A few days back when my husband was roaming around on the Internet he found a few recipes that appealed to him and brought them to my attention. One was a recipe for oatmeal-date cookies, the other for crumb-topped blueberry muffins. I had a cursory look, then returned to quickly scribble down the ingredients list thinking I would try both recipes out simply because they appealed to my husband. I could have printed them out, but preferred to have just the list of ingredients, since any baking I do is the kind that takes inspiration more than faithfully following any recipe as it's carefully designed to be done.

A kind of poetic license, if you will, using the experience of almost sixty years gained in the kitchen as family cook and bake-artist. The cookies turned out very well, the toasted coconut, honey, cinnamon and dates complemented the oatmeal to perfection, the result being a crisp, yet chewy cookie fragrant and with ample taste appeal. That recipe called for
3/4 cup toasted coconut
1 cup butter
1-3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tbsp.honey
2 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
2-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp.baking powder
4 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups rolled oats (quick-cooking acts best)
1/2 cup chopped dates
The recipe was for filled 'sandwiches' with 6 ounces of cream cheese, 6 tbsp.mascarpone mixed with 3 tbsp.icing sugar and a bit of vanilla, but I passed on the filling, though I might give it a try at some other time.

I baked the muffins on Friday morning, thinking I'd give that recipe too a try. And it was certainly worthwhile. The muffins were light and airy, moist and bursting with flavour. Only they weren't muffins; I had decided to turn them into cupcakes instead. That done simply by the mechanics involved; with muffins the dry ingredients are just lightly mixed into the wet. Alternatively when making a cupcake batter, just like with cake batter, it is vigorously beaten, the resulting texture different by degrees.

This recipe, since it was for muffins, called for a crumb topping, instead of the usual icing that tops cupcakes. Despite that I minimally altered the character of the product, I used the crumb topping, and it perfectly matched the cupcakes I ended up with and which topped up our Friday night dinner for dessert:
Crumb topping: 1/4-c.flour, 2 tbsp.dark brown sugar, 1/2 tsp.cinnamon, 1/4 tsp.allspice, 2 tbsp.butter
Muffin batter:
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1-1/2 tsp.vanilla flavouring
zest of one lemon
2-1/2 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp.baking soda, 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 pint fresh blackberries, raspberries, blueberries or diced strawberries
Bake in a 350-degree Fahrenheit oven between 25 - 30 minutes

I altered the recipe to suit the fact that I had no intention of baking more than six (large-size) muffins. So I used two eggs, 3/4 cup sour cream, zested an orange, since I had no lemon, used 1-1/2 cups unbleached white flour, added two heaping tablespoons of creamed honey, and diced a cup of fresh cherries.