When I discovered the blogging event LiveSTRONG with a Touch of Yellow I knew I had to participate. The event is for Live STRONG day which will take place on May 13th.

Grandad on his wedding day October 11th 1958.

  My reason for being a part of this is my Grandad who lost his battle against prostate cancer in October 2004. Even now, even as I write this I still get teary. To die at 68 seemed too young to me, especially as he was such a fun, young-minded person. He was the life and soul of everything and everyone who knew him loved him. We all miss him terribly.

 My Grandad started experiencing symptoms a while before he went to see the doctor. He left it until he got really uncomfortable and then complained to my mum and Auntie about the symptoms and they made the appointment and made him go. Unfortunately by then the cancer had already spread and it was only a matter of how long. He had between a year and two, I can never quite remember. So, men, if you feel unwell go to the doctors, no matter how trivial you think it may be. Seeing my Grandad deteriorate like that was so soul destroying, it was devastating.

 The task is to simply cook up something that contains something yellow. Easy right? I made these lemon ginger muffins because obviously lemons=yellow plus I love anything with lemon or ginger. I also made candied peel to decorate the top. I have never made this before but it was much easier than I thought. I also got to use my new muffin molds that I received on Sunday for Mother’s Day.

Lemon and Ginger Muffins

First combine;

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Then in another bowl;

• Juice of 1 large lemon or 2 small (peel with a potato peeler and put peel to one side)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup plain yogurt
  2/3 cup sugar
• 8 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1tsp vanilla sugar

Add liquid to flour mixture and mix briefly until smooth.

Divide muffin mixture into 12 muffin cups.

Bake at 200 C until toothpick comes out clean, 12 to 15 minutes

Let cool 2 to 3 minutes before removing from pan/molds.

Leave to cool completely before icing.

Decorating

In the meantime you can make the candied peel. Recipe here.

Candied Peel;

• 3 firm, ripe lemons or oranges
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup water

Using a potato peeler peel the lemons making strips. With a sharp knife then cut into long thin strips.
Place the strips in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, drain, and refresh under cold running water.Return to the saucepan, add the sugar and 1/2 cup water and cook over moderate heat until the liquid has evaporated and the peel is bright and shiny. Spread peel on a sheet of foil to cool, separating the strips.

For the Icing;

• 3 cups of icing sugar sifted
• 3 or 4 tbsp of lemon juice

Add the lemon juice to the icing sugar and stir until smooth and thick enough to drizzle down the sides when muffins are iced.

The icing was lovely and sharp, the muffin had a lovely mellow flavour with only a hint of ginger, next time I feel I might add extra ginger powder and even some preserved ginger to the muffins. mmmmm

Visit winos and foodies on the 13th of May to find out what other participating folks have come up with.