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muffins

Earl Grey & Blueberry Tea Cakes

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It’s December and that means The Cake Slice Bakers group gets to choose any recipe from The New Way to Cake.

In January, we’ll begin to bake from a new cake cookbook – stay tuned to find out which book we’ll use!

Blueberry Earl Gray Muffins

Earl Grey & Blueberry Tea Cakes were on the recipe list earlier this year and I didn’t get participate that month. It sounds so intriguing, but simple, so I chose it for my final 2020 choice.

These ‘tea cakes’ are actually baked in a muffin tin, so I’m going to call them muffins. They aren’t ordinary muffins, though, because of the infusion of Earl Grey tea flavor.

The muffins bake up beautifully soft and they’re filled with fresh blueberries.

Even though the Benjamina says this recipe will make 10 muffins, I had a ton of batter leftover. I went ahead and made 12 muffins, then had enough batter to make 3 mini-loaves.

Muffin Loaves

You get a whisper of Earl Grey tea, but it’s not overwhelming. It gives the muffins a delicate, tea-time flavor.

We’re lucky enough to have fresh blueberries almost all year long. Costco has been having them available and they’re really nice, plump blueberries.

If you can’t get fresh blueberries, though, use frozen. Just remember to add them to the muffin batter right out of the freezer so they don’t bleed and make grey muffins. That’s not pretty.

Blueberry Earl Gray Muffins

Earl Grey & Blueberry Tea Cakes (a.k.a. muffins) are a great breakfast, brunch, or snack.

You’ll like the fluffy texture and those pops of blueberry flavor. I can see these made with your favorite tea – chai or chamomile come to mind.

These are terrific muffins (or tea cakes) and we’re glad to add them to our muffin file!

Here are some other great muffin recipes!

Stacked Blueberry Earl Gray Muffins

Earl Grey & Blueberry Tea Cakes

Yield: 15 muffins
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Fluffy blueberry muffins flavored with Earl Grey tea.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 C milk
  • 3 Earl Grey tea bags or 4 tsp of loose tea
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 plus 1 tbsp all-purpose flour, divided
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 C granulated sugar
  • 1 C (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 3 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 1/3 C blueberries, fresh or frozen
  • 2 tbsp coarse sugar for sprinkling on top of muffins

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Take 1 or 2 tsp of butter from already softened butter and grease each cup of a 12-cup muffin tin. Dust lightly with flour, shaking out the excess.
  2. In a small sauce pan, combine the milk, tea bags (or loose tea) and vanilla. Heat on medium until the milk just boils. Remove from heat and set aside to cool while making the batter.
  3. In a medium bowl, sift together 2 1/4 cups of the flour and the baking powder.
  4. Using a stand mixer, beat the sugar and butter together until pale, creamy and slightly fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes on medium-high. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg addition. Add half of the flour mixture and combine. (At this time, if you've used loose-leaf tea, pour through a strainer into a bowl).
  5. Add the milk to the batter, then the remaining flour mixture. Beat until just combined.
  6. Toss the blueberries in the remaining tablespoon of flour so they won't sink to the bottom of the muffins. Shake off the excess flour, then gently stir the blueberries into the batter.
  7. Fill the muffin cups about 2/3rds full of batter, sprinkle with coarse sugar, then bake for 25-27 minutes until a toothpick comes out almost clean.
  8. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then run a knife gently around the edges to loosen from the pan. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
  9. Re-butter and flour three of the muffin cups (or use a second pan) and use the remaining batter. You may have extra batter, so fill as many cups as you need. Sprinkle tops with coarse sugar, bake for 25-27 minutes, then repeat above steps.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

This made a ton of batter (original recipe says 10 muffins) and I made 12 muffins, plus 3 mini-loaves.

The original - calls for whole milk, but I successfully used 2% milk; the original also calls for vanilla bean paste, but I used regular vanilla extract.

