It’s Mr M’s birthday tomorrow, as is customary in both his workplace and mine, when it’s your birthday…. you bring cakes. Mr M wrote me a list, Bakewells, Chocolate cake, Millionaire’s Shortbread… But I thought I might experiment a bit too….

I had some Strawberries to use up, and Mr M had opened up some Marzipan for a nibble the other night…. This experiment was inspired by a Raspberry and Marzipan muffin I had at Boston Tea Party once… it was kind of rubbish, as are most of their cakes, but the idea was sound.

I adapted the recipe from a Blueberry Muffin recipe, taken from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf. Apparently it makes 12…. Hmmmm more like 24!

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Strawberry, Almond, and Lemon Muffin Recipe

Ingredients

360g plain flour
370g caster sugar
1tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
375ml buttermilk *see note
1 egg
1/2 tsp almond extract
70g unsalted butter, melted
250g strawberries, diced
100g marzipan, diced (note: I also put it in the freezer for ten minutes or so to firm up a bit)
Zest of 1 lemon

Method

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F. Line a couple of 12 hole muffin tins with paper cases.

Put the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda in a freestanding mixer electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld mixer) and beat on slow speed.

Put the buttermilk, egg, and almond extract into a jug and mix to combine. Slowly pour into the flour mixture and beat until all the ingredients are incorporated.

Pour in the melted butter and beat until the butter has just been incorporated, then turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat until the dough is even and smooth.

Finally, gently fold in the strawberries, marzipan chunks and lemon zest until evenly dispersed.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tins and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and the sponge bounces back when touched. (note: it may be slightly longer than you think as the berries make it very liquid!)

Allow to cool slightly in the tray before turning out into a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

*note: I didn’t have any buttermilk, so I substituted by adding 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice to 375ml milk and allowing it to sit for 5 minutes.