Lemon & Ricotta Breakfast Muffins

I called these muffins so you can eat them for breakfast.
I am kind to you like that.


I made these for three reasons.

1. I had a lot of lemons
2. I wanted to test out my new silicone cupcake breakfast muffin cases

3. I like to eat cake for breakfast.

On a serious note, they do have much less sugar than a cupcake, and of course no icing or buttercream -they aren't particularly sweet, so add more if you want a sweet muffin. They are lovely split open and served with some natural yoghurt and honey.


Lemon & Ricotta Muffins
makes 12 muffins

1 cup (200g) of self raising flour
1/4 (50g) cup of sugar
half teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of honey
1/2 (100g) cup of ricotta
1/4 (50ml) cup of milk
3 tablespoons of melted and cooled butter (approx 75g solid)
1 egg
zest of 3 lemons, juice of 2
oats or wheatgerm to sprinkle on top - optional

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4 / 180c / 160c fan.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Do the same with the wet ingredients and the egg, whisk them together. Slowly fold the wet into the dry, taking care not to over mix.

do you like my silicone cupcake liners? fancy and useful.

Fill the cupcake cases generously with the mixture, about 1 cm from the top - you want them to rise high.
Sprinkle with some oats or wheatgerm if you'd like.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until they are cooked through.

Custardy French Toast

I love bread and butter pudding, and I love french toast. This recipe takes french toast a little higher, with some cream and cinnamon along with fresh eggs.

What you first need to do is go and run yourself a nice hot bath, I assume you'll be making this on a lazy sunday morning, after a nice lie in.

Whilst it is running, take yourself down to the kitchen and get breakfast going.

Custardy French Toast - Serves 1

2 fresh eggs
approx 100ml milk
approx 100ml double cream
1/2 tsp cinamonn
dash of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of granulated or brown sugar

2 thick slices of good quality white bread 

Whisk together all the ingredients for the custard in a shallow pie dish or wide bowl. Dunk in your pieces of bread so that they are nicely covered. Place a heavy plate on top of the dish to submerge the bread further. If it doesn't submerge add a bit more milk.

Then you need to leave it as it is and go and give yourself a nice soak in the bath whilst your bread has a nice soak in the custard.

Leave for about 20 - 30 minutes.

Heat up a nonstick pan and add a small knob of butter, fry each slice of bread for about 3-4 minutes on each side til golden brown and a bit crispy, keep one slice warm whilst you fry the other.

Serve with a large mug of tea and maple syrup, your favourite berries or maybe a bit of creme fraiche or yoghurt?

Cherry & Oat Breakfast Muffins

I have been known to eat cake for breakfast on more than one (or two, or three or four) occasions, and any other number of sweet things. I'm not great at breakfast, I like sleeping in, but I do like breakfast food. I try and make up for this on weekends with pancakes or a nice bacon sandwich. Or eggs, yummmm. See I like breakfast, I do.

I have been experimenting with cupcakes and fairy cakes for a while but one of the things on my list has been a good breakfasty muffin with lots of things packed into it, but lower on the sweetness than a normal cake.

I was a bit greedy and got a kilo of cherries from the local Pick Your Own which meant I had something of a glut, brought on entirely by my eyes being bigger than my stomach. Some of the lucky things are spending time steeping in vodka, ready for a Christmas tipple, and others have gone into a juicy summer fruit cobbler (more on that soon). I had some left and they were destined for muffins!

I like real cherries and far too often you see those awful rubbery, almost flourescent, glace cherries in cakes, a real cherry cake is something much much better. I might have to go to the pick your own one more time and make a proper sweet dessert cake too ;)

These muffins have no too much sugar in them, lots of oats and some wheatgerm, and I pepped them up with some cinnamon and nutmeg.


Cherry & Oat Breakfast Muffins
makes about 8 muffins 

100g unsalted softened butter
75g granulated or caster sugar
2 medium eggs
200g fresh cherries - pitted and halved
100g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
75g oats
25g wheatgerm (or substitute with more oats)
approx 50ml whole or semi skimmed milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to gas mark 6 / 400f / 200c. Line a muffin tin with muffin cases.

Cream together your butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Then add in your eggs one at a time and combine.
Fold in your cherries, then add in your flour and baking powder and stir gently to combine.
Then fold in your oats and wheatgerm, and spices. Finally add in the milk to loosen the mixture slightly. If your mixture is quite wet you may not need to add the milk.

Spoon about 2 tablespoons into the mixture, you want the muffins to be fairly substantial, leave about 1cm from the top. Sprinkle with oats. Bake for 10-15minutes in the oven until golden brown on top, and when a knife comes out clean when inserted.

Cooking - Spiced Carrot & Apple Breakfast Cupcakes

I love food but I am awful at making sure I eat breakfast everyday. It's not that I don't like breakfast foods but I like things that take time - french toast, scrambled eggs, pancakes, baaaaaacon.

I'm not a morning person so I prefer to ease into the day first before thinking about breakfast - which normally means I'm ready to eat about 10am.Which normally ends up in me having a bar of chocolate or a sugary sweet cereal bar about that time - not very healthy or satisfying.

I've been meaning to make something based on a breakfast muffin for a while. These cupcakes are based around a normal sponge recipe but with less sugar, a little more flour and quite a lot of grated carrot and apple.

The best thing about these cakes is that they are incredibly moist, without too much butter or sugar. And the spicing from the nutmeg and cinnamon means you don't miss out on flavour.
I used white flour for these as I didn't have any wholewheat, but I am definitely going to use wholewheat next time.


Spiced Carrot and Apple Breakfast Cupcakes
makes about 12 cupcakes.

175g butter, unsalted, softened
150g granulated or brown sugar
2 large eggs
juice of 1/2 orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 level teaspoon nutmeg
1 level teaspoon cinnamon
100g plain or wholewheat flour
100g ground almonds (or you can substitute this for more flour)
3 tablespoons of wheatgerm (optional)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large carrots, grated
1 apple peeled, cored and grated
shredded coconut to top (optional)

Cream together the butter and sugar until fully combined, then add in the eggs and beat til light and fluffy. Add in the juice of the orange, vanilla extra and the spices.

Then fold in your flour, ground almonds and baking powder - and wheatgerm if using. Then add in your apple and carrot and mix til combined. If your mixture seems a bit dry add a little bit of milk or extra orange juice.


Spoon approx 1 1/2 tablespoons into cupcake cases on a cupcake tray (I used a tablespoon here and it wasn't enough to fill the case).
Sprinkle your coconut on top. You could also used chopped nuts here.
Bake in a medium oven for 15 - 20 minutes til golden.

If you are feeling a bit naughty a cream cheese icing woudn't be a bad thing...
Or if you are being good add in some dried fruit or oats.