The original also calls for unsalted butter - I used salted.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 15 Serving Size: 1 tea cake
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 118Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 40mgSodium: 142mgCarbohydrates: 23gFiber: 0gSugar: 19gProtein: 2g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

© Benjamina Ebuehi
Category: Breads/Muffins
 
 

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is The New Way To Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th – never before – we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

 
 

It is a new year and a new book – The New Way To Cake – traditionally our last bake for the year is free choice, so our choices for December 2020 were ~ 

 

Blueberry Cornbread with Honey Butter

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Blueberry Cornbread with Honey Butter

Blueberry Cornbread with Honey Butter. Oh my gosh. The Cook’s Country show on PBS a month or so ago highlighted this recipe and it looked amazing. I wrote down the ingredients and instructions real fast (rewinding quite a few times) and decided to try it when fresh blueberries came out.

Well, I couldn’t wait for fresh blueberries and picked up some frozen Maine blueberries to make this recipe. (If you’re using frozen blueberries, put them in the batter straight from the freezer so they don’t turn your batter purple-gray.) Still under house arrest, er, I mean stay-at-home orders, it’s a perfect time to make this lightly sweet, blueberry-filled cornbread.

Blueberry Cornbread with Honey Butter

There’s quite a bit of flour in this recipe and Cook’s Country says that’s to make the cornbread a little more cakey and to help keep the blueberries from dropping to the bottom of the pan. It definitely works.

I only used two bowls – one for the dry ingredients and one for the wet. Whisk them together, pour it in the prepared 9-inch pan and bake it for 40 minutes. So easy for such an incredible result.

This Blueberry Cornbread with Honey Butter is bursting with 2 cups of delicious blueberries. The texture of the cornbread is a combination corn mealy/cakey and it rises beautifully.

Blueberry Cornbread with Honey Butter

Don’t forget the wonderful honey butter! Softened butter swirled with honey, a touch of salt and a pinch of cayenne. It makes this cornbread almost decadent.

You’ll love this recipe and can have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert. It’s really the best cornbread I’ve ever made and I’ll be making it again and again. Baby Girl Honey agrees that it looks very tasty – she’s such a big help while I’m trying to take photos.

Blueberry Cornbread with Honey Butter

You might also like this Sweet Cornbread from an previous post of mine!

Blueberry Cornbread with Honey Butter

Blueberry Cornbread with Honey Butter

Yield: 12
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes

Delicious, amazing blueberry cornbread bursting with blueberries and served with a lightly spicy honey butter.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1 C yellow corn meal (plus 1 1/2 for dusting pan)
  • 3/4 C sugar (plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling on top of batter)
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 12 tbsp melted butter, cooled
  • 1 C cold milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 C blueberries (if frozen, don't thaw first)
  • For the honey butter:
  • 4 tbsp butter, softened
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • generous pinch of cayenne (to taste)

Instructions

  1. Spray a 9-inch square or round cake pan. Dust with about 1 1/2 tbsp yellow cornmeal. Preheat oven to 375°.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
  3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the melted butter, milk, and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined - there may be small lumps and that's OK. Finish by folding with a large spoon to make sure all is incorporated from the bottom of the bowl.
  4. Fold the 2 cups of blueberries into the batter, pour it into the prepared pan and lightly smooth down the top of the batter. Finish off the top by sprinkling 1 tablespoon of sugar over the batter.
  5. Bake for 40-45 minutes (mine was perfect at 40 minutes) until toothpick comes out clean. It will be very lightly brown on top. Let cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Run a paring knife around the edges of the pan and turn out onto a rack. Cool for an additional 20 minutes until completely cooled. Use a serrated knife to cut pieces.
  6. To make the honey butter, mix together the butter, honey, salt and cayenne until totally blended. Serve with cooled cornbread.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

I just realized the original recipe calls for a 9-inch round cake pan and I used a square pan - either one will work.

