Muffin, lifeboat and cutting board

Regular readers will remember that a couple of weeks ago I announced that I would be selling my old cutting board. It was slightly famous thanks to some magazine appearances, and completely knackered which is why I was getting rid of it. The plan was that some of the money would be used for a muffin, as seen above, with the rest going to the RNLI collecting box at my local model shop.

The board duly appeared on eBay and at the end of the week was won by Matt Dawson. He not only paid up for it, he generously donated a few more quid for the lifeboats. Thanks Matt, this review is dedicated to you.

Chocolate Muffin
Supplier: Pumpkin Cafe, Platform 1, Leamington Spa Station
Cost: £1.79

How many ways can a baker rework the traditional muffin recipe ?

Loads. He can produce appley ones or lemon versions or something with blueberries in, but at the end of the day (about 6:30am for bakers) he knows that only people who knit their own tofu buy anything other than chocolate. Let's not kid ourselves, muffins can only help you lose weight as part of a calorie controlled diet. One that involves eating a muffin and not much else for the rest of the day. They aren't a health food no matter how many blue squishy lumps are in there. We want chocolate with chocolate lumps in it.

Which is why I bowed to the inevitable and chose the dark brown version from those on offer. Once I'd parted with the cash, I was the proud owner of just of 120g of cake.

Just like any layer cake, there is a strong temptation to split a muffin in half for consumption. I could ignore this but that would make this a rubbish review. Therefore the top section was pulled away from the base and separated cleanly. The spongy bit was nice and springy but perhaps not as moist as other makes. It peeled away from the case cleanly enough that no embarrassing nibbling at the paper would be needed to consume every last crumb.

The top was crunchy but not burnt in any way - you don't want a burnt crust after all.

Very pleasent and probably big enough to last from Leamington to Hatton. Might be a bit peckish by Acocks Green though...

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Anyway, with the muffin disposed of, I trotted down to my local model shop, Classic Train & Motor Bus of George Street, Leamington.

Fighting my way inside, it's a tiny shop and there were customers, I extracted the boat shaped collecting tin from the counter. Sadly it's not one of those where you drop the money in and the lifeboat launches and rings a bell (remember those, fabulous things) but for my purposes this didn't matter.

The fiver was posted with a little difficulty into the "notes" hole followed by the coinage into the slot. Then the tin (can you call it a tin when it's made of plastic ?) was then returned to the counter even fuller of money than before.

So, a result for everyone. Matt has a new family heirloom whose value will increase sufficient that he needn't worry about saving for a pension any more*. I have eaten a muffin and the RNLI have a few more quid to spend hauling people out of the sea.

Note: This wasn't an entirely frivolous activity. I wanted to see if I could generate some traffic to this blog from the eBay posting. The answer to this was: not much. About a dozen visits. Still, it was worth a try.

*assuming he doesn't mind spending his old age in poverty anyway.