It’s hard to know which food battles are worth fighting these days — especially as a parent.

Last year, NBC News ran a story about an aggressive child who’s behavior was transformed by a simple dietary change: the removal of artificial food dyes. The story is remarkable.

According to the same report, researchers found that 64 percent of the 27 clinical studies analyzed showed an association between food coloring and children’s behavioral problems.

Tough facts to swallow as we enter into a season filled with Halloween candy and other holiday treats! But we’ve got good news — you can make wildly colorful treats without any toxic ingredients…

How To Make Natural Blue Frosting

Knowing how to create fun, colorful treats at home can go a long way in avoiding dangerous ingredients without spoiling the fun. The most fun color of them all — neon blue! — can easily be achieved with butterfly pea flower powder at home.

These gorgeous baked donuts are frosted with blue (and purple!) frosting using Anima Mundi’s new Butterfly Pea Flower. Here’s why this simple plant-based powder deserve a permanent spot in your pantry for Halloween, birthday parties and beyond…

The Health Benefits of Butterfly Pea Flower 

Called Anchan tea in Ayurvedic tradition, butterfly pea flower’s vibrant blue shade contains many of the same health-promoting compounds you’d expect from foods like blueberries. The blue powder contains the antioxidant anthocyanin, also found in red grapes, cherries, pomegranate, purple cauliflower and red radishes.

Most often consumed as a tea, this is the first plant-derived natural blue source to be approved by the FDA.

According to Anima Mundi’s founding herbalist Adriana Ayales, butterfly pea flower tea is also used traditionally for healthy-looking skin, hair and eyes. “Proanthocyanidin and anthocyanin helps to stimulate collagen production and elastin synthesis. What’s more: research has affirmed that the flower can also inhibit glycation, the process of metabolism that leads to wrinkled skin.”

Not only does butterfly pea flower make you outwardly radiant, it also works from inside the body to activate the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.

While we lose some of these acetylcholine receptors as we age, certain functions also suffer. These include how we experience pain, learning, memory function, and muscle movement. Further, acetylcholine helps to regulate the endocrine system (responsible for hormone balance and REM – rapid eye movement sleep cycles). That means butterfly pea flower contains important properties for both physical and cognitive mental health.”

…And Natural Purple Frosting Too!

As though the health benefits and rich color of butterfly pea flower aren’t enough, a spritz of lemon will also change your tea, frosting and other concoctions into a vibrant violet!

If you’re looking for ways to excite your kids (or friends!) with clean eating, we can’t think of a better addition to your pantry than Anima Mundi’s new organic powder. Add a little to bottle of water or bowl of cereal to turn it blue or purple — without adding toxic food colorings.

Baked Donuts with Butterfly Pea Flower Frosting

Make these baked donuts with natural blue frosting by Sarah of the Sculpted Kitchen for Anima Mundi. We recommend setting a bit of frosting aside and adding lemon so that you can use both colors!

For Gluten-Free Donuts:

2 cups hazelnut meal
1 cup oat meal
2 tsp baking powder
1 flax egg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1 cup coconut sugar
4 tbsp apple sauce or coconut oil
1/2 cup milk + 1 tsp apple cider

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven at 350F°
Combine all ingredients in one bowl.
Fill a donut pan 3/4 full. These don’t rise as much as gluten ones. Bake for 10 mins. Let cool completely. They need to be soft and they’ll taste fudgey!

For non-gluten free donuts:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup coconut sugar/refined sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
pinch cinnamon
1/2 cup plant based milk
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 T butter/apple sauce/coconut oil/1 flax egg
1/4 raspberries or wild blueberries

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F °
2. Set aside your milk with apple cider vinegar
3. Mix all your ingredients together in one bowl, adding your milk that you set aside.. Note, if using apple sauce the donuts will have an apple taste. It tastes really nice. If using coconut oil, it’ll have a coconut taste. The best version was with flax meal. They were firm, light and couldn’t taste a flavour.
4. Fill a donut pan half way to 3/4 of the way. Bake for 12 mins. Let it cool completely.

For the Blue Frosting / Glaze:

2 cups of icing sugar
5-6 tbsp of milk
1 tsp of Anima Mundi Butterfly Pea Powder
Optional: 1 -2 tsp of lemon juice to turn things purple!

Method:
1. Warm up your milk for 20 seconds in the microwave.
2. Add your tsp of butterfly pea powder until it’s evenly mixed.
3. Slowly add this to your icing sugar. Check for consistency – if it’s too thick, add more milk. If it’s too thin, add more icing sugar.
4. Optional, if you want to have purple icing add lemon juice BEFORE you add your blue butterfly pea milk you made to the icing sugar. Alternatively, you can just make more donuts and purple glaze to your next set of donuts.
5. Garnish and enjoy your magical donuts!