Banana and Cinna-nom Muffins

 This is a great way to use up those over-ripe bananas you have hanging around the kitchen. It’s taken from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook which I must say, reliably delivers some of the tastiest cake recipes of any book I own. Not too sweet, I imagine these are the type of muffins normal people would get away with eating for breakfast. I, on the other hand, have absolutely no qualms about eating any kind of muffin for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nom.

Makes 12-18 (depending on the size of your muffin cases).

Ingredients

350g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
150g sugar
70g butter, melted
400g slightly over-ripe banana (approx. 3 large)
375ml butter milk (or milk with a teaspoon of lemon juice)
1 tsp vanilla extract (1/4 tsp paste)
1 large egg

for the cinnamon sugar:

3 tsp sugar
1/2 – 1 tsp cinnamon

Method

Add the dry ingredients – flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and salt – to a bowl. Mix to evenly distribute. In a separate jug, measure out the milk, add the egg and vanilla. Mix gently just to break up the egg. Add the butter and the milk to the dry ingredients and use an electric whisk on medium speed to mix them thoroughly. In another bowl, mash up the banana, leaving a few medium sized chunks. Add to your muffin mixture and beat to make sure it’s all combined.

Spoon into muffin cases and sprinkle over a bit of the cinnamon sugar for a slightly crunchy topping. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 160-170. If you have any cinnamon sugar left, sprinkle over the muffins as they come out of the oven.

Serve warm with tea if you can’t wait. As with most muffin recipes, these are better left for a day or so to mature – I find you lose less of the mix stuck to the paper.

I heard they freeze well, but I am yet to find out for myself.

W

Banana & Plain Chocolate Cupcakes with Pecan Buttercream

There’s only one thing to do with bananas this old. Mash ’em up and stick ’em in a cake!

Makes 16-20 cupcakes

Cake

Ingredients

3 old bananas, mashed
3 eggs
170g self-raising flour
170g butter
100g brown sugar
100g plain chocolate, roughly chopped
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

Preheat the oven to 180^oC/350^oF/gas mark 4. In a bowl, mash up your manky bananas and whisk in the ginger, cinnamon and vanilla essence with a fork. Roughly chop the chocolate into choc-chip size chunks.

In a mixing bowl sift the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Crack the eggs into a cup and whisk with a fork, before adding to the dry ingredients. Chop up the butter, add, and whisk the whole lot with an electric whisk for a few minutes, slow to start with so you don’t send powder everywhere! Fold in your banana mixture and chopped chocolate. Set up some pretty cupcake cases in a mufin tray. Fill the cases (remember, they must be pretty or else!) three quarters full and slam/gently place in the oven for an hour, turning/checking half-way through. If you can’t be bothered with buttercream then sprinkle a little granulated sugar on the top of each to give a nice, crispy top. If you can be bothered with the buttercream then follow the stages below!

Pecan Buttercream

Ingredients

75g pecans
140g butter, chopped (+ one extra teaspoon)
300g icing sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon

Method

Roughly crush the pecans with your hands. Heat the teaspoon of butter in a frying pan on a low heat and when fully melted (don’t let it burn!) add the pecans, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Toast, still on a low heat and constantly stirring, for a couple of minutes until the sugar begins to melt. You don’t want the sugar to melt too much, as it will form puddles of rock-hard caramel. Whizz the lot in a blender until a sandy texture is formed.

Add the rest of the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract to a bowl. (I stick my butter in the airing cupboard for five minutes to get it to melt a little bit). Cream the lot with a wooden spoon until the mixture goes pale. Add the chopped pecans and beat a little further.

Only top your cakes with buttercream once they have cooled – otherwise the butter in the buttercream will melt and the cakes will be ruined (*gasp*). I used a squeezy icing…thing…but spooning on would work equally as well, I’m sure! I imagine this buttercream would also work with walnuts so don’t feel restricted to pecans!

J