Tropical Sunshine Muffin Recipe

After being fortunate to attend the amazing event at Buxted Park with Rachel's Organic and watching Head Chef Lucy Hyder in action, I've felt inspired to get inventive in the kitchen.

After a fabulous hamper arrived from Rachel's,  I was ready to get creative using their fabulous yogurt flavours as inspiration!  (After sampling them first of course!!)  Yogurt isn't just for eating on its own, it's also an excellent ingredient for baking.

The Pineapple, Coconut and Banana Bio Live Yogurt is a taste of sunshine to brighten up a cold, damp day.  The tropical, taste explosion is like a Pina Colada in guilt free form!  Simply gorgeous and the inspiration behind my Tropical Sunshine Muffins (a recipe I have personally adapted using ideas from a Muffin Recipe Book).

Tropical Sunshine Muffins

150g SR Flour

Half Teaspn Bicarb of Soda

80g Unrefined Caster Sugar

60g Melted Butter

1 Beaten Free Range Egg

5 Tablespns Rachel's Organic Pineapple, Coconut, Banana Yogurt

1 Tablespn Orange Juice

• Mix all your dry ingredients in a bowl.  
• Mix all your wet ingredients together.  
• Quickly and gently combine your wet and dry ingredients and spoon into pre-prepared muffin cases.  
• Cook for 15 minutes in a pre-heated oven at GM5.

• Decorate with glace icing made using Icing sugar and orange juice (freshly squeezed is more flavoursome!)  
• We sprinkled yellow sugar decorations on top to make them look really full of sunshine!

**Lazy Cooks Hint....if you describe your style as rustic, then you don't have to worry about uneven icing!!**


These cakes are really the lightest muffins ever with a really spongy, light texture.  The tropical flavour is fruity, enhanced by the bonus of finding pieces of pineapple and coconut inside.  Give them a go!!


Just because its cold outside, doesn't mean you can't enjoy the sunshine!!!

For more information on Rachel's go to rachelsorganic.co.uk.
The Pineapple, Coconut and Banana bio live yogurt is currently available from Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Ocado.

Ambrosia Apple Muffins Recipe

Ambrosia's Custard Coated Fruit Flakes have become quite a favourite in my house since I first reviewed them.  You can see my review here http://insidethewendyhouse.blogspot.com/2011/05/love-custard-youll-love-ambrosia-snacks.html

 The Apple Flakes are the preferred flavour so when I was sent a recipe for Ambrosia Apple Muffins to try, my children were very interested in giving them a try!  Nana and Grandad are due a visit so it was the perfect opportunity for us to get baking, using the Ambrosia Apple Flakes as an ingredient.  So together with my Tiny Testers we donned our aprons and got cooking!

Ambrosia Apple Muffins
250g wholemeal self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground mixed spice
85g light muscovado sugar
100g Ambrosia Custard Coated Apple Flakes
125g tub low-fat yogurt
125ml skimmed milk
3 tbsp sunflower oil
1 egg , lightly beaten

Icing

      200g icing sugar

    3 tbsps apple juice

Cooking Time: 15-20 minutes

Makes:             12-14 muffins

Method

1.     Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a muffin tin with paper cases.

2.     Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and mixed spice into a mixing bowl, then stir in the sugar and fruit flakes.

3.     Mix the yoghurt, milk, oil and egg together separately, then slowly add to the dry mix and gently fold in until combined.

4.     Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases (about one table spoon per case) then bake for 15-20 minutes until risen and firm to touch.

5.     Once the muffins are cool, mix together the apple juice and icing sugar to ice the muffins if required. (We didn't think they needed the icing so we had them plain.)

The muffins were absolutely lovely, moist and fruity with bursts of apple inside.  I'm definitely going to be using the Ambrosia Banana Flakes as an ingredient next time I make banana muffins.  They will add a real twist to a family favourite.


Nana and Grandad were very impressed with the muffins and loved the sweet fruit pieces inside. They got a definite thumbs up from us Inside the Wendy House!