We’ve become complete muffin freaks at Dara Cottage. Having bought a Jamie Oliver silicone muffin tin from Lakeland in Windermere over New Year, I started with breakfast muffins from Waitrose’s site and then used that idea to make blueberry muffins last week. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than buying coffee shop muffins and they substitute for almost any meal in an emergency.

Over the next however many weeks, I’ll be working through this recipe book on the left, which is by a Canadian author, so should be a bit more authentic than sites from the UK. That’s my thinking, anyway.

This week we have lemon and poppy seed muffins, a Caffe Nero favourite. If these things aren’t seriously lemony, I’ll be very surprised. We have lemon rind, lemon extract AND lemon juice in here. I’ve stuck very closely to the recipe, other than having to substitute about 100g of wholemeal flour for plain flour, as I hadn’t any more of the latter in the cupboard.

You mix together the dry ingredients (plain flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt), then the wet (an egg, sugar, lemon rind, lemon extract, water, oil, milk and lemon juice), then combine the two. The mixture was much drippier than the other recipes I’ve used, so I’m hoping for lighter muffins. Very clear instructions (if you want the actual quantities, you’ll have to buy the book or leave your email address!).

So, to the taste test. Discovered that I really should only have filled up the tin three quarters of the way, as the tops have flopped to the side a bit (and I’d have more than the eight that made). Just off to pop the muffins out and transfer them to a cooling rack (the rack from my grill doubling up…).

The taste test: somehow (and I really don’t know how), they’re not as lemony as I was hoping for. Texture’s good, though – very light and fluffy with a firm top. Susan Reimer clearly knows what she’s talking about.

Rating: 7/10 Dara points.