A friend's visit

The lemon and sultana cake lasted impressively until Tuesday, by which point it was on the verge of being stale anyway. Now my husband has started measuring his waistline once a week and he's been getting more out of his gym membership for the past fortnight! So last night when confronted with a box of carrot and orange muffins he tried very hard to limit himself to just one. He nearly managed it too but succumbed to another later in the evening. Maybe eating them a couple of hours apart helps to lessen their effect!

Today a friend of mine came over to buy a few jars of homemade jam from me. Whilst here I offered her a drink and a muffin, which she accepted. The drink she chose happened to be a glass of homemade blackcurrant cordial. She enjoyed both her drink and her muffin and went home with 4 jars of jam too! It doesn't often work out like that but it was nice to have my homemade products appreciated!

Carrot and Orange Muffins (makes 10)

4 oz (110g) light muscovado sugar
5 fl oz (125ml) sunflower oil
2 eggs
7 oz (200g) plain flour
2 oz (55g) wholemeal flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 orange
6 oz (170g) carrot
4 oz (110g) sultanas

Preheat oven to 200°C, gas mark 6. Mix the oil and the sugar together then beat in the eggs. Sieve the dry ingredients into the oil mix. Grate the peel off the orange and add that to the bowl then squeeze the juice from the orange and add that. Grate the carrot and fold that into the mix, along with the sultanas. Spoon into cases in a muffin tin. Cook for 20 minutes and test with a skewer. Cool on a wire rack.