First up, I want to send out huge huge thanks to Food blog S'cool, Sticky Date, Is My Blog Burning and the Herald Tribune for posting the Muffin Monday event on their site and to everyone who participated!

A total of 28 different most unique and unusual muffins that make us all go *Ooooh!* were submitted for the second Muffin Monday! I was initially a little uncertain how this theme was going to be received - it was more challenging than the previous one. But the creativity and originality that was exuded from the participants well exceeded expectations - I (and I'm sure many many other readers) was really impressed by the amazing variety and the enthusiasm the bakers presented. This most evidently proves to the world that there are many many incredible and creative muffin bakers out there!

As I had mentioned in my Muffin Monday (MM02) post, I will be passing on the torch for the next host for Muffin Monday (MM03). I am pleased to announce that Gourmet of Un tocco di zenzero will be hosting the Brand New Muffin Monday! It's an Italian language blog but fret not all English language readers/ bloggers, Gourmet has assured that the event will be in English and it's going to be Spicy! Her post for the next Muffin Monday is not yet on her blog as she is away for the long May Day weekend but details should be posted in the next week. So keep a look out for it!

It's been wonderful being your host for Muffin Monday! I'm most grateful for all the wonderful encouragement and support everyone has shown me!

So okay already! Let's Muffin Monday!!

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When I checked my mail this morning, the last thing I expected was a writer from the Herald Tribune newspaper from Sarasota, Florida informing me that she's written an article about Muffin Monday (MM02)! Laura J. Cullumbine (the writer) has also contributed her very cool recipe of Root Beer Muffins to the event.

I am completely honoured, totally trilled and it really made my day! I don't think I've ever had an article written about what I've done. It's usually part of a credit list at the end of a Film or TV programme.

This is so going to boost my ambition for Muffin World Domination!!

I told myself I had to bake muffins today.

I had such a hard time thinking of what to bake for my entry for Muffin Monday (MM02). Why did I come up with this theme?! I kept coming up with ideas but they were too usual and un-unique. I had an idea to base it around breakfast, like pancake like muffins wrapped with strips of bacon. But bacon's been done before - nothing unusual about that. Then I saw this recipe from Donna Hay magazine for apple bread pudding - it had thinly slices of apples holding the bread pudding. I thought I'd make a variation of that. But I couldn't think of anything that I could add in with apples that hasn't already been done in a muffin.

This morning while walking to the neighbourhood coffee shop for breakfast and I saw that the fruit seller was selling Japanese Sweet Potatoes. They're pretty, purple and yummy. I thought Yam Muffins. I know it's not original... but I knew I had something. I looked around and see what I else I could use. From the corner of my eye I saw coconut milk. Hmmm... The only combination comes to mind was Bur Bur Cha Cha - a coconut milk based dessert that has yams, sweet potatoes, pretty tapioca balls, red/ green beans, etc. I'll make Bur Bur Cha Cha Muffins! I don't really know how... but I'll figure it out. I was lucky that they were selling tapioca balls too although the plain not colourful ones. That'll do. I think Bur Bur Cha Cha is originally a Nonya dish and I never really knew why it has such a fun and wonderful name - might have something to do with a treasure trove of surprises hidden in coconut milk that'll make you want to do the Cha Cha?

I had to make adjustments to the basic recipe because I was including Coconut milk. It's half oil, very rich and creamy. The result was sweet! The natural sweetness from the sweet potatoes really came through nicely, the texture of the muffin was slightly heavier than the usual and I was quite glad that it wasn't too overpoweringly coconut-y. The balance was really nice. The Tapioca balls were a nice touch as a surprise element - although I think if I had colourful ones it might've been better.

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I wanted to bake something special for Good Friday & Easter. And of course, being the good example of a bad Catholic girl, I thought, "Jesus must've eaten Challah?!" I've got the recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice : Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart. It'll surely be great! So the night before Good Friday I looked through the recipe, made sure I had everything I needed, measured ingredients and began mixing and autolysing. While autolysing I thought I'd read up more about Challah. Then I wanted to kick myself.

So Stupid! They ate unleavened bread during Passover! Not celebration breads! So I quickly googled for Matzo recipes hoping to save myself from the fires of hell for my totally blasphemous act. I was stuck with guilt and half-kneaded Challah dough on Holy Thursday.

I continued kneading in my beloved KitchenAid KPM50, while I started to prepare my own version of Matzo. Left the Challah dough in the fridge to refrigerate for 2 days - which was a good plan because the flavours were AMAZING!

