Last night I made a passionfruit, banana and coconut cake with the intention of serving it up for afternoon tea today. I didn’t really feel like baking, but I had some egg whites left over from the lunchtime Spaghetti Carbonara I had made for the children that I wanted to use. However in my distracted state, I had forgotten to add the sugar and instead must have used too many additional eggs and flour. Luckily I tried a small piece, before serving it all up, which looked stodgy and unappealing and and gosh it tasted awful! Into the rubbish bin! 

This proves my theory that when I am not in the mood for cooking – especially baking – where the ingredients really do need to be correctly balanced, then it is better that I don’t take out the mixing bowl AT ALL. There is a wonderful novel called Like Water for Chocolate written by Mexican author Laura Esquivel, and it emphasises the effect that the cook’s emotions have on the overall dish. It is one of my favourite novels, not only for the captivating love story and style of writing, but for the tantalising dishes described across its pages. 

Determined not to be beaten by a baking blunder, I set about whipping up a simple, but satisfying batch of Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins. I used brown sugar because this goes beautifully with orange and gives the finished product an appetising toffee coloured colour and flavour. While the children raced around the garden with our enthusiastic English Springer Spaniel Tara, I mixed up the batter, popped it into the oven and when ready, called them all in to enjoy warm treats with mugs of milky Milo. No muffins for Tara because she is on a diet…the result of too many little hands feeding her little extras between meals. 

Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins makes 14 generously sized muffins

Ingredients
100 ml light olive oil
2 large eggs
1/2 cup natural yoghurt
finely grated rind of 1 orange along with the juice
125 g dark chocolate chips
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups self raising flour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees fan forced.

Whisk together the olive oil, eggs, yoghurt, orange rind and juice until combined and smooth. 

Stir in the chocolate chips. Then stir through the sugar and flour until just combined. 

Scoop tablespoonfuls into muffin cases which have been placed into muffin trays. 

Bake for about 18 minutes until golden brown.

Best eaten warm for your tastebuds to really appreciate the slightly sticky effect and flavour imparted by the brown sugar.