Halloween week, can you believe it? This autumn has flown in for me, I can’t believe I have less than 3 months left of this pregnancy!
Well, it’s also half-term officially. Emma will be going to playgroup until Wednesday, when she will have a Halloween party with her friends there, so she has been asking from today for some “scary” buns for the boys and girls.
I am not very inventive when it comes to baking so I had a wee look around the Internet and found this Hearty Spiced Carrot Muffin recipe which sounded quite straight forward and mentioned a “toddler who devoured her muffin all Tasmanian-devil style”. I thought this would be spot on if we were to take them to the party on Wednesday and if we adapted them a little bit to look more…spooky.
So here is a list of my ingredients. I forgot to include the olive oil (of which I added half a cup) in the picture:
- 2 cups of self-raising flour(approximately 250 grams)
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder (I learned my lesson this summer and always add baking soda for fluffiness, even when my flour is self-raising)
- one cup of porridge oats
- one medium carrot, grated
- half a cup of brown sugar (I don’t like my buns to be too sweet, especially when designed with children in mind!)
- a cup of milk (the initial recipe stated applesauce but since I had none I double the amount of milk)
- one egg
- two teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger
- spooky Halloween Hariboes
- edible shimmer spray (optional)
The recipe recommended mixing dry ingredients first, then wet ingredients separately and adding them to the latter. I am a simple sort of baker and added everything together as they were listed, I’m afraid. No harm occurred.
My eager little baker stepped in to help me with the stirring: “That’s why I’m here, mummy!”
We placed the mix in Halloween muffin cases (bought especially from the occasion from Home Bargains, at £0.59 per 48 cases) and placed them in the oven for 20 minutes.
Emma insisted on adding a Halloween sweetie on each while they were still warm and asked me to spray them with the edible shimmer spray to make them more presentable and eery-looking.
Then she proceeded in sampling them (although she was a bit worried about the grated carrot she had seen going into the mix and had to be lied to: “Yes, love, I got it all out!”…) and declared them the best muffins mummy has ever made.
For me, this is the ultimate proof of success in a recipe and I will definitely make these little babies again, since it’s a sure way to get Emma to eat disguised carrot, if nothing else 
!
