Big Blueberry Muffins For Breakfast

When most folk buy a new camera what do they do? Oh you know, maybe take a walk and photograph some landscapes, take pictures of their friends, family, maybe even their pets. What did i do? Headed straight for a quick and easy but damn yummy blueberry muffin recipe from my magnolia bakery book to create some little bundles of blueberry joy that would make for the perfect test subjects for my new camera. I was picturing big fluffy white muffins with bright blue spots all over them to make for fantastic foodie bloggy photos.
What i got was even better! Big proud, fluffy, but dense (good dense, buttermilk was involved, however full fat milk works fine) with bursts of burst purple blueberries, specks of white chocolate chips and lovely glazed tops.
Why did i add white chocolate? Er cause. Chocolate.
Oh they also read the manual. I have a certificate somewhere that says i'm pure BA boss at photography, so i left the manual in the box and headed straight for the kitchen. So really i still have no clue how to use my new camera.

Next time i make them i will 100% use chocolate chunks from an actual bar rather than chips, there wasn't enough chocolate! Are you a crazy woman i hear you all cry. Well when i took them into work Hayley who sits on the desk opposite noticed pretty much straight away. And if a fellow lady notices there isn't enough chocolate about, well, we have a problem!
However when you did get a bite of the dense soft sponge, big soft blueberry and a decadent swirl of the white chocolate all at once then it was the perfect combination i had pictured when fruit, chocolate and breakfast foods join together in holy muffin matrimony.
They made for welcomed thursday breakfast treats in the office and in the saxton household. Apart from my sister who is weirdly allergic to white chocolate. The milky bar kid is tres sad.

The really quick and easy one bowl recipe from the magnolia bakery book is in the link after the pics. Bring that cliche freshly baked muffin smell into your casa pronto!

Tips:
-I made my own DIY cases with squares of baking paper cut 20cm wide, place them over the muffin tin and use a small cup to press them down into the tins. The muffins cooked fine in them and have a real home baked look about them without the lines you normall get from shop bought cases.
(I used normal cases too for the ones to take to work with leftover batter)
-This makes them look great on a plate (poet wheeey) in little nests of scrunchy baking paper. 
-Try and find small blueberries, as in smaller than already quite small blueberries?! (i have officially gone mad) mine were a little too big (?!) and left quite big pockets in the sponge. However win some/lose some cause they also meant for that great purple dye on the sponge and when they burst they left an almost sweet jam like texture. 

-Use big big big chunks of good quality white chocolate for real rich decadence.

-Remember to spinkle with caster sugar before you bake them- this creates the lovely golden brown tops!

If you dont eat these warm with butter i won't ever talk to you again. Cheers.

Holly x

CLICK BELOW FOR RECIPE

Pesky Purple Piping Bags

Many, many of you will be sitting here laughing at this when i say that at 23 years old, with many many years of baking and cake eating experience under my belt, i have only just learnt how to use a piping bag.
You, laughing person over there, are either:
a) an incredibly experienced baker who has taken baking up as either a full time career or hobby therefore could pipe a cake with your eyes shut because you have the time, patience and practice!
or
b) have never, ever attempted it in your life and think the people on the telly on great british bake off make it look soooo bloody easy surely YOU can do it too! Its just squeezing icing out a bag in a circle right?
RIGHT?!

So my mothers day baking treats this year came in the form of vanilla cupcakes from the magnolia bakery book- another chance to practice this pretty much flawless recipe, adding dry ingredients in 3rds i think has such clear advantages when making cupcake batter, much better than, and it pains me to say this, nigellas 'blitz it all in the processor' approach which i find can end up very runny. This mixture was so thick i almost panicked, but it was easy to put in the cases and baked in about 15 minutes!
I used mini cases and therefore opted for a small nozzle to pipe the icing which when comparing with the mini cupcakes in Lolas bakery a few days later i realised it wasn't essential, a normal/medium sized one works just as well and leaves less lines on the icing, however i twisted and held the bag properly this time, took my time and the icing was a good consistency (cream cheese icing- it holds so well) I also used raspberry flavoring and my absolute first choice for food coloring a lovely violet/lilac one i use on everything!
Not bad for my second attempt. My first attempt we forgot to put the nozzle into the bag before adding the icing. So ya know, baby steps and all that.

Holly x