One of the things that I made for Michael's 8th Birthday was Apple Cinnamon Muffins. I've made these before but never posted about them. Both my children love muffins and cupcakes. To be honest, I dont really know what the difference is between Muffins and Cupcakes. I know that cupcakes usually have icing on them but then a cake without icing is still a cake!
I also know that muffins are generally 'heavier' than cupcakes but really, is there a difference?
Anyway, rather than worry about semantics, I made these muffins simply because they are delicious and the Children love them. A few of The Lovely Wife's friends enjoyed these too a few weeks ago when they came to visit. 
This is how I make my Apple Cinammon Muffins.
Ingredients
250 g Butter
230 g Brown Sugar
4 Eggs
4 tbsp Milk
1 Tbsp Honey
2 tsp Vanilla
250 g Flour
3 tsp Baking Powder
3 Large Apples
1 tbsp Cinnamon
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
Method
Pare the apples and cut into small squares
Mix Cinnamon, sugar and Apples together, coating well. Set Aside
Cream butter and Sugar till light and fluffy
Add eggs a little at a time and continue beating
Fold in Sifted flour and baking powder
Add in Honey, Milk and Vanilla. Mix Well
Fold in Apples ensuring it is well mixed
Fill muffin cups ¾ full and bake in 190°C oven for 20-25 minutes or till done
Very easy to make, very easy to eat and very delicious too - not to mention healthy! The kids had the leftover muffins for breakfast the next day while we also gave some away to some of our guests - who were really all family anyway!
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Apple Cinnammon muffins
Sunday, 29 November 2009
It's my Birthday today and there's no cake in sight...
It's my Birthday today and The Lovely Wife didn't get me a cake...
She didn't get me a cake simply because she felt that I make better cakes than any of the shop bought cakes and so buying a cake would just not be worth it. So instead, she got me a tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream in lieu of a cake! How sweet of The Lovely Wife!
I got some lovely presents too that included a non-stick pastry mat and pasta tongs. We had a busy day today where most of it was spent with close friends over lunch after celebrating their childs baptism. 
The lunch kind of meandered into tea and then we had to go to exchange something at the nearby shopping centre. It was almost 6pm when we returned home and that is when the The Lovely Wife and the kids presented me with my Ice Cream! I knew something was up because the kids and The Lovely Wife kept whispering and sniggering half the time that we were out!
I suggested that we wait till after dinner but they insisted that I have at least one spoon of the ice cream. I fed the kids and The Lovely Wife a spoon each too. We'll enjoy more of it after dinner tonight...
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
A Birthday Pictorial
I'm a little late posting more pictures of Mike's 8th Birthday that fell on the 15th of November 2000 but here they are...
Michael looking under his bed for the presents that we hid there before waking him up...
Sarah's present to her brother - a pack of Army Men...both of them are still a little sleepy!
Mike with his Aircraft Carrier model that I ordered from eBay...
We got Mike a replica Chelsea Jersey - A boy grows up and learns to support his own football team, never mind that he used to support Arsenal due to the brainwashing from his Daddy that Arsenal is the better team. At least he still claims that Arsenal is his second favourite team...
Before the rest of the family arrived. They both decided they wanted to wear their replica jerseys. At least my princess knows which team to support!
Sarah had learnt how to play Happy Birthday on the piano and she played it while everyone sang along!
Blowing out the candles on the Aircraft Carrier Cake...
Brother and Sister with the Cake...
All in all a lovely time was had by all. Stay tuned for some of the food that was made for Mike's Birthday - this is after all, a Food Blog!!
Happy Birthday Michael!
Sunday, 15 November 2009
8 Years Old today with an Aircraft Carrier Cake...
Today is my son Michael's Birthday - 8 years old! As usual, we woke him up in his room and hid his presents under the bed...!
As each birthday comes to pass, the challenge to make the children their birthday cake of choice gets more and more difficult!
This year, Michael asked for an Aircraft Carrier cake. As usual, I surfed the Internet and got an idea of how others had made Aircraft carrier cakes. I had grandiose plans of trimming the cake in the shape of a V, and then having a flat top - just like how an Aircraft Carrier should - but I realised that the cake wouldn't possibly stand with any stability. So I just decided to make a large rectangle cake and then cut it so that at least from the top it would look like an Aircraft Carrier.
I had also planned on making the control tower out of cake but one evening as I looked at all the Lego my son has, I hit upon the idea of making a control tower out of Lego.
An Aircraft Carrier needs Aircraft and I looked at all the toy shops for little toy aeroplanes but couldnt find any. One of the presents that we bought for Michael was a plastic need-to-assemble model Aircraft Carrier. As luck would have it, when Michael opened up the Aircraft Carrier box this morning, it was full of tiny Aeroplanes! Yay! Problem of lack of planes solved!!
After icing the ship, I still felt it needed a little enhancement so I printed out 'runway guides' and the Ship Registration number on Plastic Transparency. Why MA 49? Well, Michael likes the number 49 and MA are the initials of his first and middle names.
As I type this, there are some Apple Cinammon Muffins baking in the oven while The Lovely Wife is slaving in the kitchen making fried noodles. No party per se but since the Grandparents and the Uncles and their families are coming over, there needs to be some food...
Stay tuned for the Cake Cutting photos as well as photos of the 'pseudo party'!!
