Cinnamon Magdalenas: Easy Homemade Spanish Muffins (Cupcakes)

I'm sure you've noticed I've been doing less cooking lately, and therefore less blogging.

I suppose the general feeling of crisis that you breathe everywhere is getting to me; I don't know what you think, but everything feels much greyer this year. I'm more tired and I do far fewer things.

Since lately I kept seeing "cupcakes" everywhere, I decided to make some.

I saw some silicone moulds in a shop near work and bought them. The shop is interesting, it's quite new, it's called BE-HOUSE and it's at Carrer Bonavista 7, in Barcelona.

On this grey (because it's raining) Sunday morning, we made cupcakes — or rather good old-fashioned MAGDALENAS — with my kids (the only thing that isn't grey this year). This time we made them with cinnamon.

Joke: What's the difference between a cupcake and a magdalena? Answer: about 2 euros.

Ingredients (12–14 magdalenas)

• 2 eggs
• 80 g sugar
• 80 g olive oil (3/4 of a glass)
• 80 g flour
• 1 dessert spoon of baking powder
• 1 dessert spoon of ground cinnamon

Method

Put the eggs and the sugar in a bowl and beat well for at least five minutes: it needs to become very foamy and turn paler in colour.

Then add the 80 g of oil (extra virgin olive oil is of course recommended), pouring it in gradually while you keep mixing.

Next, add the flour, the baking powder (Royal) and the teaspoon of ground cinnamon. You can sift everything together — it turns out better — and mix well.

Finally, using a spoon, pour the batter into the moulds. I used the silicone ones I bought this Friday, as I mentioned: 4 euros for 6 moulds, so 8 euros for 12. You can also use the classic paper cases.

Fill them to a third of the mould, or a bit more. Mine didn't rise much, perhaps because cinnamon wasn't in the original recipe (my urge to innovate gets the better of me). Bake at 220 °C for 8–10 minutes. Once the magdalenas have risen, switch off the oven, open the door a little and leave them for another 5 minutes. As a test, I put a little Nocilla (chocolate spread) in some of them — I've seen it on one or several of the blogs I follow, but I couldn't tell you which.

I encourage you to make magdalenas: they're very easy, they taste great and of course they allow endless combinations. I wasn't convinced by the silicone moulds: they're hard to clean and the batter sticks, if only a little. I think I'll buy some classic paper ones.

🌐 Llegeix aquesta recepta en català