These muffins are made coffee-cake style, with the fruit on top. Spelt flour gives it a nutty texture, which greatly complements the roasted hazelnut meal that is incorporated into the recipe. The result is a moist, melt-in-your-mouth muffin that's not too sweet and is delicious with your morning coffee, or with a slice of cheese on the side for a light lunch or snack. What I like doing is prepare all the ingredients the night before - keep the dry ingredients covered on the counter, and the wet ingredients refrigerated. When I wake up at 6:30am, all I need to do is preheat the oven, mix the ingredients and pop it in the oven. By the time everyone in the house is dressed up and ready to start their day (usually shortly after 7am), the muffins are out of the oven and breakfast can be served!
You may say it's only the kind of thing someone who works from home can muster, but I've been doing this when I was working at an office job in my early twenties that started at 7am. Of course then I would wake up at 5:30...

2 cups spelt flour*
1/2 cup ground roasted hazelnuts
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon    
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs 
1tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
6 fresh and ripe Italian prune plums, pitted and cut into small chunks**

-Preheat oven to 375F.
- Beat eggs in a bowl. Add oil and buttermilk.
- Combine flour, ground hazeulnuts, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl.- Gently fold the milk mixture into the flour mixture until just combined. Avoid over-stirring.
- Spoonfuls of the mixture into greased or buttered muffin tins.
- Spread plum pieces on top and gently press them down.
- Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with cinnamon and sugar.
- Bake for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick or a cake tester comes out clean.

These muffins are best served warm. If you can't gobble up all 12 muffins you can keep them for up to 3 days, but I do recommend cutting them into half lengthwise and warming them up in the oven for 5 minutes before serving. 

* You can also use whole wheat or white flour, but of course the texture would be different. 
** you can also use frozen ones; I had mine for about a year in an airtight container and they were as good as fresh!

My thoughts this Halloween are with the Eastern Seaboard where so many of my customers and fellow perfumers live. After all the excitement for the 3-night Clarimonde masquarade at MiN New York, it is a dramatic contrast to have such turmoil only a few days later. I can only hope that all the people there are safe and warm and from what I gather there is a lot of community effort and people helping each other manage through this very devastating storm.

Life is so tumultuous, and as much as sometimes we'd just want to rest - it is that movement, even at times of violent chaos, that distinguishes it from death. At least in it's romantic perception... While life is ever changing and unstable, death is that one sure thing, the resolution and rest to all. Immortal and glorious, eternal slumber. Silence.

Immortal Mine was created by House of Cherry Bomb - the baby of two New York based perfumers and artists: Maria McElroy (Aroma M) and Alexis Karl (Scent by Alexis). It takes the Goth theme to the extreme with a very rich, oil-based parfum that's bordering on being too much of a good thing. It is reminiscent of hot wax of red candles extinguished by pinch of two fingers and their slightly burnt skin and suffocated wick; dirty oud and sweet, nearly cloying immortelle melded with amber and molten chocolate. It is quite resinous, thick and sweet, yet there is some smoke and vetiver, burning myrrh and frankincense to penetrate through one's consciousness and create a reaction - regardless if this is your taste or not. There is also a tinge of indolic jasmine, and musk for good measure that diffuses and softens it a bit. It ends on a note of agarwood and decaying honey. Still peculiarly cloying, resembling the decomposing corpses, not far off what I would imagine the Corpse Bride would sprinkle on her wrapping sheet in her half-dead wedding.

The authors describe it well:
"Immortal Mine is the soil from an unmarked grave. One single drop of blood from a slayed Wyvern, the sweet elixir of dying jasmine and fading neroli. Amber found in ancient tombs of civilizations lost. Longing. Essence of smoke from the funeral pyre. A cut of material from Bela Lugosi’s cape, the dust from a bat’s wing. Wood resins gathered from the Forest of The Dead, Myrrh scraped from the cliffs of The Dark Realm. Precious ouds unearthed from burning desert sands. Wax dripping from black, white and pink candles, ashes of a Phoenix, words from a dead poets mouth. Rare herbs found in a cathedral’s forgotten garden. Desire".

Immortal Mine can be found on Indiescents and Suendhaft, where it is bottled in a beautiful filigreed mouthblown Bohemian glass bottle.  This week, I'm giving away my "copy" of the roll-on, given to me by the perfumers themselves. And I'm sending back prayers for minimal damage from the storm and returning back to normal life as soon as possible on the East Coast!

All you have to do is leave a comment telling us what your Halloween perfume was, and why you picked it (if such explanation exists). We will do a random lucky draw on Friday.


Immortal Mine, a photo by Ayala Moriel on Flickr.

 Ayala Moriel Parfums is offering 40% off on select merchandize to make room for our new branding and packaging:

Roll-Ons:
EDP Travel Size Roll-On 40% off
Parfum Oil Roll-On 10ml 40% off
Parfum Oil Travel Size Roll On 5ml 30% off 
Purse Parfum 5ml Liquid Poetry Collection 35% off

Eaux de Parfum:
Eau de Parfum Splash/Spray 15ml 30% off
Eau de Parfum Mini 4ml 30% off

This sale is good thru October 31st at midnight, or while quantities last.