Cherry Ripe Mud Muffins (and a prize!)

Every year Mum adds some Aussie lollies (sweeties) to our Christmas parcel.  She always includes Caramello Koala's, Cherry Ripes and a packet of Allens Strawberries and Cream .... tastes of home!  Hubby ate the Strawberries and Cream, I ate all the Caramello Koala's (over the course of a week may I add!) and some of the Cherry Ripes, this year I took the notion to add the rest of them to some baked goods and this is what I came up with;  

Cherry Ripe Mud Muffins
125g butter, chopped
3/4 cup water
100g dark chocolate, chopped
100g milk chocolate, chopped
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1 egg, whisked
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
125g Cherry Ripe bar, chopped roughly

Preheat oven to 180°C. Place muffin cases in 15 holes of a muffin tray.

Place butter, water, chocolate and sugar in medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Stand for 10 minutes.

Stir flours, egg, coconut and Cherry Ripe into chocolate mixture and mix well. Divide evenly between prepared pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Stand 5 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar or cocoa powder before serving, if desired.

Makes 15 muffins

Adapted from Taste Website

The original recipe should be for frainds but as I don;t have a pan for this I settled on muffins.  They had a mud cake like texture yesterday when they were freshly baked but today they are more like normal muffins ... not that there is anything wrong with that ;0)

Yesterday was a double whammy in the treat stakes for me.  Not only were there Cherry Ripe Mud Muffins aplenty but I also received a prize in the post from the very kind people at Tesco Real Food Team.

Remember the Reindeer Cupcakes I made for the Tesco Real Food Christmas Cupcake competition?  Well I didn't win it, but I was one of ten lucky runners up which meant I was sent a lovely box of goodies from the Tesco gang.  My prize came in a lovely presentation box full of baking goodies like flour, sugar, food colourings, cupcake cases, a piping nozzle and bag and a snowflake plunge cutter.  I'm a very lucky girl!!  Can't wait to get into the kitchen to put everything to some good use ;0)