Easter is of course a time when we reflect on the reason for the holiday, but as with all our rituals of life, food is often the central focus. 

Rather than look at the obvious one, chocolate, I decided to focus this year on bread - yes bread! We eat it every day but at Easter we often eat special bread treats like Hot Cross Buns.

In the pantry we are eating Hot Cross Buns in our lunch boxes most days as well as warmed up on the weekends and the ones that we are buying are Brumby’s Nuttella Hot Cross Buns. 

These buns have Nuttella inside them (YUM!) and are made fresh every day at Brumby’s bakeries so they are preservative free. They also don’t have dried fruit so again are missing that preserving nasty. 

Your bakery will also now start making fruit free buns, if Nuttella is not your thing. If it is your thing though, they also have a double choc bun - just for a little more decadence this Easter. Be quick though - Easter has a use by date!!

The Festive Season has arrived quite quickly in my opinion and so that means turning our minds to thoughts of specific celebration foods. I try to make as much as I can this time of year but of course that's not always possible.

A great product to have on the Christmas table, share with friends at pre-holiday catch ups or send with the kids to school break up parties is Shortbread

It's sweet for those of us with a sweet tooth and fine festive fair (some even come in Christmas shapes!). What's more it's additive and preservative free! So instead of reaching for a packet of choccie biscuits take another look at grandma's old favourite - Shortbread.

You can add to that list as well Gingerbread! Another great favourite free of nasties. But be warned! Not all Shortbreads and Gingerbreads are baked equally. Once you start adding flavours and decorative colours and sweets then some thorough label checking is required.

Take for example those I have pictured. Walkers is a great brand as they are sold internationally and stick to your basic recipe of flour, butter, sugar and salt, so all good (unless you eat Gluten free).

The other clear package of flavoured Cranberry and Pistachio Shortbread bites is not so straight forward. The pistacio's and cranberries have been treated with a sulphite and it lists an ingredient "natural flavours" - well what does that mean? Very obscure!

The other product pictured is Woolworths Elfies Gingerbread Men with iced decoration. Normally this would be a stay away product but in fact the iced colouring is made from Beetroots used for their red colour and Lutein used for it's orange colouring - both perfectly safe.

So feel free to spoil the littlies this silly season with these treats!

This time of year is party central for our family, we have a number of birthday parties and are invited to many leading up to the Christmas festive season.

Recently I discovered a way of coloring my children's cakes with these natural food coloring's from Hopper's Natural Foods.

They have a great range of colors and even sprinkles and 100's of 1,000's. You can order them online here and even though they are based in Australia they do overseas orders as well.

They are made from natural ingredients for example the orange is made from carrots funnily enough.

Just a word of advice, it is suggested to add citric acid to help brighten the colors - just don't add as much as me or your icing will be very lemony!! Check out my daughters birthday cake colored with Hoppers!