Cherry Bakewell Muffins

Thank you Mr. Kipling for the idea.

Today (well it will be in less than an hour, but I need my sleep) would have been Kev's birthday, so it seemed only fitting to put his all time favourite muffins up here to share with the world. Both he and our Jack love the original Mr. K's pies, and Rose's mega-sized birthday bakewell, so one day I found some ground almonds and went for it - and the Cherry Bakewell Muffin was created. The results are very sweet and sticky, and totally scrumcious.

You will need:
300g self raising flour
75g ground almonds
220g castor sugar
90g melted butter
half a cup of sour cream
quarter cup of milk
half a teaspoon of almond essence
2 large eggs
red jam
glace cherry halves
icing sugar
water
mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl
mix the wet ingredients together in a small bowl
mix the wet into the dry and stir together

cover the base of each muffin case with half the muffin mixture
drop half a teaspoon of red jam (jack says it has to be plum jam to be authentic, but raspberry will do) onto the mixture
cover the jam with the remaining mixture

bake on gas 5/6 for 20-25 mins

leave to cool on a wire rack

while cooling make the icing by mixing
a small amount of water to large quantities of icing sugar - i always put in too much water and use half a packet of icing sugar - so go easy to start with.
mix to a paste

when the muffins are cool, spread icing on the top of each of them
then pop a half glace cherry in the centre

Voila! I'm sure Mr. Kiplng would approve, Kev did :)