Back to basics

I lost the food battle tonight. You know the argument that happens between husband and wife, partners, housemates etc, takeaway or cooked meal! I was going to make home-made pizzas and have them as the recipe of the day and it fitted in perfectly with the state of origin! My husband had other ideas, he wanted Thai. Though I must admit it didn't take much twisting of my arm to agree (and he managed to get me as I just pulled up outside the supermarket)!!

As I thought about what I was going to put up for my recipe of the day (we are still eating yesterdays cupcakes!) I thought why not make it on icing! Icing you say, WTF!! But though I've been making icing for many years I seem to stuff it up every time. I always ending up making way too much icing because I add too much milk! And there's only so much icing you can eat! (though a flashback from childhood my cousin is a bit of a chocoholic, if there was no chocolate she would actually make up chocolate icing and eat the whole lot!!!)

On a different tangent before I write the recipe, I am in the process of researching the impact the a gluten free diet has on children or adults who are in the autism spectrum. I've got two university degrees and several years teaching; the one thing this has taught me about research is that secondary sources (books, academic papers etc) are good but primary sources (first hand encounters etc) are what really provides you with the nuts and bolts, the real evidence of whatever it is you are researching. So although I will be reading academic papers, articles, websites, the most effective research will be from talking to parents and caregivers of children who are in the autism spectrum to find out if a gf diet has resulted in any behavioural changes in their child.

My blogging friends, I am asking you a big favour, if you know someone who is on the autism spectrum and has tried the gf diet, ask them if they have any success with it an email me or alternatively give them my email address I'd love to hear from all people. If you even have a question, no matter how silly it may sound, comment on the blog or email me, I'll respond as best as I can.

Without further ado here is the recipe......

Recipe of the Day
Icing

Ingredients
 1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon margarine
1 tablespoon milk (have more milk aside as you may need to add more)
1 teaspoon cocoa (for chocolate icing)

Method
Place icing sugar, margarine, cocoa and milk into a bowl and mix well. You will probably need to add a bit more milk (this is the part I always stuff up, do it SLOWLY!!!), 1/2 tablespoon at a time. The best thing is with icing, if you add too much milk you can add more icing sugar and if you add too much icing sugar you can add more milk!!

1 cup of icing sugar may not be enough to cover a large cake, but a 1 cup basis is easiest to work with when making more or less icing!

If you want to make a vanilla icing, add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence. But if you fancy some lovely bright coloured icing, be very CAREFUL with how much food colouring you add, one extra drop can make icing look like play dough (trust me I've done it many times!)

Good luck with the icing and I hope this works for you (remember icing is meant to go on cakes!).

Enjoy
xxxx