Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake, Baker's Man!

This week I experienced the overwhelming urge to action some baked goods. But with our oven out-of-action, I wasn't sure how I was going to remedy this.  As I pondered my baking basket full of ingredients, I decided it could not wait any longer and I was going to have to made do!

As you know, we're soon to be moving into our new house and have been busy stocking up on furniture and updating our household goods.  As luck would have it, last weekend we stumbled across a great deal on a mini toaster oven and I decided what better way to put it to the test than blueberry muffins!

What a way to christen the new toaster!

We're still pretending to be on this healthy eating bandwagon, so I tried to make them as healthy as possible using a very basic recipe.  A bit of flour, small amount of brown sugar, milk, egg, vanilla extract, a little oil (I substituted coconut oil in place of canola oil) and a handful of blueberries. 

With such a simple recipe and not so perfect cooking conditions, I wasn't expecting too much - but these ended up coming out of the (toaster) oven light, moist and very moreish!

So you'd think with that out of the way, my baking urge would be satisfied right?  Not so.  Now I knew I could bake perfectly acceptable muffins in the toaster oven I just wanted to bake more semi-healthy treats! I had an urge for jammy sugary cinnamony donuts, so I turned to Google (ah, my ever faithful friend) and came across a dead-easy recipe that I could bake. 

I tweaked the recipe a bit, and with the simplest of ingredients I had a bowl full of batter ready to go!

Some flour, a bit of sugar, milk, vanilla extract, unsweetened apple puree in place of an egg, strawberry jam and a little sugar + cinnamon for dusting was all it took! The recipe called for oil again, but it wasn't until I was filling the muffin cases did I realise that my melted coconut oil was still sitting on the edge of the sink...

Despite this oversight, I was thrilled at the little golden bundles that I pulled out of the oven just a short time later! Still moist, with a cakey-donutty casing flavoured by sweet strawberry jam in the middle.

Considering that both these muffin variations took about 20 minutes including prep-time and baking to whip up, I was very happy! Guilt-free jam donuts and blueberry muffins!

Liam was also very happy, as it meant he got little bags full of assorted muffins to munch on all week!  These were the perfect snacks to take to work, as they satisfied the sweet cravings without completely ruining the diet.  I didn't feel quite so guilty as I ate them since I knew all the ingredients that had gone into making them!

I can't wait to get into the new house so I can get my bake on with a proper oven!

Any recipes you can recommend I try next? xx