QUICK BERRY MUFFINS

THESE lovely and easy fresh fruit muffins are a great way to practise making a creamed cake mixture. It’s a simple way to add lightness to a bake that you’ll use again and again.

Makes 12 muffins

Kit you’ll need

12-hole cupcake tray or deep-hole bun tray Paper cupcake cases

Ingredients

60g (2¼oz) unsalted butter, softened 150g (5½oz) caster sugar 1 medium unwaxed lemon 2 medium eggs, at room temperature 275g (9¾oz) self-raising flour ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

125ml (4fl oz) natural yoghurt 200g (7oz) fresh blueberries or raspberries 2 tbsp coarse sugar crystals, for sprinkling

1 Preheat the oven to 200c/180c fan/ 400f/gas 6. Line the cupcake tray with paper cases.

2 Put the butter into a mixing bowl or the bowl of a food mixer and beat well with wooden spoon or whisk attachment until creamy. Gradually beat in the caster sugar, scraping down the bowl occasionally. Finely grate the zest of the lemon and beat it in.

3 Break the eggs into a separate bowl and beat them with a fork until broken up. Now beat them in to the mixing bowl, a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is quite soft.

4 Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into the bowl and stir in with a plastic spatula or wooden spoon.

5 Squeeze 1 tbsp juice from the lemon and stir into the yoghurt, then add to the muffin mixture. As soon as everything is thoroughly combined, add the fresh blueberries or raspberries to the bowl and very gently fold them in so that the fruit does not break up.

6 Spoon the mixture into the paper cases, dividing it equally so that they are uniformly filled, then sprinkle over the coarse sugar crystals.

7 Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Check that the top of the muffins feel firm when gently pressed. Set the tray on a wire rack and leave the muffins to cool in the tray for five minutes, then lift them out of the tray and on to the wire rack to cool. Serve warm.