Ghoulish Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins.

I had a craving for lemon poppy seed muffins. I have a huge container of poppy seeds so I wanted to use them. I was able to find my neon food coloring in my garage a couple weeks back. I was so excited. I swear by this stuff. I wanted to create a fun ghoulish looking muffin. I was not sure my idea would turn out how I wanted but it did!!! My muffins kick ass!!! I love how the outline on the green is hot pink from bleeding into it.

#muffinsarenotugly

How I did it. Simple. The poppy seeds add a nice touch to this ghoulish treat, no?

Ingredients

1/2 cup sweet creamy butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs, separated

1 1/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons poppy seeds (I put in more)

2 lemons, zest of, grated

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used vanilla yogurt)

2 tablespoons lemon juice (I put in a one TBS lemon juice and 1 TSP lemon extract)

1 teaspoon vanilla (Since I used vanilla yogurt I did not add vanilla)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F Coat muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add the egg yolks, one at a time.

Beat well after each.

In a separate bowl, stir together the dry ingredients, poppy seeds, and lemon zest.

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, alternating two times with the buttermilk, then lemon juice, and then vanilla.

Beat just until smooth.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.

Gently fold them into the muffin batter until blended.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, 3/4-full.

Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Before I put my batter in the pan I separated it in two bowls. I colored the majority purple and maybe 1/3 cup of it green. I used neon dye for the vibrant color. I put the purple batter in the cupcake liners. I barely filled them to the top. I put the green batter in a sandwich bag since I was out of piping bags. I cut the tip off so I could squeeze a swirl on top of each muffin. Since these were made in a cupcake pan and not a large muffin pan I only baked them 20 mins. They were so moist. Yum.

ALSO! I only beat my egg whites until they were all foamy and still liquidy. I did not want them to be thick like whip cream folding them into the batter. The batter is really thick. I wanted my batter to be moist enough to be workable while piping. Before the egg white the batter was too thick to pipe as thin as I needed to pipe though the tiny hole I cut on the bag. Don't worry it does not effect the taste or fluffiness of this muffin. They turned out delicious! Just make sure not to over bake! 20 minutes exactly and mine came out oh so good!