Joy 'N' Escapade

It's the time of the year that I need to look for healthy homemade snacks that don't give me empty calories. Then, fate has it that I come across BlackNbeige Cravings on Facebook. Hahaha!

BlackNbeige Cravings aims to provide the best healthy selection for clean eating with deliciously healthy convenient meals and snacks. Their core products are:

ChiaOats
Yogurt Parfaits
Fruity Infusion Detox Drinks
Healthy Walnut Brownies (made with organic brown sugar, kampung eggs, 62% imported dark chocolate topped with choice of Salted Caramel or Rich Chocolate Ganache)

Let's see the flavors that I have recently bought and tried.

ChiaOats

First I'm given the menu above. For ChiaOats, I get to choose the fruits I want and pair each fruit with my choice of flavoring, i.e. cocoa, honey, milk, or yogurt. For ChiaYogurt Parfait, I can choose the fruits I want.

My fruit choices for ChiaOats are peach, blueberries, avocado, apricot, and apple. The layering of ingredients is nicely done: organic rolled oats at the bottom of each jar, topped with fruits, then organic chia seeds with selected flavoring (cocoa/honey/milk/yogurt), and lastly raisins, nuts, and seeds.

Yogurt Parfait

For Yogurt Parfait, I have mango and cherries. The layering of ingredients is nicely done: Greek yogurt at the bottom of each jar, topped with fruits, then organic chia seeds with yogurt, and lastly raisins, nuts, and granola.

Now, let me show you the photos of each flavor that I have tried.

ChiaOats - Apple Cinnamon

I like the soft apple chunks, it feels like eating cold apple crumble in a jar. I like it!

ChiaOats - Avocado Cocoa

Generous amount of avocado! I'm a big fan of eating avocado without additional flavoring. For cocoa fans, this avocado cocoa combo is great. For me, I'll opt for avocado honey combo. :D

ChiaOats - Apricot Yogurt

The apricot slices are firm to the bite, just how I like my apricots to be. I'd love to drizzle lots of honey over this jar of decadent snack!

ChiaOats - Peach Honey

I love this combo - peach and honey! Just like its apricot counterpart, I'd love to eat this snack with drizzles of honey too.

ChiaOats - Berries Milk

The blueberries can be replaced with other berries such as strawberries.

Yogurt Parfaits - Cherry Parfait, Mango Parfait

The yogurt parfaits are my favorite! Just look at those beautiful ingredients!

Infusion Drinks - Tropical Twist

This is a really refreshing drink with bits of mango, passion fruit, and chia seeds.

How to order from BlackNbeige Cravings?

For more information, please visit BlackNbeige Cravings on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blacknbeige/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blacknbeigecravings/

BlackNbeige Cravings is listed on Featured Mommypreneurs on joycescapade.com.

This was my son's two-year-old birthday cake last year, a custom-made jelly cake by my friend. :)

It can be quite tricky to find a birthday cake for boys. Unless you bake or order it custom-made, buying a cake from a cafe means you won't get exactly the right theme.

Luckily, you can now get novelty themed cakes online in Malaysia. I visited RecomN.com and immediately found a list of recommended bakers who specialize in birthday cakes for boys. They have a mix of home bakers as well as professionally-trained bakers.

Instead of browsing through a catalog, I entered my requirements into an online form e.g. the theme I wanted, what flavor I preferred, how many servings, etc. The best starting place is to find out what your son is into at the moment.

Does he like cars? Avengers? Disney? Minions? Have a look at some examples I found:

Avengers Cake

Source: Eats & Treats Bakery

Boys adore superheroes! Since there are a lot of superhero movies coming out in the cinema, you should think of having a superhero themed cake for your son. You don't have to pick one superhero if you can get 4 superheroes at the same time. Just like this Marvel's Avengers cake, decorated with the fondant of Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America.

Sports Theme Cake

Source: Shaniel Cake Artistry

Support your son's healthy hobby with a cake shaped like his favorite sports game! Just like how this cake is shaped like a tennis court decorated with tennis balls and rackets. The additional net in the middle makes it more attractive. It would encourage him to do his hobby even more.

Transformers Cake

Source: Little Collins

Does your son love Transformers? Then this Bumblebee-themed cake with Autobots logo will hit the spot. If not, there's always the familiar red and blue of Optimus Prime.

Minecraft Cake

Source: Mad About Cake (http://www.recomn.com/businesses/mad-about-cake)

Surprise him with this Minecraft-themed cake. I would be surprised if any boy doesn't know what is Minecraft. But for Moms who don't know much about Minecraft, you can read this guide. Look at the details! The blocks and the characters look awesome.

McDonald's Cake

Source: Eats & Treats Bakery

Your son may not necessarily be into any specific toy at the moment, but I'm sure he loves his McDonald's. Surprise him with a McDonald's-themed cake in the shape of a burger and fries. It looks so real that he might expect to find meat in the middle (it's actually chocolate).

Animal Safari Cake

Source: Sweet Memories by Jas

What about animals instead? If your son loves nothing more than to visit the zoo, give him this cake decorated with his favorite wild animals. The best part is, you can pick his favorite animals because it's made-to-order.

Sesame Street Cake

Source: Sweet Endings

Sesame Street cake could be a good option if your son loves watching cartoons. Pick a red velvet cake or chocolate cake and cover it with colorful icing and decorate it with Sesame Street characters such as Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar, and Big Bird.

Wow! So many options to choose from! Most bakers need at least a week to prepare (depending on how complex your cake is), so you must place your cake order in advance. It's a great place to get recommendations for the best cake bakers in Malaysia.