Saturday 1 December 2012

Banana and Cinnamon Muffins


This recipe turned out easy and delicious - especially straight out of the oven! I found it on Betty Crocker's website, and it's truly a dream of a recipe to follow. I didn't follow the suggested topping part, however - instead, making lemon icing which compliments the sweet cake perfectly, and goes with it surprisingly well.


Ingredients:

Muffins:
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2/3 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 small)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 2/3 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Icing: (varies from the Betty Crocker recipe)
1 cup icing sugar
Few drops of water
1 teaspoon lemon flavouring/juice 

Recipe:

Heat the oven to 190°C, or 375°F. Line a baking tray with about 12 muffin cases - this depends upon the size of the 'cup' you use to measure ingredients, but I used an average sized coffee cup and filled 16 cases with mixture. 
In medium bowl, beat 2/3 cup sugar, the oil and eggs with wire whisk. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Stir in remaining muffin ingredients just until moistened. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.
Bake for 17 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out completely clean. These muffins were slightly hard on top - this makes it all the more delicious, don't worry!
Once cooled, make up the icing sugar in a bowl, and drizzle over the cakes. Just a drizzle was enough of this sweet, tart icing, so that it didn't overwhelm the flavours of the cake!

This recipe was very much a 'rough-and-ready' one - it was thrown together in a matter of minutes, and you could easily make these in half an hour with a little practise (not accounting for cooling or setting time). The 'flaws', such as the harder top and the pieces of mushed banana, add up to make the cake delicious - perfection isn't the point with this recipe, I don't think. 
And here are some snaps:



Icing my partner in crime. 





Scaring the masses since 1993.