New Cake Stand and Oatmeal Muffins

The weekend I moved my husband, in-laws, and I decided to go to a few antique stores in the area.  I saw a beautiful cake stand.  I've never had a cake holder, and quite honestly, I don't make that many cakes, so I wasn't sure I needed a cake stand.  Then I went back home and made muffins.  (See what happened with those muffins here.)  I made muffins again the next week, and I plan on making them again as they are an extremely easy breakfast.  Finally, I had a need for a cake stand!  I could use them to display my muffins.  My husband and I went back to the store on Saturday, and I bought the cake stand.  It is very heavy and detailed on the bottom.  I love it, and I intend on keeping it full.

The muffins you see below are oatmeal muffins from the blog 101 Cookbooks.  These muffins are subtly sweet, and a little salty.  I plan on making them again next week and adding some peaches.  I didn't think my husband would like them because they weren't chocolate (see my shortbread post), but he said they were perfect muffins and that when muffins are too sweet they make him made because they should just be cupcakes.  Who knew he'd have such strong opinions about muffins?

When Mastiffs Mush Your Muffins

You know that saying "When life gives you lemons make lemonade?"  Well, today I didn't get lemons, but mushed muffins.  Sunday night I had made the Chocolate Raspberry muffins from Vegan Brunch.  Which, by the way, is an excellent cookbook whether you're vegan or not.  I've made several recipes from it, and everything has been great.  Anyway, I made these muffins which were fudgy, tart, rich, and just a wonderful way to wake up.  I placed all the leftover muffins in a zip top back and left it on the counter for easy grabbing in the morning.  There were about 8 muffins left.  When I came home from work the bag was on the floor and had been stepped on many times by Balthasar, my 150lb. English Mastiff.  The bag was still zipped, and the muffins inside were flat, but in no other way harmed.  I could not bring myself to throw them away, and I had an ingenious idea.  I put the muffins in a round pyrex pan and smushed them together to fill the pan.  Then, I whipped up some ganache (equal parts heavy cream and chocolate), and poured it on the muffins.  Finally, I topped the entire creation with whole raspberries.  My husband and I each had a piece of this with supper, and it was really good.  In fact, I might bake the muffin batter in the pan next time.  So, the moral of the story is when mastiffs mush your muffins, top them with ganache and fresh berries.  Everything will be okay.