Corn Muffin

I've had dinner at Kenny Rogers Roasters twice in the last week. I love their corn muffins and its the first thing I wolf down before eating anything else. I've managed to limit myself to one per meal but I wanted to make it at home just to see if I could replicate it.

I was surprised to find so many recipes for it online and I adapted the one from here.


Corn Muffins
makes 12-15 muffins

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup cornmeal (I used Bob's Red Mills fine grind)
1/2 cup milk
1 cup frozen corn

Preheat the oven at 400F. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, honey, eggs and salt. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then blend in the cornmeal. Add in the milk and mix well. Finally, fold in the corn by hand and scoop into liners.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the muffin tops turn brown.

Verdict: Although I prefer the real thing at the restaurant, I guess this is as close to it as it gets. My colleagues commented that they were like the Kenny Rogers muffins even though I didn't let on that it was the same recipe.

Carrot Cake & Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

My mother requested for carrot cake on my father's behalf so I made these cupcakes as an early Father's Day treat.

I adapted the recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book. I had tried the original recipe with crystallised ginger before but I wanted it simple this time. When I shredded the carrot, it seemed like a lot but after mixing it in, the chunky stuff seemed to disappear.


Carrot Cake
makes 30 cupcakes

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3 cups grated carrot
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup raisins
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 eggs

Preheat oven at 350F. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. In a separate bowl, toss together the carrot, walnuts, coconut and raisins. In a mixer bowl, beat the sugar and oil to combine. Add the eggs in and continue beating until smooth. Mix in the flour mixture before adding in the chunky ingredients (use a pair of chopsticks at this stage, it helps to separate the clumps of shredded carrot). Scoop into cupcake liners.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool before frosting.


Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
4 cups icing sugar
2 tbs fresh lemon juice

Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gradually add in the icing sugar and finally the lemon juice, combining to get a creamy mixture. Frost cupcakes and refrigerate for an hour to set it.


Verdict: I usually don't eat too much of the stuff I bake, just haven't got the appetite for it once it come out of the oven but I scoffed down 2 of these as soon as it was ready. Its really yummy carrot cake!