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Genoa Cake Muffins

These easy muffins have all the delicacy, dried fruit, almond and lemon flavours of traditional British Genoa cake but are made and baked in a fraction of the time.

Swap in whichever dried fruit you like, so long as it totals 240 grams.

It's recommended that you read the accompanying blog post before starting the recipe.

Course Dessert, Snack, Cake
Cuisine Italian, British
Keyword quick, cupcake, easy
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 17 minutes
Total Time 32 minutes
Servings 12 muffins
Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

Dry ingredients

  • 325 g self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 large pinch salt

Dried fruit (you can vary these so long as they total 240 g), toasted almonds, lemon zest

  • 60 g dried peel
  • 60 g glacé cherries chopped
  • 40 g raisins
  • 40 g currants
  • 40 g sultanas
  • 30 g toasted almonds (finely chopped)
  • 1 lemon, zest only (finely grated)

Wet ingredients + sugar

  • 240 ml plain yogurt
  • 200 g caster sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 120 g melted butter
  • 2 tsp almond extract

Decoration

  • 18 blanched almonds (split in half lengthwise to give 36 pieces)

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 200° C / 180° Fan /Gas 6 /400° F with a shelf just above the middle.

    Put a paper case into each hole of a 12-hole deep muffin tin.

  2. Stir together the dry ingredients then sift and set aside.

  3. In a separate bowl, stir together all the dried fruit, chopped almonds, and lemon zest.

    Add to this bowl approximately ⅓ - ½ of the sifted flour mixture. Toss the fruit etc. in the flour to coat it then set aside.

  4. Put all the wet ingredients + sugar in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together, preferably using electric beaters, until combined and the sugar is dissolved.

  5. Gently fold into the wet mixture the flour which DOES NOT contain the fruit.

    Now fold in the rest of the flour which contains the fruit.

    For light muffins, try not overmix: it doesn't matter if the batter looks a little lumpy.

  6. Divide the mixture equally between the 12 muffin cases.

    Top each one with three halves of blanched almond and immediately transfer to the preheated oven.

  7. Bake until a cocktail stick or skewer comes out clean: approximately 17 minutes.

    Cool on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.

    Best eaten within 2 days or can be frozen.

    Tip: heating in a microwave for a few seconds should bring back the fluffy texture of slightly stale muffins.