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Peter’s school throws a birthday party for each child on the class day nearest to his or her birthday. So, today is Peter’s first school birthday party!  And that requires me to provide the snack for the day.  

 I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but the days of bringing birthday cupcakes to school are over. It says so right in the school’s handbook. You see, those cupcakes may contain peanuts, eggs, dairy, wheat, gluten, chocolate, and for all we know, mad cow disease.  Cupcakes and birthday cakes are forbidden at many schools now since they may contain potential allergens.  

I take allergies very seriously. My niece has a peanut allergy and because of that I held off giving nuts to Peter until just a few months ago. Thankfully he is not allergic, which makes snack time so much easier now that I can give him the nut-filled Lara bars that I am addicted to often eat.  Being a student of nutrition, I am confounded by the number and types of allergies kids have these days.  I just don’t get it.  Searching the web brings up an array of theories, none of which provide a definitive explanation.  But, that topic can be a post (or book) on its own.  

I wanted to bring a snack a little more festive than a box of Goldfish crackers, so today’s post is about the wacky, but hopefully allergen-free, ”cupcakes” I made for Peter’s class this morning. I got the idea from Angela at Oh She Glows . (Thanks, Angela!) 

I made a “frosting” by combining sunflower seed butter and brown rice syrup fluff: 

 

Cored and halved organic apples: 

 

Plopped the “frosting” on the apple halves and jazzed them up by topping them with carob chips: 

 

 (I apologize for the horrendous pictures.  I was running very late this morning.) 

OK, so this version tastes…fine.  However, when I make them for us at home, I’ll definitely use the peanut butter and fluff “frosting” with real dark chocolate chips version. Peter liked both versions, actually.  Regardless of the version, I think it is a cute idea and it will be fun to experiment with different types of “frosting.” 

I’m off to pick up Peter from school. We’ll see how well these “cupcakes” went over with the rest of the class!

Tagged: allergies, apples, children, lara bar, sunflower seed butter