Fruit and Almond Muffins

Happy Easter! Living here in Switzerland over Easter is a feast of chocolate. I'm really not complaining, it's amazing. But it is partly why I haven't been baking in the last week or so, with all the eggs and bunnies crying out to be eaten (well, maybe not exactly, the poor bunnies always look a bit miserable - but who wouldn't when your only prospect was being eaten!). And we still haven't finished eating the birthday cake leftovers - though I discovered today that the ganache freezes brilliantly. I think a trifle may be in order for the rest of the cake bits, and I'm plotting something to do with strawberry puree, the ganache and something creamy...

So in a rather pathetic attempt to get away from a weekend heaving with chocolate, I made some fruity muffins (well, you could also kind of call them cupcakes, but each to their own. I didn't want to make a heavy fruit cake like the traditional simnel cakes we used to make at Brownies, but something lighter. I started this yesterday, but ran out of time before a big closing party of my favourite apres ski bar - all I had done was start to heat the fruit with the zest and orange juice. This wasn't really a problem, as I just let the fruit seep overnight, which I should do but often lack the patience!

I spent most of today translating Beowulf from the original Anglo-Saxon into modern English for my Old English paper at uni, and kept myself going with the prospect of making something lovely with the seeped fruit. Thankfully I managed to finish the translation and make these before going out to play squash. I didn't really have a recipe in mind, so I decided to play about and see what came out. I used some lovely golden sultanas I had and some raisins for the fruit - currents and normal sultanas would be lovely too. I did think about using some dates, or glace cherries, but thought it might be too sweet.

I made a fairly stiff cake mix, laden with spices, as I knew I had the orange juice in the fruit. It looked a bit too stiff so I added some milk. Then I decided there wasn't enough 'stuff' in them, so I toasted some almonds and chucked them in. It happily made 12 muffins, and I sprinkled them with some flaked almonds. The mix still seemed heavy when I was spooning it out, but the baking powder really lifted them up and they were pretty light - though I think I slightly overcooked them. They went very nicely with a cup of tea after a game of squash...

Fruit and Almond Muffins

(Recipe removed on 05/07/12 as I don't trust it to work!)