Quick, easy, low mess, and definitely no icing.
Those were the requirements when my seven year old asked me if we could bake something. I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with anything that took too much brain power or too much cleaning up.
He looked through the big old recipe book that is stuffed with random pieces of stained paper filled with handwritten recipes and made a few suggestions…
“No… not that… we don’t have the right ingredients for that…”
He stooped and grabbed a piece of paper that had fallen to the floor and said “How about this one? Golden syrup muffins? They sound good.”
And they did sounds good, and easy, and low mess, and they didn’t need icing… so we made them.
The golden syrup in these muffins makes them sweet, moist, sort of caramel-ey, and just delicious. It’s a great combination with the sultanas!
They are egg free and they keep well in a sealed container and also freeze well.
If you can’t buy golden syrup you could substitute with light treacle, honey, or even maple syrup. These will all change the flavours slightly, but shouldn’t change the consistency or sweetness of the muffins too much.
- 80 gm softened butter or 1/3 cup of oil
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup golden syrup
- 1 1/2 cup plain flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup hot water
- 1 cup sultanas or other dried fruit.
- Preheat your oven to 180 Celcius and line a large muffing tin with cake cases.
- In a large bowl cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the golden syrup and mix well.
- Combine the flour and bicarb and add it to the mixture alternating with the hot water.
- Lastly stir through the sultanas or dried fruit.
- Fill the muffin cases almost to the top and bake for 30-40 mins or until they are golden on top and a test skewer comes out cleanly.
Please note: this recipe uses Australian measurements and cooking temperatures, if you need to convert measurements or temperatures this website is useful.
Do you like to bake with your kids?
Here are a few other easy recipes to try:
I do love baking and cooking with my kids, and over the years I’ve had the kids plan meals and prepare them, with desserts always being the fave component, of course…but it can be hard to find the time and energy to face the inevitable mess that will result — these muffins look like a good recipe to avoid some of that mess! Also, as my kids get older they can do more of clean-up themselves, which helps me to say yes when they want to bake. :)
Do you think these would work OK without the dried fruit? My two boys have “bits” phobia when it comes to cakes and muffins!
Looks so yummy! However when I looked at the ingredients it has butter – yet it says they are dairy free? I am in Aus and the only dairy free type butter we have is a product called nuttelex. Even our margarines have dairy in them. Was it an error or did you have dairy free butter?
Oh I’m sorry, that is totally my mistake.
I should have added that you can use butter or oil. They are great with coconut oil in place of the butter :)
Will be trying these tomorrow for New Years, hoping they turn out okay and the instructions seem very simple which is great. Let you know how they work out!
Have you made these using your muffin mix?
I usually make these from scratch as you use less sugar in these because most of the sweetness comes from the golden syrup. You could probably use the muffin mix but it would be extra extra sweet!
That makes sense. We are loving the muffin mix because it allows my daughter to cook on her own.
That was my motivation for putting it together too. My nine year old made a batch of muffins last night while I cooked dinner!