How not to travel muffins...

Whilst feeling very clever from the success of the muffins I took to the Polo Nationals I decided it would be good planning to bake a second batch of muffins for Giles to have for breakfast during ourcycle trip (Oxford to Padstow in 4 days, casual...) so did some baking the night before we left and made some dried fruit, lemon and oat muffins.

I adapted the standard muffin recipe I like to use: 200 g self-raising flour
                                                                                100 g oats whizzed in the food processer
                                                                                1/2 tsp baking powder
                                                                                1 medium egg
                                                                                175ml milk
                                                                                125ml vegetable oil
                                                                                pinch salt
                                                                                150g sugar
- sieve flours and add sugar and salt
- mix egg, milk and oil together and add to the dry ingredients
- mix until just combined and add flavouring; I used the grated rind of 1 lemon and some raisins
Bake at 180 C for 20 mintues


But what I failed to plan was how they would travel; wrapping them in silver foil and popping them into a bag with 2 jars of peanut butter and a sleeping bag didn't suit them very well.

Whoops...

I did make some energy bars that did travel well and did get eaten before I took a photo of them which were adapted from the basic flapjack recipe I like.
2 oz butter (I used margarine so I could eat them)
2 oz peanut butter
2 oz demerara sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp treacle
6 oz oats
- melt the butter, peanut butter, syrups and sugar and add the dry ingredients
- I added 2 mashed bananas into the mix before pressing it into the 8" square tin.
Bake at 180 C for 20 mintues.

Blueberry Cake

I made this cake for the Nationals but it was so beautiful (and the process so ridiculous) that I had to give it its' own post.  The first attempt saw me make a rookie error and totally ignore the guidance in the book to 'only fill the tin 3/4 full' and just kept pouring the batter in.....obviously the cake exploded in the oven and overflowed so didn't cook properly in the middle so I drove it to Giles' flat, scooped it out with a big spoon and left the boys eating it with spoons from bowls.

Second time round I made 6 muffins with the leftover batter and produced a beautiful cake!

Summer Nationals Baking

I've finally finished the taught part of my Masters so I've got a bit more time on ym hands now (except that I still have ym dissertation to write but I keep forgetting about that...) plus I got my laptop back today from Dell so I've actually got a computer I can work on without having to squint or use a magnifying glass to look at...

Last weekend we went to the SUPA Summer Polo Nationals at Offchurch Bury polo club so I obviously had to make something to take after having made so many flapjacks at the Winters.  But I didn't want to make anything I've made before again because thats boring so I tried some new recipes...

These honey and granola flapjacks acted as replacements for my flappy j's and went down nicely, they were so sugary that Giles ate the leftovers when we were cycling and he got tired.

7oz butter
7oz demerara sugar
7oz honey
14 oz granola

-melt the butter, sugar and honey together then stir in the dry ingredients.
- bake in a 7" square tin at 180 C for 25-30 minutes.

I had a bit of a balls up making the (badly photographed) coconut and lime loaf; the recipe said 45 minutes so I popped out to force feed some exploded cake to Giles, Rich and Rich and got back to a kitchen full of smoke.  The little cake survived though so I covered it in limey sugary drizzle and dessicated coconut and boxed it up to go.




In an attempt to be clcver I made some muffins for breakfast; banana and cinnamon for the other campers and vegan banana and cinnamon for me (recipe in a later post) so I didn't feel too left out! It was a Hummingbird recipe and I don't really trust them all that much but they turned out nicely, lasted well given how I stored them and all got eaten!