What parent doesn’t want the best for their children? From the day our little kidlets are born, we’re looking out for their best interests from food, to education, to playmates and influence.

We also love to give them yummy treats on special occasions. Frequently we like making special occasions out of ordinary days. We love creating things that will cause our children’s eyes to light up and sparkle. I know that I love to hear my son laugh when he’s delighted by something that I’ve presented him with. Pure, undefiled enjoyment of a young child. You cannot beat that with anything! Enter BabyCakes: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York’s Most Talked-About Bakery. Excepting the fact that I haven’t been talking very much about this bakery, everything else included in the title is true. This is the recipe book to beat all vegan recipe books for children. What is most appealing about it? Cupcakes. Cakes. Scones. Cobblers. Yummy sounding, tasty things that LOOK tasty also. Deliciousness. Furthermore, all of the things I just mentioned can be made with healthy ingredients.

The great thing about this particular recipe book is that it encourages special foods on ordinary (and otherwise) days but presents the food in such a way that you don’t have to feel so very guilty handing it over to your two year old. It encourages and provides recipes that use fresh fruits, agave nectar, coconut oil and apple sauce instead of sugars and other oils which are hard for little bodies to process. If the pictures are worth anything, you can use these alternative and all-natural ingredients and your food will still look fabulous and taste delicious. From vanilla cupcakes to blueberry crumb cake, to double chocolate chip cookies, I didn’t run across anything in this cookbook that looked un-edible. I myself would scarf any of it down and I imagine I wouldn’t have to bribe my two year old into some taste testing of his own. This book is good stuff, pure and simple.

If you or your little one suffer from any variety of food allergies or if you just want to avoid sugars, you’ll want to look into this particular cookbook. It can be discouraging to find desserts that aren’t packed with sugar and this book offers some suggestions and hope that even a strict diet can be a fun one.

Even if you already have a healthy household and are food conscious, this book is helpful in that you will not have to read an “ordinary” recipe and try to figure out the substitutions for eggs/sugar/gluten, etc. The measurements and ingredients are specifically for vegan/gluten-free foods making it very straight forward for the health conscious cook. I love it! Check out BabyCakes! I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

We have one copy of BabyCakes to give to one of you. Leave a comment (U.S. residents only) if you’d like to win.

The winner of Sometimes a Light Surprises is #11 -Becky .

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In addition to contributing to 5 Minutes for Books, Carrie blogs about books regularly at Reading to Know, and is the author of the 5 Minutes for Photography column.