Muffin Pops For Brunch

Like many other food bloggers I am taken in by the cute and imaginative cake pops. They are so festive for holidays and fun for the kids celebrating birthdays.

However I have to say I'm not a huge fan of adding lots of sweet frosting to crumbled cake to make the cake pops. So I just admired from afar the cuteness and popularity of the various pop stars.

That was until my daughter gave me a babycakes cake pop maker. Well the wheels started turning and I knew that this would be one of the best gifts especially with winter on our heels.

I could make just one batch of cakes each week without packing in the calories. Oooh, and I can make lots of muffins, yes for New Year's Day Brunch. Now that's a good idea!

So of course I've been testing recipes I've already made a couple of batches of cake pops or really cake balls since I didn't put them on a stick. They are small bites and perfect for a snack.

Now for the muffins, yesterday in just 20 minutes I made 30 muffin pops using a basic breakfast muffin recipe. This is perfect for the family brunch.

I like to add chocolate chips to my muffins and then I decided to add blueberries too. I divided the batter for the add-in ingredients.

Basic Breakfast Muffin

Ingredients

• 2 cups All Purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 TBLS. baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 TBLS. canola oil
• 2 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven 400 degrees. Blend the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. I mix the wet ingredients in a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup. Measure the 1 cup of milk and add the eggs and oil and mix well with a fork. Then add it to the dry ingredients and mix well with a fork just until the flour is blended with the milk mixture - about 30 seconds. Don't over-mix or the muffins become tough.
3. Pour the mixture into each well in the babycakes pan following the instructions that came with the package.
4. Bake 4 minutes and you have a batch of the cutest and most delicious muffin pops.

Here are a few tips:

• Following the directions is key to not making a mess as I did. You can't overfill the cups -- not pretty -- but I was able to save the muffins and separate them so I didn't loose any.
• I thought I would add the chips and blueberries after I poured the batter, but they start baking immediately and that didn't work. The best approach was to separate the batter and put the chips in one half and the blueberries in the other half. This was the best approach.

The result was delicious muffin pops for snack, New Year's Day Family Brunch, or any day you like.


Mangia!
Winelady Cooks