White Chocolate Chunk Muffins with Raspberry Frosting

These are delicious.  Tart yet sweet, this recipe makes approx. 12 muffins and toppings.  Mine are not the prettiest as I had nothing to use to properly decorate the tops with raspberry sauce.  The pictures are of the raspberry muffins plus some muffins with milk chocolate chunks and vanilla frosting.  They are teeth-achingly yummy and ideal for that mid-afternoon time at work when you need a quick pick-me-up.  This recipe may at a glance look long winded and difficult but trust me - if I can do this, anyone can.

Basic muffin recipe

• 300mls milk
• 100mls vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 120g caster sugar
• 250g self raising flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 100g white chocolate roughly chopped in to chunks

Raspberry sauce

• 75g fresh raspberries 
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon water

Frosting

• 250g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 100g icing sugar (approx.)
• 2-5 teaspoons raspberry sauce

Muffin method

1. Preheat oven to 180c and line a muffin tray with cases.
2. Beat egg and caster sugar until light and fluffy.  In another bowl combine oil and milk.
3. Add oil and milk to sugar and egg and mix until combined.  Stir in flour, baking powder and chocolate until incorporated.
4. 3/4 fill muffin cases and bake for 15-20 mins, until a wooden toothpick comes out lean.

 Raspberry sauce method

1.  Place all ingredients into a small saucepan and set to a very low heat.
2. Stir continuously until all raspberries have melted away into a seedy goo approx 10 mins and the sauce coats the back of a spoon.
3. Strain through a sieve (I used a tea strainer) into a separate bowl.

Raspberry icing method

1.  Beat butter until softened.  Add icing sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until texture begins to get thick.  Alternate adding teaspoons of raspberry sauce with tablespoons of icing sugar, whipping with a fork in between each until the frosting achieves the desired consistency.

And finally....

1. Spoon the frosting on top of the muffins and smooth out.  I've been using a spoon for the this and using a circular motion, but go wild.  A piping bag would probably be more artful.
2. Give the frosting a little bit of time to set, then top with the rest of the raspberry sauce.  I attempted to spoon it on and it ran everywhere.  Good for Halloween cakes, but not ideal for pretty little summery muffins.  Next time I'll find a little bottle and splurt it on a bit neater.

For the milk chocolate and vanilla ones, I used the same recipe for the muffins, then used a few drops of blue food colouring and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract in the frosting and topped with sprinkles.