Muffin top!

At the moment my sore throat is being held at bay. Mr FD says he feels better after "getting rid of stuff from behind his soft pallette". I really don't want to know quite what "stuff" he is referring too. Suffice to say, he is brighter today.

My planned "hard day's teaching" was curtailed by 4 hours when (rather belatedly) I received an email from the company saying they needed to cancel the lesson. Theoretically I should count it as a late cancellation (less than 24 hours in advance) and charge them for it, but they'd lose 4 hours of their lessons then. It hasn't really inconvenienced me, so I'm not going to bother....Mind you, if they do it again I might be tempted...!!

So, instead of teaching, I did some baking! My Friday afternoon student and I have started a tradition of providing cakes to buck us up late afternoon. So today, finding three pots of purée de pommes/peches  in the cupboard I decided to make muffins! One of the pots must have had a tiny hole in the lid as there was a big spot of mould on top of the purée. If it had just been for us I might have scraped off the mould and risked using it, but for someone else I decided not to.

I used this recipe 

Makes: 8 muffins

• 110g butter, room temperature
• 135g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tablespoon ground allspice
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 235ml apple sauce
• 190g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon dark brown soft sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4.

1. In a large bowl mix together the butter and the sugar until the mixture is creamy. Beat in eggs and mix well.
2. Next add the nutmeg, allspice, baking powder and the bicarbonate of soda. Mix in well. Then add the apple sauce and the plain flour mix it in all in and make sure it is light and fluffy. Put the mixture into muffin cases.
3. Mix in bowl the brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the muffins.
4. Bake the muffins in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

The recipe said it would make 8 muffins, but I actually made 14 good sized ones with the amount of mixture  - which Mr FD is very happy about as it means there'll be some for him too! I added some dried cranberries to the mixture as well. I'd've taken a photo but my camera is still mislaid. I think I'm going to have to spend Saturday having a really good look around the house. I can't imagine what has happened to it, as I don't often take it anywhere....

Yesterday afternoon was spent making a card for a friend. I'm rather happy with it, but it did take ages, just because I couldn't decide what to do.  The final card was an easel type card, with a couple of rather neat rosettes on it. If I find the camera before I give her the card, then I'll take a picture.  My inspiration was this card:

source

but it turned out quite different in the end! 

P.S. I sent Daniel (my student) a quick text to let him know I had made cake. He has just replied:

Yummy !

You know I am greedy.

Bless!