Lemon muffins with crunchy lemon sugar topping

Quiet moments can jolt your memory of lovely things.
It was a very busy baking week. I wanted to make four different cakes, three for a fundraiser for Bellyful and one for our builders working very hard on our house extension. I used the baking opportunity to try a number of new recipes to add to this  blog. On Wednesday one of my Old Girls gave me an 'All in one Cake' recipe. It was a cake her children used to bake, it never fails. It appealed to me because you could change the cake according to the flavourings you added, e.g. chocolate, lemon, orange or coffee.  So I decided on a coffee one. I will experiment a little more and will post later.
Catherine's recipe and story reminded me of an Eggless Chocolate Cake recipe my daughter used to make (from the NZ Radio and TV Cooking Book, I have talked about this book before, it served me well in the 1970's). When I opened to the page it made me smile. It was covered in cocoa powder and grease stains which has made it almost impossible to read the print. I am sure this mess was not made by me but by my dear daughter who (in later years) made it every time she needed to bake a cake (which was often, think birthdays and teachers morning teas!). The reason - quickly made in one bowl and she lovvves chocolate. It has stood the test of time and I will make sure I make the cake again and post this recipe too.
I was also given some lovely homegrown lemons so decided whatever else I made for the builders that week it had to include lemons. The quickest and easiest morning tea baking to make (when you are pressed for time) are muffins. So muffins it was.
I  copied this recipe some time ago but I didn't note the direct link, so my apologies to Kate's Kitchen.... It is a little gem. Apart from its simplicity I like this muffin recipe for the gorgeous crunchy sour topping.

Lemon muffins with crunchy sugar topping   - from Kate’s Kitchen 2012

2 cups self-raising flour

¾ cup sugar

75g butter

1 cup milk

1 egg

Grated zest and 1/4c lemon juice from a large lemon

and  for topping - 1/4cup lemon juice and 1/4cup of sugar

 Melt the butter, add milk, beaten egg and lemon zest

Beat with a fork to combine.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, don’t over mix – just gently fold to combine

Divide mixture between 12 greased muffin tins

Bake at 200°C (or 190 for fan oven) for 10 mins  

Topping

Stir together lemon juice and sugar, drizzle over muffins as soon as they come out of oven.

Prick top of muffin with a toothpick so it soaks in.

Remove from tins after only a few minutes as the syrup can make them stick to the tins.

Sharing the kitchen bench with the builders

To make them even' posher' (is that a word?) for your morning teas, eat served on a lovely china plate using a cake fork, with a little Greek plain yoghurt on the side.