Mincemeat Streusel Muffins (Plain Muffin Recipe Vamped Up)

This was one of last Saturday's bakes that I took to work.

Saturday mornings in the showroom at Natural Heating  can be stupidly busy at this time of year. The other side of our company sells wood burning and multi fuel cast iron stoves. Lets face it, if we weren't busy selling fires and heating in the Autumn and Winter - there really would be something wrong !

Anyway, it can get crazy busy on Saturday mornings. People come along knowing they may need to wait a little while to be seen. During that time, it's a nicety to be able to offer a warm, home baked cake and a hot cup of coffee or tea.

Freshly brewed Italian coffee and home baked muffins and the scent of burning wood in the air just before you come in our door must be some of the best smells on earth.

This is a very basic muffin recipe I've been using for years. It doesn't stop me changing it around and vamping it up. Last Saturday, I actually made 24 muffins. Half of them were the mincemeat streusel and the others had a great dollop of raspberry jam in the middle and the tops had been brushed with butter and then dipped into caster sugar. The muffin equivalent of a jam doughnut.

The recipe for the mincemeat can be found in a previous blog entry here. For this vamped up version, I put a couple of teaspoons of the mincemeat on top of the batter in each paper cake case and them sprinkled some crumble topping over each one.

RECIPE - Makes 10 - or 12 if you vamp them !

240g plain flour
3 > 4 tsp baking powder

175g caster sugar

250mls milk

100mls oil

1 egg

pinch salt

vanilla

Sift dry ingredients into one bowl. Mix wet in another and then combine the two together. It will be lumpy, and you want to mix briefly - only until dry ingredients cannot be seen. Don't worry about the lumps !

Put into paper cake cases in a 12 cell silicone muffin bakeware mould on top of a baking tray.
 Bake at 180deg C for approx 20 mins or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.

October Visit to Oxburgh Hall

 The following day, Steve and I took Oliver out for a wander round Oxburgh Hall and it's stunning gardens. The last time I was at Oxburgh Hall, was just a few weeks before Oliver was born. They were having a re-enactment day, and when the cannons went off - Oliver certainly must have had a bit of a fright (it was very loud)  it as he kicked 10 bells out my insides !

My cheeky monkey got a handful of stones when we were not looking, then threw then in the moat....

14/10/12 - Oliver and Ellie take a break outside Oxburgh Hall

Looking back at Oxburgh Hall from the Woodland Walk

By the huge wooden doors at the entrance to Oxburgh Hall

Coming down the spiral staircase

Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside the hall - but Oliver thoroughly enjoyed sliding down the old toilet shoot into the hiding place (priests hole) in the middle of the castle wall. Steve went down too, but had a bit of a struggle to get out. If he had a struggle, I think I'd have been wedged tight !

Tending to the bugs in the gardens at Oxburgh Hall

Mummy and Oliver have a game of "Run and Hug"

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - Silicone Bakeware Specialists - October 2012