I've adapted a recipe from The English Kitchen blog, which had a really lovely lemon zest crunch on the top, which I thought would work well. By now I'm obviously in a hurry, so my modifications are more about timing than anything else...
Ingredients:
Grated zest of 5 medium lemons
220g vanilla caster sugar (1 cup)
335g of self raising flour (2 1/4 cup)
2 Tbsp poppy seeds
80ml of fresh lemon juice (1/3 cup)
250ml of milk (1 cup)
60g of vegetable oil (1/3 cup)
2 large free range eggs, beaten
Preheat the oven to 180oC. Pop six large cafe-style muffin cases into a 'holey' tin (otherwise they will unfurl!)
Rub together the lemon zest and the sugar, and then set aside 3 tablespoons for later. Sift the flour into the remainder and stir in the poppy seeds.
Et voila! Laissez mon mari manger son gâteau! (Let my husband eat his cake!!)
Putting lemon juice into milk has the effect of turning it into buttermilk. I'm assuming you could substitute buttermilk here if you wished... So, whisk together the lemon juice, milk, beaten eggs and vegetable oil. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the liquid all at once.
The trick with muffins is to avoid overworking the batter, so only stir enough to combine. Spoon it into the prepared muffin cups, dividing it equally. (And here that Lorraine Pascal trick of using one of those old-fashioned icecream scoops really will help, especially if you have a 10yo as your pâtissier. Sprinkle the tops of each with the reserved lemon sugar.
Bake for 30 minutes. I tested mine with a cake tester, but the rules about a clean skewer apply too. I left mine in the pan to 'settle' for a few minutes too, before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Et voila! Laissez mon mari manger son gâteau! (Let my husband eat his cake!!)
