Hello,
A very toasty welcome to this week's newsletter from the sunny South coast.
We're just home from a magical birthday celebration for Iris at a local nature reserve, surrounded by majestic oak trees, with all her brilliant friends. There were so many moments of joy; she had a wonderful time. I loved the wild, freerange kids playing for hours on end. So grateful for our supportive, uplifting home ed community!
We've mainly spent the week cooling off in the paddling pool, between trips to hang out with friends, go trampolining and swim in the sea.
At work we've just finished our 126th issue, which marks 21 years of making the magazine! It'll be out the week after next and the theme is Simplicity. Get your copy delivered to your door here.
Oh, I just heard that the WWF have announced 17 Feel Good Forests Trails, which will launch next week. You can download a forest activity pack here.
Today's photograph is of the brilliant book Snail Mail by Michelle Mackintosh - find out why Iris and I love sending letters below.
Here's What We've Been up to This Week
Celebrating Birthdays
It's three of our kids' birthdays this week - so lots of celebrations, and cake! Iris chose a lemon drizzle cake (here's my fave recipe for a moist, light cake), made by her Dad and he also whipped up some gluten-free vegan cupcakes too.
Here's the recipe, created by Rhian at Rhian's Recipes.
Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Place 60g coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water.
Once melted, add 180ml almond milk to the same bowl along with 8 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp lemon zest, 12 tbsp maple syrup, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 150g ground almonds.
Sift in 150g gluten-free flour (we use the Doves Farm one), 2 tsp baking powder (make sure it's gluten-free) and 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda.
Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry
Divide mixture between 12 cupcake cases in a cupcake tray.
Bake in oven for around 15 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Once out the oven, transfer cupcakes onto a wire rack to cool completely. You can add frosting or just sieve over some icing sugar and lemon zest. Enjoy!
