Desserts « Go Faster Food

Runners, cyclists, swimmers, walkers, tennis players, any athlete really, can often be seen munching on a banana as a favourite source of energy. Bananas are packed with potassium and other nutrients, and what’s more, they are tasty, not too sweet, and an excellent convenience food as they come all ready wrapped in an easy-peel wrapper.

According to recent research conducted at Appalachian State University’s Human Performance Lab into the benefits of eating bananas over a carbohydrate sports drink during intense cycling, bananas proved not only to be as effective as the sports drink, but also to have additional advantages. The study, which was carried out over a 75 km intense cycle ride, with cyclists either consuming a half a banana or a carbohydrate sports drink every 15 minutes, showed that those who consumed the bananas were provided with antioxidants not found in the sports drink, as well as a greater nutritional boost, including fibre, potassium and Vitamin B6. The bananas were also found to contain a healthier blend of sugars.
For more info on this, see ScienceDaily.com. There are no details, however, about the number of cyclists or the make-up of the sports drink, and it is interesting to see that the research was funded by Dole Foods, the world’s largest fruit and veg company!

Who knows whether this is biased or not, but, in fact, who cares, we love bananas at Go Faster Food! We combine bananas with skimmed milk, chocolate and egg white to make the ultimate sports recovery shake, see Chocolate Banana Shakes and we make the most deliciously moist Banana bread.

Victoria (makes a lovely sponge!)

Every now and then I get a craving to keep hens in the back garden but I’ve always chickened out (excuse the pun, I will now try to refrain from any further egg puns although so eggstremely tempting). Lucky for me, my lovely friend Jane Evans of Birdcombe Court Farm keeps me supplied with delicious freshly-laid beauties.

So as athletes, why should we eat eggs? Well,

blueberry pancakestrackfieldandroad.tv

This cake tastes too good to be be healthy.

If you’re doing lots of training at the moment, it’s really important to keep up your intake of vitamins and minerals as well as carbohydrate and protein. This cake is a good excuse to do just that… Upside-down cake or virtuous tarte tatin, this perfect autumn post-run treat is fool-proof, incredibly easy to make and highly nutritious. It is also really impressive served warm, as a dessert, accompanied by a dollop of cr

Whilst playing around with butternut squash recipes I fell upon the idea of grating it up and making a cake, just like you might do with carrot or courgette. It works! In fact, it works really, really well and what’s even more surprising, my daughter, who will normally extract any trace of butternut squash from her meal, absolutely adores it!

I think butternut squash is a fabulous vegetable and an excellent addition to any training diet. Bell-like in shape, it has a beautifully smooth, creamy-coloured skin which protects its dense, rich golden-yellow flesh. Its texture is deliciously soft; its taste sweet, buttery, nutty. It

I really didn’t like rice pudding until I started running. It was too sweet, too creamy and just too much like nursery food for my liking. How things have changed…I can’t get enough of the stuff now! Rice Pudding is FANTASTIC recovery food!!!!! After a big bike ride, swim or long run out in the cold, it not only warms you up but it has a great combination of fast-acting high G.I. carbohydrate (short-grain pudding rice) to replenish your depleted glycogen stores, plus protein and calcium from the milk to help towards muscle repair.

Rice pudding is particularly good as it takes minutes to prepare before you leave the house – pop it into the oven at a low temperature and its ready two to three hours later on your return! All you have to do it take it out of the oven and eat it up. Yum Yum.

