A Box of Inspiration.....: Black and White Chocolate Muffins

In these stressful times before graduation, I decided it was time to treat my fellow students to a nice, sweet treat. They didn't know what was in store for them when they all walked into class that morning: my delicious black and white chocolate muffins! Their faces were priceless, I can tell you. Seeing the smiles light up there faces ("Really, for us?" - "I wasn't expecting that!" - "This is exactly what I needed!") absolutely made my day. Of course there is some work involved, preparing the muffins the night before, but what you get out of it is the best feeling. Making others happy - especially with food - is hugely rewarding.

I used a basic banana muffin recipe before splitting the recipe in half and adding cocoa to one half. Then I chopped about three bars of melt-in-the-mouth dark chocolate and mixed that into the dough. I was going for a German Mamorkuchen look with these muffins, so I used a fork to swirl the contents a little. Not too much, though, otherwise the beauty of them being black-and-white would have been completely lost. To top it, I sprinkled some fat chcolate chunks on top. Needless to say, my chocolate supply is gone.

Baking and cooking, too, have become huge stress reliefs over the past few weeks. Somehow, working with your hands instead of your brain feels so much more real. Chopping ingredients, playing around with spices and flavour and colours. Above all colours! I need at least three colours in all my meals, so there's always lots of vegetables. And it makes a meal look so much more cheerful, doesn't it?
However, I never seem to photograph my main courses, even though they are delicious and look stunning. But a few weeks without sweets might make me take pictures of spaghetti bolognese and oven-baked fish, who knows?