Charitable Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins

For some reason I’ve been finding it really hard to get motivated to blog on working days. I don’t know why this is, but I’m sure it will pass. The other negative effect of my new job is that I have less time and energy to cook lots of new things. As such, over the coming days I shall attempt to counter this blog-rot and start bringing you new and exciting savoury meals to try. However, baking is so therapeutic and relaxing it can be done whatever the situation, no matter how lacking in inspiration one finds oneself. Perhaps this is because with baking one generally follows a recipe so there is no real expectation of ingenuity where the base recipe is concerned.

These muffins came into existence thanks to a charitable venture on my behalf – to raise money in order to send my good friend Izzy, as well as 7 others, to Mongolia in order to ‘kick start a youth environmental movement’. In fact, I made both these and my lemon and poppy seed cupcakes, helping to raise untold amounts of money, somewhere in the region of tens of pounds. So when you all go away and bake these, because that is clearly the only logical outcome of my posting this recipe, please appreciate the wider importance of these muffins.

I’m afraid time is a little short today so wittering shall have to be kept to a minimum. One thing I would say about the muffin making process itself is to not over fill the paper cases; the mixture will rise too high and slide off in a sort of failed soufflé manner. Other than that these muffins are a bit of a no-brainer as long as one remembers to stick to the time-old muffin mantra: ‘A lumpy batter discounts the flatter.’ Alright, alright, I just invented that, but seriously, a slightly lumpy batter is desirable if one wants their muffins to be domed.

Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins

Makes 11-12

Ingredients:

• 250g plain flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

• ½ tsp salt

• 4 tbsp cocoa

• 140g granulated sugar

• 1 egg

• 240ml milk

• 90ml oil

• 1tsp vanilla essence

• 85g cream cheese

• 2tbsp caster sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190C and put paper cases in your muffin tin. Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa, then stir in the granulated sugar.

2. In a separate bowl beat an egg, into this mix the milk, oil and vanilla essence. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry making sure there are no dry ingredients showing, though it should be left slightly lumpy.

3. In yet another bowl mix together the cheese and the caster sugar. Share out around half the mixture between the paper cases, place a teaspoon of the cheese mix onto the top of each and then top up with the rest of the muffin batter. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes and allow to cool before eating.

Cost: All of these muffins should take no more than around £1.50 to make which is pretty incredible! Just one of these would sell for between £2 and £2.50 in a café… bargain!