Ms February - my sunny valentine

"My funny valentine
Sweet comic valentine
You make me smile with all my heart
Your looks are laughable
Unphotographable (!?)
Yet you're my favourite work of art"*

Our February Valentine had to be sweet, smooth white chocolate set against fruitful, feisty cranberry. Purists will not allow the word chocolate to apply to the white stuff. But the white chocolate we cut into these muffins is so good it has to be hidden from the family to have a chance of making it into the mix. Made with cocoa butter (not a hint of palm oil in these babies) it fades into the muffin mixture creating a luxurious texture to set against the palate-teasing cranberry (with which ladies have a particular affiliation). Maybe a little sweeter than most of our muffins but, hey, Valentine's day is a treat for loved ones.

Valentine's Pack - 8 x white chocolate and cranberry (UK only) (From 13th Feb, will switch to "Morning Muffins" unless you contact MagogMuffins@gmail.com with other request.)

Order between now and mid-day on the 11th Feb, for your muffins to be delivered in time for Valentine's Day.













*My sunny valentine, according to Sylvia Aprile

For tailored treats (Mr November is a good foil for Ms February) contact MagogMuffins@gmail.com

Do you take sugar?

"White death!" my father used to exclaim as he sprinkled granulated white sugar on his cereal. As a surgeon he saw the impact of excess sugar on the human body - and had long since cut down other areas of sugar intake. This came to mind when, as part of our research on postal delivery, we ordered cupcakes by post the other day. The supplier's web site was appetising and easy to use, but we are not naming them as our disappointment is clear:

Looks: 2/5 Classic cupcake - cheap and cheerful (except at £20 for 6, not cheap).
Topping: 1/5 Pure sugar with artificial colouring.
Texture: 4/5 Sponge was light and moist, as promised.
Taste: 1/5 . Not the "zesty lemon" also promised. Artificial flavour and everything subsumed by the icing sugar wadge.
Aftertaste: 0/5 Sugar does create a desire for more. Fight your sugar-craving brain!

In short, we would only recommend them to Norwich City football fans for whom the yellow and green colours, that startled us as we opened the box, might generate more positive emotions.

Are muffins just naked cupcakes then, without sugary frosting? One of the bake debates, that... start asking what the difference is between cupcakes and muffins and you unearth a war of deeply divided advocates almost religious in their zeal. We started Magog Muffins with the ambition to create healthy, guilt-free treats and have found that you can make delicious muffins with very little sugar but with sweetness lurking in bursts of fruit or chocolate (and 85% dark chocolate will not translate into muffin tops). Sometimes we swish a sweeter shine across a freshly baked variety (e.g. lemon tea muffins) but the only one we were tempted to frost was cappuccino - possibly allowing a cupcake in disguise into our fold.

So, we stand behind the magical muffin. An independent being, secure in its body, without need for a smothering of sugary make-up to face the world. "Naked cupcakes" rule, O.K.?












P.S. And, before you ask, yes, we did eat all of the cupcakes that we rip into above! Testing the limits of that sugar craving, of course - and we are anyway quite shameless. If frosting is your thing, and if you really like sugary cupcakes, fine. Thank you again to all the cupcake eaters who contributed to the Haiti appeal below...

Help, health and Haiti (+update 21 Jan)

A friend of ours, struck by the desperation that led improverished Haitians to eat mudcakes, is rounding up home bakers and sending the proceeds of cake sales direct to Oxfam for their Haiti earthquake appeal. Feeling rather helpless in the face of Haiti's challenges the Magog Muffins team have decided to work only for this cause for the rest of the month - 100% of income will go to Oxfam, with the only limit being our production capacity. The full cost of any muffins purchased will be given to the Haiti appeal. Recognising the spirit of Haitians, and the many influences permeating Haitian cuisine, we will feature spice & fruit - dark choc & chilli, stem ginger, banana & cinnamon. Three ways of participating in this:
(1) Paypal below (a stop gap until our web site and alternative payment mechanism is available)
(2) contact MagogMuffins@gmail.com or
(3) just e-mail a copy of your receipt and a postal address if you donate directly to the Oxfam appeal.
Thank you.

UPDATE 21st Jan. Cupcake sale in Cambridge offices raised £382 ....














Good effort from Rachel, Amy, Liesje, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Helen & friends who helped them ..... and still rest of this month to make Magog Muffins bake only for the Haiti appeal.

Then, realising that the needs in Haiti will continue, we are planning to join the "International day of cakes for Haiti" fundraising effort that Janet Mohapi-Banks in Epsom is setting up for 26th March. We will post updates here once the web site for that is up and running. If you are on twitter you can follow the hashtag #cakesforhaiti http://janetmohapibanks.com

Warming up to 2010

A quartet of hot drinks to warm up the chilly start to the year - hot ginger, warm lemon tea with honey, chunky cappucino and our new flavour - hot dark chocolate with a hint of chilli. If you have never tried chilli with chocolate, give this a go. The slightly delayed "nip" just amplifies the chocolate hit. Naughty and nice, but not really new - the ancient Aztecs and Mayans were the first known civilizations to serve hot chocolate, flavoured not with sugar, but with chilli pepper. A real multi-tasker that chilli.... flavoursome, fiery and fabulous. For in-depth chilli Magog Muffins enjoys "Nagachilli"'s blog (and twitter @nagachilli) where we found this Aztec offering for hot choc drink:

One and two thirds cups milk, half a vanilla bean, split lengthwise, one red chili pepper, split with seeds removed, one cinnamon stick of around three to four inches, half an ounce of chocolate (bittersweet) . Simmer milk in a saucepan with vanilla bean, cinnamon and chili. Heat through for about a minute. Whisk in grated chocolate, and continue to simmer until melted. Remove from heat and let ’steep’ for another 10 minutes. Strain out the spices and serve. For maximum impact drink with a choc/chilli muffin......


And the Royal Mail is still getting them through, despite the snow. Until our new website and payment mechanism is up and running you can still order by e-mail or PayPal - see post "Magog Muffins on the Move" or MagogMuffins@gmail.com.

Ms January 2010 - stem ginger.

Ms January is Hot! Hot! Hot!

Little chunks of our own preserved stem ginger tantalise the tastebuds as you munch into this minx. This flavour has had rave reviews and been one of our most popular so we are including it in all our mixed muffin packs, and also offering it as a standalone.

You can of course also argue that scoffing this muffin is part of your new year resolution to eat healthily.... ginger has an amazing list of benefits to body and soul.

Happy New Year!