A couple of weeks ago it was our annual staff night out to Ripon  Races.  In previous years we have eaten food when we have got there, either fish and chips or a hog roast sandwich with a drink to follow.  As it was such gorgeous weather this year we decided to have a picnic instead. We met up beforehand and set out a picnic in the carpark before going in to the meeting.   Each of us brought something to contribute to the feast.

I was asked to bring crisps, raw veg and dips along which I bought as normal but thought I would also make something sweet if anyone fancied something after all the bread and cheese.  I didn’t want anything heavy, rich and creamy which would go off in the hot weather.  I also wanted something that people could eat with their hands without needing a fork. A big cake would also need cutting up too!

After spending ages deciding I found the perfect recipe in my Rachel Allen “Cake” cookbook.  I haven’t baked from it for a few months now and wanted to try something out.  Her Peach and Ginger Muffins seemed to hit the spot.  You could use tinned peaches in juice and as I had a tin lurking in my cupboard that hadn’t been used up, I thought it was the ideal opportunity.

That afternoon after being busy finishing off some cakes and cupcakes I set to on the muffins.  The kitchen was like a sauna so the French doors were thrown open to let even more air in.  I used pretty summery muffin cases I had found in Waitrose a couple of days before, they were had a mixture of polka dots and flowers in pretty pastel colours on them.

The muffins were simple to make.  First I chopped half a 400g tin of peach slices into small chunks as well as 2 balls of stem ginger.  These had been rinsed thoroughly to get all the sticky syrup off it.  Once that had been done I weighed out the dry ingredients- wholemeal flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder as well as some ground ginger.  In a separate bowl I whisked together sugar, melted butter and egg. These were then combined along with the peach and ginger.  However, when I was in the middle of weighing out the ingredients I was distracted by the phone ringing.  I’ve got so sick of the phone ringing and it being telesales that I nearly didn’t bother answering.  It was!  Anyway after being interrupted I headed back to the kitchen and forgot to add the sugar until I started spooning the mixture into the cases!  It wasn’t until I saw the bag of sugar on the surface that I realised my mistake.  That would have been really embarrrassing so I quickly weighed it out and added it carefully to the muffin batter.

I was pleased with the way that the muffins turned out. They did look a bit uninspiring though when they came out of the oven so I livened them up with a quick dusting of icing sugar on top.  To be honest we didn’t really feel like eating them after all our food and to me they looked unappetising.  May be on a cold winter’s morning with a steaming mug of coffee but not on a hot summers’ day.  Only two got eaten and the rest went home in the box they came in.  They were still there 4 days later.

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx