floral and feather: Bake | Cranberry and orange winter muffins

22/11/2015

Bake | Cranberry and orange winter muffins

It's been far too long since there's been some baking around these parts. So to rectify this somewhat unacceptable oversight I spent Saturday afternoon making these delicious cranberry and orange muffins. The seasonally appropriate flavours keep them festive but the simple decoration avoids early Christmas overload - I’m holding out until 1st December at least before starting on the mince pies. You could argue that the cranberries and oranges make them better for you than some other Christmassy treats, chocolate log I’m looking at you, but y’know it’s still cake. Everything in moderation and all that. One thing I have discovered recently from British Lion Eggs is that there are surprisingly few calories in an egg* and we’ve been incorporating them into our meals a lot recently, always free range of course.

Ingredients 175g (6oz) butter 175g (6oz) caster sugar 4 eggs 300g (10oz) self-raising flour 100g (3½oz) dried cranberries 100g (3½oz) candied orange peel 50g (2oz) ground almonds grated zest 1 orange For the glaze 2 tbl spoons caster sugar 2 tbl spoons orange juice
Method
Heat your oven to Gas 3, 160°C, fan 140°C. Set out the muffin/cupcake cases.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy then gradually beat in the eggs.
Stir in the flour with the cranberries, orange peel, almonds and orange zest.
Spoon into muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes or until golden and a knife comes out clean. Allow to cool.
To decorate put 2 tablespoons orange juice and 2 tablespoons of the sugar into a small pan and boil for 2 minutes until syrupy. Then drizzle over the cakes and decorate with a few leftover cranberries.