Lemon and white chocolate muffins, to be more precise. As I needed to use up some spare lemons whilst simultaneously satisfying my sweet cravings this week, I decided to do some baking - my first sweet bake in the flat.
Anyhow, these are great for either snacking at home or consuming on the move; I've discovered that the little cakes are perfect lunchbox food. And to top it off, I actually iced them (with two separate icings, how indulgent), something I can rarely be bothered to do. Below is one of the finished works smothered in the white chocolate buttercream - perhaps not looking very glamorous (as I'll explain below, I had a traumatic icing bag experience) but tasting delicious, oh yesss.
The little reusable cupcake cases are incredibly handy as well. I think these butterfly ones were actually purchased from Matalan - I've got two packs of eight - and I really do use them all the time.
As the batter mix created really is quite substantial, I baked and iced my cakes before freezing half - first placing them in the freezer on a baking tray covered in cling film for 2hrs, before removing and literally throwing them, in their cases, into a plastic freezer-bag (also good to have on hand in the kitchen). If you're not a sharing person and simply can't see yourself eating 15 muffins in 4-5 days, I'd suggest you either make up half or do what I've done and freeze them. This way you can just pluck out a cake before running off to uni/school/work, and within 20mins you'll have a defrosted (and delish) snack.
Anyway, the basis of the cake recipe I've used is adapted from the www.goodtoknow.co.uk website* - I've provided a direct link below if you want the specific recipe page!
*Makes - in my case - 6 large and 9 small muffins*
120g butter
150g caster sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
200g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
125ml milk
50g white chocolate, chopped into small chunks
1. Preheat oven to 180' and grease cupcake tin, if using - reusable/paper cases don't need to be greased.
2. Cream butter and sugar before zesting your lemon into the bowl and adding the vanilla, mixing well. Now crack your eggs into the bowl one by one, beating the mixture before adding the second egg and beating again until combined.
3. Measure out flour and add baking powder to it (mix it into the flour as that eliminates the chance of getting bitter mouthfuls of baking powder in the cake: not pleasant). Now add half of this flour/baking powder mix into the creamed sugar/butter, along with half of the milk. Stir until almost combined before adding the last half of your flour/baking powder mix and milk. Before mixing these into the unfinished batter, add the chocolate chunks, and finally, combine everything - but don't over-mix as it will make the cakes chewy and dry. Spoon the batter into the cupcake cases and bake for around 18mins in your preheated oven. The picture below shows the raw cakes upon being placed in the oven - when the cakes come out, they will have risen considerably (yay) and will, hopefully, have taken on a nice golden colour.
4. Whilst the muffins are cooking, create your icings, if using. I made two - one dictated on the recipe I followed that I rather fancied (a rich white chocolate buttercream frosting), and one that I've been using for years and love equally (a delightfully sharp lemon juice/icing sugar glaze - made very thickly on this occasion for my boyfriend who has a penchant for traditional 'iced-bun icing'). Both taste great on these cakes.
White chocolate buttercream:
100g butter
150g icing sugar
50-100g white chocolate, melted
Cream sugar and icing sugar (gently at first to avoid icing sugar being blown all over you and your kitchen - whoops) whilst the chocolate is melting on a low heat in a saucepan (I know you're not supposed to melt chocolate like this but if you use a very low heat, trust me, it's perfectly adequate). When the chocolate is melted, allow it to cool down a little before mixing into the butter icing, and refrigerating to harden the icing before piping.
Note on piping: I struck disaster because my chocolate was studded with puffed rice. Suffice to say that my piping bag became blocked and thus the pyramid-like swirls of icing I'd envisaged for my muffins became impossible. You might fare better than me if you use plain, unadorned white chocolate in the icing mixture...
Lemon/icing sugar glaze:
Juice of 1/2 lemon
100g icing sugar
Literally add one to the other and mix well, adding more of either sugar or juice until your desired taste/texture has been reached. Refrigerate before using to harden the icing a little. (This glaze is perfect for lemon drizzle cakes, just so you know.)
6. Once your muffins and icings have collectively cooled, get icing! I'm rather happy with the photo below as there are only five cakes on the plate, alternately iced - the missing sixth cake tells you how irresistible they are: Robbie had eaten it before the icing made it to the poor cake.
I hope you love these cakes and icings as much as we did - and hopefully you'll have more luck with a piping bag than me!
Maddie
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