Decadent and healthy? Is there such a thing when it comes to desserts? You bet! Discover how good dessert can be without all the sugar, butter and cream we normally associate with sweet treats.
You might have to forgive me if I bombard you with delicious and decadent desserts for the next month or so. You see, I have a dessert cookbook to complete by mid-August and I've been procrastinating—my, oh my!

We all have our own process and approach when it comes to getting things done. When I was writing my first cookbook, I was given a year to complete the manuscript. At the time I had just finished a four-year stint as a personal chef, travelling the world with a very busy family, and all I wanted to do was to forget about food and cooking for a while and sit on a lovely beach staring out to sea.

And that's exactly what I did. I moved to Kauai and spent my days hiking, swimming, dancing and playing in nature. In the back of my mind, there was always the nagging thought, "I'm supposed to be writing a book," but try as I might, I couldn't get myself to sit at my computer and write. I would, however, always have a notebook and pen in my pocket, and whenever I got the inspiration, I would sit on a rock on the beach or by the foot of a tree on my hike and write. Even though I wasn't cooking in the sense of meal planning, making shopping lists and earning a salary, I was constantly whipping up delights to keep myself and my friends happy, or for picnics on the beach. Toward the end of the year that my cookbook was due, I was talking to a friend who had written a cookbook several years earlier. She told me she pretty much put her life on hold for a year, moved in with her mum and worked on her book 10 hours a day, seven days a week—boy, did that make me feel guilty!

However, somehow while I played and had fun, my book magically got written. I have talked before about my kitchen fairies, and—yes!—they did it again. It was confirmation once again that when I'm loving life and having fun, I'm at my most productive. I wasn't consciously "writing my book," but when I put all the pieces of paper together, there it was—like a beautiful jigsaw puzzle. When it went on to be singled out as "Best Health and Nutrition Cookbook in the World" at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, it was further confirmation that magic does happen and I believe that—just as my first one did—this one too shall be complete by the due date in mid-August...with you as my recipe testers!


Find out how Aine is going to create decadent, healthy desserts

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