Basic Muffin

The basic muffin recipe goes like this;

In a bowl mix
2 cups (9oz) plain flour,
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
½ cup (4oz) sugar

In another bowl or a jug mix
1 cup (8 fl oz) milk
1/3 cup (3 fl oz) melted butter or sunflower oil
1 egg

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Don't overbeat and don't use electric beaters. You simply need to make sure there are no clumps of dry flour.
Spoon the batter into paper muffin cases in a 12 hole muffin tin.
Bake at 200ºC (180ºC for a fan oven) for 25 mins.

To make these lime and coconut variations, add a cup (handful) of desiccated coconut to the dry ingredients. Zest and juice two limes. Put about half the juice and some of the zest aside for the icing. The rest of the juice put into a measuring cup before topping up with milk. Add the remaining zest to the dry ingredients.

Once baked and cooled, make a little icing by stirring icing sugar into the lime juice and zest to make quite a runny mixture. At the last minute, throw in a handful of coconut.