Take a look at Go Faster Food for some more rice pudding ideas, but here’s a basic version you can just leave in the oven while you are out for your long training session:

  • 100g short-grain pudding rice
  • 1.2 litre semi-skimmed milk (you can use skimmed, full fat, soya milk, rice milk, whatever you prefer)
  • 3 tbsp demerara sugar (less if using sweetened soya or rice milk)
  • good grating of nutmeg
  • 1 cinnamon stick (optional)
  • 1 bay leaf (optional)
  1. Preheat the oven – fan oven 130

It’s a fairly tough week

18112009896Triple Chocolate Cake- Recipe for a perfect treat

As athletes, we do need a certain amount of fat in our diets, although of course it is important that we don’t over do it. Fat is important for transporting fat-soluble vitamins around our body and for releasing energy from carbohydrates, but too much fat will prevent us getting enough essential calories, vitamins and minerals from the carbohydrates and protein necessary for energy and muscle health.

My theory is that if you avoid processed foods as much as possible, you will automatically cut out unnecessary saturated fats from your diet – take a look at my training diet page.

There are three main types of fat: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Most foods contain a mixture of these:

Unsaturated fats – omega-3 and omega-6 are actually good for us! They can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and may even play a role in improving mood and brain power. These foods generally come from non-meat sources – avocados, oily fish, nuts and seeds, cold-pressed vegetable oils etc.

Saturated fats, on the other hand, tend to come from animal sources – butter, the juicy bit of fat on your steak, the clotted cream on your apple crumble, cheese, fats found in processed foods such as cakes, biscuits and pastries. We all know that we should keep these fats to the minimum as they can raise blood cholesterol and are not heart-friendly. An easy way to do this is to avoid processed foods and enjoy butter and cream etc in moderation (spread butter thinly rather than in great big slabs, for instance!)

When it comes to celebrations, I’m afraid to say that saturated fats are on the menu big time in my house. My son was 14 yesterday (but not as tall as me yet!) and I made him a triple chocolate cake to die for (quite literally if you ate it every day, but I do believe in a good treat once in a while, otherwise what is the point!). This makes a great dessert too, especially accompanied with strawberries or raspberries to take away a bit of the sweetness….possibly perfect as a treat after a really long and tough workout to replenish glycogen stores too. The white chocolate cream in the middle is light and airy and a fantastic contrast to the rich dark chocolate cream icing.

Here’s the recipe – the raspberry arrangement on the top is a 14 – not very clear in the photo!

Chocolate sponge:

  • 225g unsalted butter
  • 225g caster sugar
  • 4 large free-range eggs, lightly beaten
  • 180g self-raising flour, sifted18112009897
  • 50g cocoa, sifted
  • a splash of milk

White chocolate filling

  • 250ml whipping cream
  • 225g white chocolate

Dark chocolate icing

  • 300g dark chocolate
  • 100g unsalted butter
  • 70ml double cream

Method:

  1. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin and preheat the oven to 180C
  2. Make the sponge – Cream together the butter and sugar until pale, light and fluffy and then gradually beat in the eggs. Fold in the flour and the cocoa. The mixture should drop off the spoon – you may need to add a little milk to loosen the consistency if it is little too stiff. Pour into the tin and bake in the oven for 45 mins until nicely risen and springy to the touch. Leave in the tin for a few minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack.
  3. Make the white chocolate icing. Chop up the white chocolate into little pieces and place in a bowl. Bring the cream almost to the boil and then pour onto the white chocolate. Stir really vigorously until all the white chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth then place in the fridge to cool. It will become quite firm when it is chilled. Take the bowl out of the fridge and then whisk until the cream becomes nice and light.
  4. Make the dark chocolate icing. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and then stir in the butter and cream. Cool, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens up.
  5. Slice the cake into three layers. Spread the white chocolate icing onto each layer and sandwich together. Cover the top and side with the dark chocolate icing.
  6. Decorate the cake with raspberries, or chocolate curls, or perhaps a dusting of icing sugar (or all three if you like!)
  7. It is best to store this cake in the fridge.

I cooked a meal for our friends Phil and Jane on Saturday, also very close friends of the lovely Julie, and I have to say that it made us all feel a bit better – sitting around a table to chat and enjoy good food and good wine can sometimes be very therapeutic – a shared experience, it’s convivial,

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Kate Percy | Create Your Badge