I know technically it's a Jewish celebration bread - hardly Catholic or Roman in any way. And I'm Chinese in Singapore. So I know there is no real connection here... I just needed an excuse to bake pretty braided breads! It turned out so great! And I baked it on Easter too!

I hope I'm not going to hell for this.

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I went and accidently saved over my original theme and had to redesign it all again! Which is not such a bad thing I guess, because I kindda' made a mess of my previous style.css file. This is less chaotic.

Anyway. In brief.

Been discovering new fun geek apps like Twitter and Joost.

Drooling over new soon to be upgraded versions of Adobe CS3 and the new Apple Final Cut Studio 2.

Also "upgrading" my professional skills and technically organised. Creating organised workflows for all to follow or get their ass kicked.

Still trying to create a better sidebar for the blog.

And wondering what unusual muffin I will bake for Muffin Monday (MM02).

I made Naan Flatbread and I made it with sourdough! It was very exciting! Although not really true or accurate, because I don't think there's sourdough in Naans. The sourness usually comes from the yoghurt - which I realised at the last minute I forgot to buy so I used sourdough starter instead. I've been scouring through the internet the past week for Naan recipes because it was my Dad's Birthday over the weekend and he loves flat breads, so I thought I'd make him Naan. And I stumbled upon the blog entry of Il Forno - and there I learnt how Naan was made with the help of Julia Child. I know, it's not really authentic or Indian made but still I think it's a good start.

The final taste was beautifully sourdoughy. Haha - not quite Naan in flavour but it was very yummy. It was crispy, very nicely chewy on the inside and I loved the texture inside that was created by the sourdough. Most rewarding even if I actually failed to make Naan. Next time I will remember the yoghurt.

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Are you ready for another round of Muffins galore?! I was so excited with the previous round and inspired by all the wonderful ideas everyone had created for their muffins - as I am sure many readers are! Again, huge huge thanks to Food blog S'cool, Sticky Date and Is My Blog Burning for posting the Muffin Monday event on their site and to everyone who participated and in making MM01 a great success!

This time round, you will have a month long to experiment and create your muffins because the Deadline is only 27 April and Final Roundup 30 April. We'll talk about the details later...

Inspired by the amazing previous round-up, the theme for Muffin Monday (MM02) is Muffins that Make you go *Ooooh!* Unusual and Unique Muffins - using ingredients that you won't normally find in a muffin that you could buy from a store. So that means no regular muffins, no chocolate chip muffins, no banana muffins, etc. Think very healthy and wholesome, think comfort and sweet, savory and surprising, spicy and exotic, think junk food, think outside the box. The wonderful thing about creating a muffin is it's versatility, you can include almost anything in it! I know everyone is going to create something totally fabulous, amazing and fun (and yummy)!

Again, you can Create-Your-Own-Muffin with the provided basic recipe or you can use another recipe from a preferred source! It's completely your choice.

Also the next Muffin Monday (MM03) will be hosted by you! I'm passing on the torch to someone who will give Muffin Monday a different twist. For anyone who is interested, please indicate in your entry if you would like to host the next Muffin Monday and your plan for the next theme. I will be organizing a poll (just have to figure out how to do that in my blog) and have readers vote for the next theme and host for Muffin Monday (MM03) and this will be how the next and next theme and host will be. Like Reality TV! To those considering hosting the next Muffin Monday, please read these this and this!

Update 2 April 2007
Is holding a poll a bad or good idea? Because the last thing I want is people to feel like they lost out on something. Please let me know your thoughts.

Some tips to keep in mind when baking muffins here and here.

To participate:
Create your muffins!

If you are a blogger,
• Post a photograph and recipe by Friday, 27th April 2007 (please be sure to include a link back to this post).
• Send an email to muffinmonday[at]sqpixels[dot]net, your name, name of your blog, where you are from, name of recipe and a permalink to your post.

REVISED 19 April 2007
Code for a small banner (200px x 75px):
<a href="http://www.sqpixels.net/files/muffinmonday02.html" ><img src="http://www.sqpixels.net/files/mm02_sm.jpg" width="200" height="75" alt="Muffin Monday" /></a>

If you're not a blogger but would like to take part,
• Send an email to muffinmonday[at]sqpixels[dot]net with an attachment of a photograph of your muffin, your recipe, your name, where you are from and a few words of your creation by Friday, 27th April 2007.


Deadline for this event is Friday, 27th April 2007.

As I receive entries I will be posting them up here.

Round up of this event will be posted on Monday, 30th April 2007.

Happy Baking!!

Basic Muffin Recipe here...

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