White Chocolate Chip Muffins

This weekend, it was my turn to brave the three hour journey and extortionate ticket prices which are the requirements for a trip to see my boyfriend Tom in Cambridge.  The dessert I made would need to be travel-proof and have minimum decoration but maximum taste.  What could live up to these criteria better than a chocolate muffin with white chocolate chips?

I used the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook but with chopped up Milky Bar for the white chocolate.  In the spirit of generosity and an even number of cakes, I made sure to divide the mixture between the twelve cases, rather than making a few extra.

Aside from making the kitchen smell of chocolate cake when I brought them out of the oven, the muffins revealed themselves to be sunk in the middle.  This was probably the result of the oven temperature being too low.  Speaking of sinking, the white chocolate chunks had sunk to the bottom, which led to much undignified licking of cake cases.

Despite their imperfections, the cakes were chocolatey, moist and survived the journey to Cambridge.  While this goes to demonstrate their reliable nature, it also helped that they were locked out of the reach of temptation in my suitcase.

Chocolate Muffins

It got to Friday last week and I realised that I had severely let the team down; I had gone all week without producing any baked goods.  Worse still, all my housemates were going away for the weekend or, in the case of my lovely model Miriam, a whole week.  What if they found someone else to cook for them?  What if they – no, whisper it – bought a cake from a shop?  This is a slightly melodramatic recreation of the situation; they buy things all the time.  Actual, official products which are of a high enough quality that they can be exchanged for real money.  Still, I have a certain pride in my cooking and I felt this lack of baking was remiss of me.  I therefore decided to make something which would be a comfort on their journeys.  Chocolate was of course the solution there, but it also needed to be something sturdy, something that did not require icing and which meant business.  The answer was the classic chocolate muffin; big and strong in its manly muffin case, but still moist and delicious on consumption.

I used the ever-reliable Hummingbird Bakery recipe and they turned out to be a rich, moist and soul-filling delight.  I am still getting to grips with the oven.  We have squabbles over its penchant for cooking cakes at the back left more than the others.  However, with the muffins it was well-behaved, not burning a single one.  The Sainsbury’s own-brand chocolate chunks and Tesco own-brand cocoa powder also go to show that chocolate cake is brand-blind and always willing to please.

Have my housemates been faithful to my baking?  Luckily for Fox biscuits, no, and who can blame them?  They were, however, very grateful for the send off, although most of the cakes did not survive long enough to fuel the actual journeys.  If, as seems to be the case, the path to forgiveness is made of chocolate muffins, I may have to visit it more often.