Cherry Nut Muffins

I made these last week for my early morning prayer group. Just the thing to get you awake in the mornings, Cherry Nut Muffins!

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 tbsp butter, softened
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups cherries (The original recipe calls for canned sweet cherries, but I used some that I froze last year, or you could use fresh ones, also I used close to 2 cups)
1 1/2 cups nuts (I used pecans, you could also use walnuts or something else if you liked)

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 24 muffin cups. Mix together eggs and sugar. Add in butter. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to egg mixture slowly, alternating with milk until all the ingredients are well combined. Stir in cherries and nuts. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Chocolate Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter (or margarine), melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (I used sunflower seeds)
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400. Prepare 2 muffin cups. Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Mix well. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Blueberry Muffins

Yesterday I made two different types of blueberry muffins, one from my muffin cookbook that my grandma gave me and another that was an adaptation of my mother's blueberry lemon cake.

Blueberry Muffins from the 'Mad about Muffins' cookbook

1/2 cup margarine, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
2 cups blueberries

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare 18 muffin cups. Cream together margarine and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla, baking powder and salt. Mix in the flour and milk gradually, alternating between the two. Stir in the blueberries. Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Lemon Blueberry Cake - in cupcake form

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp lemon rind (about how much comes off one lemon)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups blueberries

Glaze
2 tbsp lemon juice (about how much comes from juicing one lemon)
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 24 muffin cups. Beat butter until creamy. Beat in sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. In another bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir into the liquids alternately with milk. Stir in lemon rind and vanilla. Fold in blueberries. Spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes or so. While they are baking stir together lemon juice and sugar and let stand while the cupcakes bake. Spoon over warm cupcakes when they come out of the oven.

I took the cupcakes to work today and they went over quite well. Of course it took everyone most of the day to figure out who brought them. Apparently one of the guys tried to take credit for baking them, until his girlfriend pointed out that he probably doesn't even know how to turn on an oven. :P Finally someone figured it out at about two in the afternoon. So I heard people telling me how awesome they were both before and after they knew I'd made them. :D