and Yvonne for hosting the event, and to all who came along, and to the sponsors who offered Trade Aid goods for Oxfam's Biggest Coffee Break and Chocolate Break parties around New Zealand: Caffe L'affare, All Good, Whittaker's, Kokako, and Scarborough Fair. On the afternoon we raised NZ$385 for Oxfam New Zealand. 

See you at the next Slow Food Waitakere event!

Banana flower and potato salad: for the recipe click here

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini and Arantxa Zecchini Dowling ©

Be Fair, help us!

Slow Food Waitakere, in association with Oxfam New Zealand, presents:

SLOW FOOD WAITAKERE FAIR TRADE COFFEE BREAK

Slow Food Waitakere is hosting a Coffee Break, as part of Oxfam's Biggest Coffee Break during Fair Trade Fortnight and it would e great if you could come along!

Expect great food including fair trade coffee, tea, chocolate and bananas

(I think that I'll make cupcakes... any suggestions?)

Julia from All Good Bananas will be joining us!

So lets get together to taste the Fair Trade difference and fundraise for Oxfam's work towards a fairer, safer, more sustainable world.

When: Sunday 13 May at 3pm

Where: 5a Gane Lane, Te Ataty Peninsula

RSVP Anutosh0610@gmail.com or 834 9909

If you are in Auckland please come along :-).

Cost

$15 Slow Food Members

$20 Non Members

All Money raised will go to OXFAM