The Heart of The Deceptive Dish

Welcome to The Deceptive Dish. This collection of recipes is very close to my heart, born not out of a fad, but out of love and necessity.

It all started when my dad began suffering from painful gallstones. The doctor's advice was clear and strict: he needed to adopt a very low-fat diet immediately to manage the condition. For a man who loved his food—especially the comforting warmth of puddings and cakes—this felt like a heavy sentence.

Watching him miss out on the meals he enjoyed was difficult. I realized that "low fat" didn't have to mean "low joy." I set myself a challenge: to recreate his favourite treats, but without the fat that caused him pain.

I spent hours in the kitchen, experimenting with polenta for texture, using apple sauce for moisture, and discovering how ingredients like skimmed milk powder could rebuild the structure of a cake that butter usually provides. There were plenty of failures along the way, but eventually, we found success.

The Golden Ginger Polenta Cake and the Lemon Drizzle you see here are the results of that journey. They are proof that you can have your cake and eat it too, even when health concerns try to get in the way.

Whether you are here for health reasons, or just looking for lighter alternatives that taste indulgent, I hope these recipes bring as much happiness to your table as they did to ours.