Don't over mix so the cornbread won't be tough

I used salted butter, but the original recipe calls for unsalted.  Salted works fine.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 piece
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 331Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 424mgCarbohydrates: 41gFiber: 2gSugar: 19gProtein: 5g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

© Cook's Country
Category: Breads/Muffins

Honey Date Oat Muffins

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Honey Date Oatmeal Muffins

It’s January of a new year and I’m all about trying to make it a healthier new year, even if it’s just little changes here and there. These Honey Date Oat Muffins are just that – a little lighter. They may not look like fancy muffins from Starbucks, but they’re delicious.

The muffins are sweetened with honey only and half the butter is substituted with olive oil. I use 2% milk and add some dried fruit for good measure. Oh, and don’t forget the protein and fiber you get from the oatmeal.

Honey Date Oatmeal Muffin

Honey Date Oat Muffins are light and fluffy with a little bit of crunchy baked in just around the edges. I’ve always loved the texture of oatmeal in baked goods and it really is a good addition in these.

I add a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg to these honey-sweetened muffins, and you’ll also like the little bits of sweet dates in them. If you don’t like dates, go ahead and use raisins, dried cranberries, or any other dried fruit you prefer. Fix them up like you do your breakfast oatmeal.

I’m planning on freezing half of these since Bret thinks muffins are for girls and doesn’t eat them unless they’re chocolate with chocolate chips. It’ll be nice to be browsing through the freezer in a couple of months and find these just waiting for me to warm up and have for breakfast. Love ’em!

Honey Date Oatmeal Muffins

Honey Date Oat Muffins

Yield: 12
Prep Time: 11 minutes
Cook Time: 14 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes

Lightly sweet muffins with a great oatmeal texture and dots of sweet dates. Breakfast muffin at its best!

Ingredients

  • 1 C all-purpose flour
  • 1 C quick oats (not instant)
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp powdered ginger
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 C extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 C melted butter
  • 3/4 C milk (I used 2%)
  • 1/3 C honey
  • 16 dates, small chopped

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, olive oil, slightly cooled melted butter, milk and honey until thoroughly combined.
  3. Pour the wet ingredients directly into the dry ingredients and gently mix until just combined. Stir in the dates gently until distributed. Spoon the batter into each muffin cup, about 2/3rds full.
  4. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until medium-brown around the edges (tops shouldn't brown) and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool. Store in a tightly sealed container or freeze for later.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

If you prefer, you can use raisins or whatever other dried fruit you may like.  

Check the muffins at 12 minutes - they can get really too brown around the edges quickly.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 muffin
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 202Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 27mgSodium: 279mgCarbohydrates: 27gFiber: 2gSugar: 14gProtein: 3g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

© sblades
Category: Breads/Muffins

2-Ingredient Puffin Mumkins

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Pumpkin Muffins

You may have seen these little muffins wandering around Pinterest for awhile. A friend of mine, Kelley, sent me the ‘recipe’ for these little 2-Ingredient Puffin Mumkins and said they’re wonderful. 2 ingredients? I’m there.

These are actually pumpkin muffins, but I was trying to tell my husband about them and just couldn’t get the name of them out! So after laughing till we were silly, these yummy little muffins became Puffin Mumkins. The two ingredients, by the way, are pumpkin and a spice cake mix. The dough is thick and sticky, so you get these “rustic” tops to the muffins (but soft, fluffy insides):

Pumpkin Muffins

Really. Just cake mix and a can of plain pumpkin. Stir it up and plop it in the muffin tins, then bake it at 350° for 20 minutes and you have some of the best, softest, most moist and tender pumpkin muffins you’ve ever had. Forget those involved recipes with those pesky eggs and use this one. They are great!

I don’t usually use cake mixes (with the recent exception of the outstanding Frosting in the Cake Cake), but these little Puffin Mumkins are staying in my Fall recipe lineup. If you want to add pecans or raisins, or even chocolate chips, go ahead. They’re very versatile and so, so very good.

Pumpkin Muffins

The recipe that Kelley sent used plain butter cake mix, but I wanted those Fall pumpkin muffins spices so I used a spice cake mix. If you want to use a plain cake mix and put your own spices in, go right ahead. I promise they’ll be good.

