Post Fugly-Cry: The Great Twitter Muffin Bake-Off

I practiced after work last night. Just coz I couldn't roll out of bed in the morning. Because of the Moon Day and LH, I'd taken a few days' break. And then snuck in a couple more days' rest. Bwahaha. Not. Beating. Myself. Up. Over. It.

So I just stuck to Primary to get back into the swing of things. And after all dropbacks/ backbends, in my final counter-pose of Paschimottanasana, I proceeded to BAWWWWWWWWWL my eyes out. Like. For real, no holds-barred, Fugly-Cry. Seemed like an eternity. I have no idea why, it was just a R.E.L.E.A.S.E.

I'm guessing this must be a chick thing. You never hear of guys Fugly-Crying on the mat (Do you?) ...I blame the crazy-chick hormones. HAHAHA. Whatever. Who knows why we do what do. Some people go visit a shrink, I just get on my mat. And that's my therapy.

After that intense release, it was 9pm and I felt like eating MUFFINS. Heh.

Earlier yesterday, I was checking out Kai's new blog format (LOVE IT, CHICKIE! ...OK, maybe it's not such a new format after all). Y'know... aka The Reluctant Ashtangi. And I came across her FABULOUS recipe for vegan muffins. I'd tweeted about it while at work, and another Twitter pal, Dom, decided to bake Kai's muffins too.

DOM. IS. FABULOUS! You have to follow his tweets... Or if Twitter's not your thing, he's just started a blog called The Smoking Ashtangi (what else could that blog be about but the "memoirs of the smoking ashtangi". Of course!) Point your RSS feed readers his way and show him some lurrrrrrve (and also to help keep him on his mat). :p

And so began the Great Twitter Vegan Muffin Bake-Off.
Our slogan: Looks Horrid But Tastes Dee-lish!!

If you follow both of us on Twitter, you would have seen the hilarious exchanges (with photos too!) Along the way, I had cheerleading support from @onhermat, who was answering my "Baking for Idiots 101" questions like "If the second batch sits outside the oven for 20 minutes while the first batch bakes, will they still rise later?" ...and "Do I need to grease the cupcake cups?" HAHAHA!

These are Dom's Apple-Raisin muffins:


He wants me to say they taste better than they look. HAHAHA! But I think his muffins look GOOD!

And these are my Blueberry muffins (2 pints or 2 cups of blueberries in her recipe gives you SHITLOADS of bursting-with-blueberry-goodness in every mouthful).

Substitutions. I used:
- Wholewheat flour instead of regular flour (1 for 1).
- Agave nectar instead of sugar (1 for 1).
- Rice milk with almond (instead of soy milk)
- Olive Oil (the block of coconut oil I've got still looks too daunting to be used)
- Blueberries (followed Kai's substitutions to swap out apples and raisins for blueberries)

Spooning them out into cups:


First batch got put in for too long (Put them in for the requisite 20min, the longest time in the recipe)... Some muffin tops became a little too toasted with almost-burnt bits. I had to taste-test the ugly ones. :)


Second batch came out much better. They went in for 17 minutes, minimum stated in the recipe. Umm... I had 4 of these. But they're in SMALL cupcake cups! They're not huge regular sized muffins!! ;p

Brought the rest into the office today. Muffinmania became Muffinoverload. They're a hit with my workmates! (Especially coz they sound so "healthy" too) :)


THANKS FOR THE RECIPE, KAI! And... That was fun, Dom! Let's do it again some time... What are we making next? :) :) :)

-----