This is one of my favourite Easter recipes, I love the combination of flavours! The buns stay fresh in a sealed container for 3-4 days.
Serves 10
Ingredients
- 200g self-raising flour
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 2 teaspoons mixed spice
- 150g light muscovado sugar
- 170ml sunflower oil
- 2 large eggs
- 200g carrot, grated
- 2 oranges, zested
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1½ teaspoons poppy seeds
For the icing:
- 200g icing sugar
- Orange Juice (amount will depend on if you prefer a runny or thick icing)
- Segments of orange to decorate for the ‘egg yolk’ centre
Equipment: 12 cup muffin/cupcake tray
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 160°C fan/180°C conventional oven and line a muffin pan with 10 muffin cases. Sieve the flour, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl, add the sugar and mix.
In a separate container mix the sunflower oil and eggs to combine. Add this liquid to the dry ingredients, along with the grated carrot, orange zest and juice and poppy seeds. Mix gently until the ingredients are incorporated, don’t over mix.
Scoop the batter into the muffin cases and pop into the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Use a skewer to check if they are ready, the skewer should come out clean if the muffins are baked. If some batter clings to the skewer pop back into the oven for another few minutes and check again.
Leave the buns to cool on a wire rack while you make the icing.
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add two teaspoons of orange juice and mix, keep adding small amounts of orange juice until you get a consistency you are happy with -it should drop from the spoon rather than flow.
Spread the icing over the top of each cooled bun and leave to set. To finish pop a small segment of orange on top of each muffin to give the egg looking top, perfect for Easter!
Food by Miriam 