Homemade gifts tick many boxes in my opinion; they show great thought and care, they are much cheaper than even attempting to buy a small token gift and they allow you to feel like the goddess you always knew you were! Oh and let’s face it standing in a kitchen with beautiful spiced aromas beats standing in a crowded shop any time of the year!
(makes a dozen)
250g of wholemeal flour
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda/bread soda
100g of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg
The zest and juice of two oranges
140ml of buttermilk
75 ml of vegetable oil
1 free-range egg
175g of dried cranberries
Demerara sugar for the topping
Pre-heat your oven to 180ºc and line a twelve bun muffin tin with muffin cases. In a large bowl mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and orange zest. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the orange juice, buttermilk, vegetable oil and egg and pour into the dry ingredients. Stir until the ingredients are just combined, do not over mix, a lumpy batter makes for lighter muffins. Gently fold the cranberries into the mixture and spoon into the bun cases. Sprinkle a little Demerara sugar on top of each muffin and bake in the oven for twenty minutes. I like to box the muffins wrapping each with greaseproof paper and finishing with a large tartan bow. Delicious!
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