Strawberry-Orange Muffins

These yummy, easy-to-make pink muffins are adapted from a recipe in Cooking Light magazine. The recipe makes 12 small-ish muffins; if you like larger muffins, by all means make bigger but fewer or whatever floats your boat!

1 1/4 cups halved strawberries
1/4 cup butter or stick margarine, melted
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
Sanding sugar or sparkling sugar

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine strawberries, melted butter, eggs and orange zest in a blender, and process just until blended (strawberries should be completely pureed). Combine flour, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Coat 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray. Divide batter evenly between cups. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. As soon as the muffins come out of the oven, sprinkle each with some sugar. Let cool five minutes, then run a knife around the edge of each muffin to loosen it from the cup. Remove muffins from tin and cool on a rack.