Hugh's tip to making a Victoria sponge "Weigh the eggs together with their shells on the scales and whatever the total weight, use the same weight of butter, of sugar and of flour."
The River Cottage Family Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall & Fizz Carr
Lemon Yoghurt Muffin
For this recipe I used 2 eggs, this makes
a batch of 9 muffins. The yoghurt makes the cake tangy and moist. It would go well with a lemony cream cheese icing.
-2 large free range eggs
-unsalted butter(used 3/4 of total weight and top it up plain yoghurt)
-caster sugar
-self-rising flour
-juice of half a lemon
-zest of a whole lemon
Chocolate Victoria Muffin
-2 large free range eggs
-unsalted butter
-caster sugar
-self-rising flour
-3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
Method:
1- set the oven to 180 C and line muffin tin with muffin cases.
2- Weigh the eggs and make note of their total weight.
3- weigh out the butter and mix it until soft using a wooden spoon, then add the caster sugar beat until smooth. It should look light and fluffy!
4- weigh out the flour and set aside (add the cocoa powder to this for the chocolate version)
5- break one of the eggs into the butter mixture then beat quite hard until it is completely blended in, then add the other egg in the same way.
6- For the lemon yoghurt muffin- mix in the juice of half of lemon and zest into the butter and egg mixture until it blends in then
7-sift a tablespoon of flour and beat it in. This stops the mixture from curdling.
8- sift the rest of the flour into the mixture and fold until it has mixed together. To test the consistency scoop up a tablespoon of mix and turn upside down over the bowl, if it drops down reasonably easily then its just right if not add a little bit of milk.
9- spoon the mixture into the prepared tins. My top tip for those perfectly rounded tops is to use an ice cream scoop.
10- bake for 20-25 mins or until its slightly golden on top, you can always test them using a skewer , stick the skewer into the middle of the muffins if it comes out clean its ready if it comes out with a sticky residue leave it for another 5 mins or so. Just keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn!
We're are also currently testing Spelt Flour, so we're baking spelt rolls using Nigel Slater's recipe on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/11/nigel-slater-spelt-bread-recipes
we'll update once it's cooked, the last time we made this it went horribly wrong and tasted horrible! But so far so good so fingers crossed!
