I seriously have no idea how long it has been since I last used my oven to bake a muffin, let alone a Sunday cake.

Time just does not seem to be my friend, from the moment I open my eyes, there seems to be something to do, something that needs my attention or someone who makes good use of my time for me.

That by the time I am actually finished doing whatever it is I am doing, I have zero energy to bake or it’s too late and I am too tired to stand in front of the oven and not burn cake.

My parents have been on the fence when it comes to allowing me to recharge my batteries… by that I mean, they have been hinting as hard as rocks while they eat store bought biscuits or fruit.

I am not doing it on purpose, I wake up with the full intention on baking and then when I get home from work, I just have enough energy to put on my pjs make a plate of food hot, climb into bed and watch tv before I fall off to sleep and most nights I forget to brush my teeth… just kidding, I want to see if my mother is really reading this like she says… if you don’t hear from me anytime soon, just know that she did in fact read this and has knocked me into next week for not brushing my teeth, like I say I do every night.

When I was in Woolworths the other day, I saw that they are stocking Donna Hay’s cookbook, it’s a fat, massive thing about 400 pages think with recipes that seem only a professional chef could pull it off.  But you know me, I just had to buy it, I didn’t want to buy it, it wasn’t exactly the cheapest book on the shelve, but my subconscious kept nagging and nagging and nagging me and when I finally got to the till, I turned right around and went back for the book.

Did I make the right decision??? Only time will tell I guess. I think I made the right decision, my mother says I need help and my book shelves are already creaking under the weight of my books.

To break in this bad baby, I decided to try out a chocolate and coconut muffin recipe. The original recipe contained eggs, so I substituted it for vegan eggs and it did wonders.

What I loved about this recipe, was that I did not have to drag out the kitchen aid mixer, do you have any idea how heavy those things are? My poor back everytime and my mother has allowed me to store it in the back of the smallest kitchen cabinet on the lowest shelve right right at the back where its dark and gloomy and most likely there are spiders just waiting to grab my fingers and give me the creeps… no point in complaining because she told me straight that the mixer is not and I repeat not going to stand on her counter and collect dust or scratch the counter tops… apparently the counter tops were lasting too long for me. Parents I tell you.

All in all these muffins were loved by all and then my parents had to hurt my feelings my telling me that they were going to ration themselves because they were not sure how long it will be again before they get muffins…. PARENTS, its not like I am doing it on purpose.

Ingredients:

• 2 x cups, self raising flour, sifted.
• 1 x cup light brown sugar, sifted.
• ½ x cup desiccated coconut.
• ¼ x coco powder, sifted.
• 1 x cup milk.
• ½ x cup vegetable oil.
• 2 x vegan eggs.
• 2 x tsp vanilla essence.
• 200g x chocolate chunks… I used milk chocolate.

Method:

• In a bowl, whisk together the cake flour, sugar, coconut and cocoa powder.
• Pour in the milk, eggs, vanilla essence and oil.
• Whisk till just combined.
• Fold in the chocolate chunks.
• Fill your lightly greased muffin tins.
• Pop into a preheated oven.
• Bake at 180 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes or until the cake tester comes out clean.