fresh cherry muffins

These pretty looking cherry muffins turned out well because  I could pit out  the stones of the cherry with a home made cherry pitter and I could get whole cherries to top the muffins. Thanks to Anshuman. He sent me a link where we can make our own pitter  just by using an old fork or you can buy a cheap fork  from the market for this. I have posted and written down below the way to make your own home made cherry pitter . It was a great help to me  and now I  have added it in my kitchen tools :)

Ingredients :
Fresh cherries - 500gms - pitted - 400 gms ( 18 cherries kept aside for topping ),
All purpose flour - 1 and 1/2 cup or 195 gms,
Baking pwd - 1 and 1/2 tsp,
Powdered sugar - 3/4 cup or 150 gms,
Salted butter - 1/2 cup or 113 gms,
Milk - 1/3 cup or 80 ml,
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp,
Zest of 1 lemon- ( outer skin of lemon- grate it with a cheese grater ).

Pre - heat oven to 205 C.
Line the muffin tin with paper cups or grease them.
Rinse and dry all the cherries and then discard the stem and  pit out all the stones.

 (  If you are using the home made pitter than first pierce around the center  so that  stone in the cherry is loosened and then pierce the fork inside and scoop out the stone.
To make this cherry pitter ,take a plier and bend both ends of the fork  needles. Then bend the center needles of the fork  with your pliers to make a 90 degree bend , like shown in the picture. 

This is a very nice method because the juice of the cherry stays inside and there is very little tear and you get the whole cherry intact leaving a few ones.
If you are not able to make your own home made cherry pitter, use a small knife to pit out the stone from the top of the cherry or make a slight slit ).

Method:
In a separate bowl sieve together flour and baking powder.Whisk the  flour  so that it is evenly mixed.

In a bowl of your mixer beat 2 eggs for 20 seconds then add sugar. 

Beat for 3 to 4 minutes in high speed till thick and lemon coloured..

Add butter, vanilla essence and lemon zest and beat for 20 seconds then add milk and beat only for few seconds till combined.

Add flour and beat only till moistened .( less than a second )

Gently fold in the whole pitted cherry.

With an ice cream scooper or spoon , fill the muffin cups 2/3 .
Level the batter  with a spoon.

Bake for 15 minutes and then remove from oven and quickly place a cherry on top of each muffin .

Quickly return it back to oven and bake it for 8 minutes more or until golden brown .
Insert a tooth pick in the center and if it comes out clean than muffins are ready .

Leave them in tin for 2 minutes and then take them out on wire rack to cool.

Isn't it  a pretty sight to see these ladies sitting on the wire rack .
I was very happy too while baking them.
Enjoy the cherry muffins any time of the day :)
Makes - 18 muffins