Eli’s not the easiest baby to have around when you’re trying to cook or bake something – he’s quite annoyed at not being able to see what is going on and then tries to grab everything if you’re cuddling him. So if I want to make anything it really needs to be quick and easy and that’s why I love these muffins. They satiate my need to bake but unlike cakes don’t need to be iced so a few steps and 30ish minutes and I’m eating yummy food. The base recipe I use is by John Burton Race and I found it in a kids cookbook called ‘Star Cooks’ that Lex was given as a gift some years ago.
So far I’ve made a variety of flavours and they’ve all been yummy – blueberry, blueberry and raspberry; raspberry and white choc chip; apricot; peach and choc chip; cranberry, white choc chip and poppy-seed; cranberry and white choc chip; and blueberry and banana. The only problem with making them is I then end up eating them all within a few days…
Equipment
- 12 hole muffin tray
- silicon or paper muffin cups or a little bit of butter for greasing the muffin tray
- 2 mixing bowls
- measuring jug
- whisk
- mixing spoon
- scales
- measuring spoons
Ingredients
- 500g plain flour
- 250g castor sugar
- 2 tsp custard powder
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 150g – 200g chopped fruit (fresh, frozen or dried)/nuts/seeds/choc chips
- 2 eggs
- 185ml sunflower oil
- 185ml milk
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 190°C.
- Place the muffin cups in the tray or lightly grease the tray if not using muffin cups (I use a set of silicon muffin cups because I can’t really be bothered with the effort of greasing or the waste of paper).
- Whisk the milk, oil and eggs together.
- In another bowl place the remaining ingredients.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until all the flour is incorporated (can take a little bit of elbow grease).
- Portion the batter into the muffin cups – the muffins don’t rise excessively so don’t worry if they are quite full.
- Place the tray in the oven and bake for 20-35 minutes until the muffins are golden and springy when touched.
- Once cooked remove the muffins from the oven, allow to cool for 5 minutes and then place on a wire cooling rack (I take mine out of the silicon cups at this point).
- Eat at least one muffin warm from the oven.