There’s no excuse for you to not make these little 2-Ingredient Puffin Mumkins (I’m still giggling). They’re easy, cheap and excellent!

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffins

2-Ingredient Puffin Mumkins

Yield: 12
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes

Really? Do we need a written recipe for these? OK, well then here it is. Enjoy!

Ingredients

  • 1 box spice cake mix
  • 1 16 oz. canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly spray a 12-cup muffin tin or miniature muffin tin.
  2. Pour the cake mix into a large bowl, then dump in the pumpkin. Either briefly mix with a hand mixer or stir by hand until those little cake mix lumpy things are blended in.
  3. Bake for 20 minutes (don't over bake - they may not look done, but they are). Let cool, then remove from the pan. Store in a sealed container.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

The batter is very sticky.  As you can see from the photos, they come out, uh, rustic looking.  If you want, smooth down the tops of the batter in the tins before you bake.  I kind of like that rustic look.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 muffin
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 176Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 320mgCarbohydrates: 39gFiber: 2gSugar: 20gProtein: 2g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

© sblades
Category: Breads/Muffins

Easy Chocolate Chip Muffins

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Easy Chocolate Chip Muffins

I’ve had these Easy Chocolate Chip Muffins in my “to-make” files forever! They first popped up from Gal on a Mission and with a little tweaking, they are now perfect little muffins for us.

These muffins remind me of a lightly sweet, very fluffy biscuit with just enough chocolate chips to get chocolate in every bite. They’re hard to stop eating once you get started – especially those mini-sized ones that you can just pop in your mouth.

Easy Chocolate Chip Muffins

These were really quick and easy to put together. The original called for buttermilk but, even though I’m a Southerner and we use buttermilk in almost everything, I amazingly didn’t have any today. So, I used the old milk plus a tablespoon of vinegar trick to create a pseudo-buttermilk and it worked like a champ.

Add pecans or walnuts – really, whatever goodies you usually add to your chocolate chip cookies would be good in these.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

I ended up giving quite a few of them away since I still have some Cherry Walnut Drop Scones from January in the freezer. These Easy Chocolate Chip muffins would freeze well, too, but I want to share them because they’re so, so good!

Easy Chocolate Chip Muffins

Easy Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yield: 12 regular-sized muffins and 8 mini-muffins
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes

Lightly sweet fluffy biscuits, dotted with chocolate chips. 

Ingredients

  • 1 C whole or 2% milk
  • 1 tbsp white vinegar
  • 1/2 C canola or vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 C granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 C all-purpose flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 C chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425°.  Spray a muffin tin (and mini-muffin tin if using) with non-stick cooking spray.
  2. Pour the milk into a glass measuring cup and gently stir in the vinegar.  Let sit for 10 minutes.   
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk mixture, oil and eggs. Mix together until well combined.
  4. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and mix on medium until blended.
  5. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Turn mixer to low and add the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time, just mixing until combined (don't over mix at this stage).
  6. Fold in the chocolate chips.  
  7. Pour the batter into the muffin tins, almost to the very top so the muffins will be tall and domed.  Bake the muffins at 425° for 5 minutes, then turn down the oven to 375° and rotate the muffin pan - continue baking for 9-10 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.  (They won't brown much.)  Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then move to rack to cool completely
  8. For the mini-muffins:  put the rest of the batter into the sprayed mini-muffin pan and turn up the oven to 425°.  Bake for 4 minutes, then rotate the pan and turn the oven down to 375°.  Bake for 6 1/2-7 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

You can use buttermilk in place of the milk/vinegar combo.

Don't over bake the muffins - they won't turn brown except around the very edges.  And don't forget to turn down the temperature during the baking process.

Store in an airtight container for 3-4 days or freeze (or give away to a good friend!)

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 16 Serving Size: 1 muffins
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 291Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 24mgSodium: 177mgCarbohydrates: 42gFiber: 2gSugar: 22gProtein: 4g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

© sblades
Category: Breads/Muffins