Sugar Donut Muffins

My daughter invited 2 friends over today, for a mani-pedi date. Yes, you heard me right. That's what 10-year old girls do these days. During my time, we played with dolls and skipping ropes. But the world is changing, and at a frightening pace. Tweenhood is the new Teenhood. So I know I should never use my personal experiences as yardsticks for my children ... that would be the surest and fastest way to alienate myself from them.

To me, as long as it's good, harmless fun, I say, let them have their way. Like a mani-pedi date. They listened to Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus as they soaked their feet in some foot spa shampoo. Whatever. I had no idea.

This is a box of mani-pedi goodies from Victoria's Secrets, which was given to me by my friend.


What are little girls made of? Vanilla Sugar, spice and all things Beautilicious nice.

And since I would never have the luxury of using them (how? when? 3 kids!) ... I let the girls have them. In the background, I could hear excited squeals, giggles and water splashing.


Some foot soak before the scrub and massage. The other 2 girls brought their own foot spa kits and nail glitter. At the end of the day, all 3 of them had better looking nails than I did.

In the meantime, I roped in my 4-year old son to help me bake something for tea. Oh yes, I am grooming my lil man to be a Sensitive New Age Guy. One who can bake his own celebratory cake after winning an Olympic medal. Heh.

We made these super simple Sugar Donut Muffins together. They were a breeze to put together yet soooo delicious to eat. Thank goodness I put aside one for myself because 11 muffins were barely enough for 4 ravenous kids and 1 baby. I wouldn't have pics to show if I had put all 12 out there for grabs, that's for sure.


Ta-dah! I realise sugar frosted anything looks good.



Doesn't this little darling look angelic? I swear I saw a halo.



Love the flattering lighting. The muffin was literally glowing.

I made 2 rounds of hot chocolate for the girls, which they drank up effortlessly. Then it was back to more foot spa stuff which I was not a part of.


Cheers to happy growing up years!

Just as I was about to take a rest, they asked if they could have dinner at my place! Good grief. What should I cook? I guess with kids, pasta dishes are fail-proof, so I made a very simple Spaghetti alla Carbonara, along with some re-heated roast chicken from the night before. The plates were cleaned out in an instant!

My daughter then took out some lemon sorbet for dessert, and again, everything was gone in a jiffy. Amazing how much they could eat! By the time the girls went home, I was too tired to eat my own dinner. But my daughter and her friends had fun, and that's all that mattered.


Very fluffy and tender on the inside, much like a donut. In a muffin form. Oh, who cares! Every bite was heaven.

Recipe
(from Baking Bites)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (I didn't have this, unfortunately)
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup milk (low fat is fine)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the sugar frosting
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
- 1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 350F (about 175 degree celsius). Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.

2. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

4. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine.

5. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract.

6. Divide batter evenly into 10 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

7. While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour remaining sugar into a small bowl.

8. When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in sugar. Cool on a wire rack.