White Chocolate & Strawberry Muffins

Sooooo yummy, especially when they are warm!

Makes 1 1/2 dozen muffins

Ingredients: 
- 225g unsalted butter
- 225g caster sugar
- 225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp strawberry essence
100g white chocolate chips

Icing: 
200g cream cheese, softened
175g icing sugar, sieved
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp chopped fresh strawberries (this is how much I used, and I thought there could be more... so I would recommend upping this to 5tbsp or so)

Method:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 175degreesCelcius. Place 18 baking paper cases in muffin cases.

Step 2: Combine the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs and strawberry essence in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric whisk until light and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in the chocolate chips. Note: I used chocolate chips that were about 1.5cm in diameter but they tended to all sink to the bottom of the muffin, so next time I'll be using small chocolate chips)

Step 3: Spoon the batter in to the cases and bake for 20min.

Remove tins from the oven and cool for 5minutes. Then remove the muffins and cool on a rack.

Step 4: To make the icing, beat the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla and butter until smooth and creamy.

Stir in the chopped strawberries and spread on top of cooled muffins.
Note: I'm not really a cream cheese person... And although I liked the icing, I think I actually preferred the muffins with no icing and warmed in the microwave for 10-15seconds.