Apricot Breakfast Muffins

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Multicultural Inspiration from... the world of baking!

I love Friday because it's my day off. After a generally early wake up and trip to the gym, I can come home, put on my trackies, and laze around for a few hours. Except for the first Friday of the month - that's our work staff breakfast. Each month, a different group is assigned to breaky duty, which means they have to come up with breakfast for a good 20 or so people. It's really nice to have that time to just hang out and relax together over a good breakfast, even if it does mean heading into work at 7am on my day off!

It was my group's turn to make breakfast this time around, so we decided some lovely baked goods and scrambled eggs were in order. My contribution was baked porridge with cranberries, dried apples and sunflower seeds, and apricot breakfast muffins. The muffins are super easy to put together, and not completely unhealthy, so you actually can have one for breakfast (they go great with some yoghurt and fresh fruit). The recipe I used was adapted from 500 Cupcakes, and here's how to make them...

Firstly, you'll need the following to make a dozen muffins:

• 100g caster sugar
• 250g plain flour
• 3/4 tbsp baking powder
• 2 eggs, lightly beated
• 225ml milk
• 115g butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups tinned apricot halves, halved again

 For the topping:

• 2 tbsp rolled oats
• 1 tsp brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 200°C and place 12 cupcake cases in a muffin tin.


In a bowl, combine the sifted flour, baking powder and sugar, and set aside.

In a larger bowl, beat the eggs, melted butter, milk and vanilla extract with an electric beater until smooth. 

Then, add in the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Lastly, add in the apricots and stir until they're combined into the mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases...

... and sprinkle a bit of the combined sugar and oats over the top.

Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from tins to cool. They taste amazing fresh out of the oven, but they reheat quite well in the microwave for 10 seconds or so as well, and you always freeze them and take them out as you need them!

They're quite light and full of juicy apricots. I think I'd like to try this recipe again with wholemeal flour and maybe oats in the actual mix as well. But it was delicious as is, and I think trying it with other fruits would work well too - strawberries, blueberries, figs, peaches, what ever strikes your fancy!

Despite a few upturned noses and "I don't eat cake for breakfast"s, I think the people who did try the muffins liked them, and the others missed out! But making breakfast for a pack of personal trainers and calorie counting health nuts, that's the risk you take! I for one quite liked them, and thought they were a nice change from the usual porridge or cereal for breakfast!

So, tell me... do you have any little traditions with your work colleagues or friends like our monthly breakfast?