Warm Blueberry muffin !

My first serious adventure in becoming a professional cook was when I took a job as a kitchen assistant at a farm shop in Stannington near Morpeth called the Moorhouse Farm. It was a wonderful place to work. I learned so much there from Sue who was the Head cook but to say to start with she made my lift a bit more difficult than it needed to be was an understatement !
She had worked in Hotels and restaurants before she came to the farm shop and as a Head Chef in these kind of places she must have seen chefs come and go on a regular bases and I think initially she was a bit sceptical about me coming from the easy life of being a pampered photographer to coming to work in her environment of constant pressure, hot kitchens, bad cuts, worse burns and crap hours ! So I remember when our relationship had settled after 6 months she did say that I had proved her wrong as she had a bet with someone else at the shop that I would only last a week ! ha ha !
Anyway Sue and I built a good working relationship over my 18 months at the farm shop and to keep her in a good mood I would come to work and try to keep her laughing all day !
However on one occasion I thought she was going to put me through the full wash cycle in the dish washer after a little mis-timing while trying to console her.
We were finished in the kitchen for the day and I remember her saying that she had a sore shoulder and just as reached out with my hand to rub her shoulder she raised her arm up to stretch out a bit causing my hand to miss her shoulder and the full palm of my hand cupped her left breast fully in a Mills and Boons way !
I quickly withdrew my hand and my face was riddled with shock. My life started to flash before my eyes and Sue stared at me for what seemed like forever ! I thought she was about to withdraw my mop privileges and have me clean the floor with a damp cloth again ! but to my surprise she burst out laughing and I could not help but join in. Tears streamed down our cheeks we made such a noise that Debbie who worked in the Cafe was alarmed enough to come in to check we were OK. Sue told me that she found the horror on my face so funny that she could not help but laugh.  When I had stopped laughing I felted that my male ego had been wounded as she obviously found my foreplay technique was funny ! Anyway I have never had the opportunity  to touch a Head Chefs boob again.
The point of this blog piece is basically that today I made some blueberry muffins and I used the basic cake mix that Sue taught me some 9 years ago which I have used ever since.

First beat or whip whichever you fancy 8oz of butter and 8 oz of castor sugar. It should be soft a creamy.

Now add 4 medium eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly. Next add 8oz self raising flour and combine till your left with a lovely gooey cake mix just like your Gran and Mam used to make. I am sure most people like me have a wonderful childhood memory of getting to dip their finger in the mixing bowl so you should be able to judge the consistency of the cake mix from that !
Now add a few drops of Vanilla extract and a good handful of blueberries and now combine into the cake mix.
Next spoon out into your cake holders that you have placed in a muffin tray.

Now place in the oven on 170 degrees C and cook for about 15-20 minutes. They are cooked when you can place a knife in the centre of the mix and when you pull it out it should be clean.

You can make some lovely butter icing with these and just eat then with a mug of Tea !

Or you can reheat them in the microwave for about 50 seconds and serve them with a blueberry and lemon coulis and some Creme fraiche which will make a canny little pudding !

To make the blueberry and lemon coulis place blueberries and the juice of 1 lemon in a pan with 2 TBSP of Castor sugar and boil unit you have a nice syrup. Now blitz with a blender and allow to cool.
Serve with the muffin for extra blueberry.....ness !!!!!

This is a lovely cake mix and works every time so thank you Sue for giving me this recipe and providing me with one of my most frightening and pleasurable experiences in the kitchen at the same time ! ha ha !