Banana and Berry Lemon Muffins

The sun is shining and the daffodils are blooming. Spring has definitely arrived. These muffins are perfect for spring as it's full of berries, banana and lemon. They are moist and fruity and you definitely get some of your five a day in this. I adapted a muffin recipe from BBC good Food and used up leftover fruit that I had. It was also a good chance to try out the lemon extract paste from Taylor & Colledge. They kindly sent me a range of their new flavour pastes to try. The range includes vanilla bean, lavender, lemon, coconut, almond and peppermint. They come in a handy tube and it's very easy to use with no mess. The lemon one smells really nice and lemony and the paste is a good consistency - not too thick and not too thin. These are a great way to add flavour to your bakes. 

I'm sending these muffins to AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and myself on alternate months. The letter ths month is B for banana and blueberries.

Treat Petite hosted by Kat from The Baking Eplorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is Hello Spring. 

Credit Crunch Munch guest hosted by Michelle from Utterly Scrummy. The challenge is run by Camilla from Fab Food 4 All and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. This is quite a frugal recipe as it uses up store cupboard ingredients and leftover fruit. I didn't buy anything new for this recipe. If you don't have the lemon paste, a bit of fresh lemon juice and zest will suffice or you can omit it.

No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. I used up lots of leftover fruit and yellowing bananas for this recipe. 

  

 adding lemon paste 

 adding berries 

 sprinkle some chopped strawberries before baking

Makes 12 muffins

250g flour
115g brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 ripe bananas
125mls vegetable oil
60mls milk
60mls honey
2 eggs, lightly beaten
85g blueberries
220g strawberries - keep aside about 6 or 7 strawberries to put on top of the muffin before baking
1/2 teaspoon lemon paste

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• In a medium sized bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and set aside.
• In a large bowl, roughly mash the bananas with a fork.
• Add the vegetable oil, milk, honey and eggs.
• Add in the flour mixture followed by the lemon paste.
• Stir gently until just combined - be careful not to overmix.
• Add in the strawberries and blueberries.
• Divide the mixture into 12 muffin cases
• Sprinkle the tops with the reserved, chopped strawberries and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Disclaimer: I was sent a range of flavour pastes from Taylor & Colledge for review purposes. A positive review was not required and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a sponsored post. 

Banana, walnut and chocolate coated cranberry muffins

A quick and easy recipe today. I had a few yellowing bananas as per usual so I asked J what type of banana muffin he wanted. I told him to have a root round the pantry and he came back with a pack of walnuts and  a pack of dark chocolate coated cranberries which is how this recipe came about. These muffins are really quick and easy to put together. The walnuts go really well with the bananas and the dark chocolate coated cranberries are like a little surprise when you bite into them. 

I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary as this recipe uses up old bananas and ingredients from my cupboard. 

 ground cinnamon, bananas, walnuts, dark chocolate coated cranberries 

 adding the mashed bananas 

 adding yoghurt 

 adding flour 

 adding in the chopped walnuts and dark chocolate coated cranberries 

 ready to go in the oven 

 You can see the pockets of chocolate coated cranberries 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

2 eggs

125mls vegetable oil

3 tablespoons natural yoghurt

3 ripe bananas, roughly mashed with a fork

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

200g brown sugar

100g walnuts, roughly chopped

100g dark chocolate coated cranberries (you can use chocolate chips or dried cranberries or sultanas)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

220g plain flour 

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a large bowl, mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar. 
• In a separate bowl, roughly mash the bananas with a fork. 
• Add in the vegetable oil and eggs followed by the yoghurt.
• Pour the flour mixture into the banana mixture and stir briefly.
• Add in the chopped walnuts and chocolate coated cranberries.
• Stir until just mixed.
• Divide the mixture into 12 muffin cases.
• Bake for approximately 20-22 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Banana, blueberry and apple muffins

As usual I had a brown banana in the kitchen begging to be baked. I also found a slightly soft apple and some blueberries so I decided to incorporate everything into a muffin. These are great for lunch boxes or breakfast on the go. We kept them in the freezer and defrosted them for breakfast during the week which was really handy. The muffins are quite dense and cake-like and it was full of blueberries! I made sure to add extra blueberries on top just before baking and as you can see they didn't sink to the bottom!

I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. I used up a brown banana and an apple going spare in this recipe.

 banana and grated apple mixture; milk, vegetable oil and honey mixture 

 adding in lovely blueberries 

press a few blueberries on top before baking 

 bursting with flavour 

Recipe adapted slightly from BBC Food 

250g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

50g caster sugar
1 ripe banana, mashed

1 ripe apple, peeled, cored and grated

250g blueberries (set aside a generous amount to place on top of the muffin before baking) 

3 tablespoons honey 

60mls vegetable oil
1 laarge egg
185mls milk

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and ground cinnamon. Add in the sugar. 
• Add in the mashed banana, grated apple and about 200g of the blueberries. 
• In a separate bowl or jug, mix the vegetable oil, milk and honey.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl and stir gently to mix through.
• Be careful not to overmix or to break up the blueberries. 
• Spoon into muffin cases.
• Place lots of fresh blueberries on top of each muffin - don't press too hard.
• Bake for approximately 20 -25 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Banana Ferrero Bundt Cake

I actually made this cake a few weeks back but I think it's an appropriate tribute to Michele Ferrero who died age 89 on 14th February. He is the creator of Nutella and Ferrero Rocher chocolates amongst other confectionary delights. This cake actually came about by chance as I had a lot of Ferrero Rocher chocolates left after baking my Nutella Ferrero Rocher brownies. I looked around my kitchen to see what else I could use and spied the very brown bananas. I also found a tub of creme fraiche in my fridge which I bought for a recipe but never got round to using it. I decided to incorporate everything into a cake and used my bundt tin to make it look special. I was going to melt some Nutella to drizzle on top but I was in too much of a hurry.

The cake turned out beautifully as it had a lovely banana flavour with a good texture. It kept well for a few days and did not dry out mainly due to the creme fraiche in the cake. It felt like a treasure hunt in your mouth as you may or may not get the taste of Ferrero in each bite.

I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. As mentioned, I used up lots of leftovers for this cake.

I'm also sharing this with Recipe of the Week hosted by Emily from A Mummy Too

 adding creme fraiche 

 adding chopped ferrero chocolates 

 ready to go in the oven 

Note: I used double this recipe to fill my large bundt tin and had some batter leftover to make a small round cake
You can easily make a 18cm round cake with this recipe.

Ingredients 
225g self-raising flour
225g light muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
80ml sunflower oil
2 ripe bananas
150ml creme fraiche

12 Ferrero Rocher chocolates, cut in half 

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a large bowl, mix the flour and sugar.
• Add in the eggs and sunflower oil and mix well.
• Add the bananas in chunks and the creme fraiche.
• Stir a few times then add in the chopped Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
• Pour into a large bundt tin and bake for about 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Banana, walnut and chocolate chip cake with maple syrup cream cheese frosting

This is honestly the best cake I've eaten in a while and that's saying a lot! It came about by chance as I couldn't decide what to bake but I knew I wanted to bake with bananas. I didnt want to bake another banana muffin so I thought a cake would be better. I had a discussion with one of my work colleagues who loves cake as much as I do and we 'created' this cake together by discussing what ingredients she wanted in the cake!! I said I wanted to use bananas and she wanted chocolate, walnuts, honey and maple syrup. I thought about it and decided that I could make it work so I gave it a go! The results were truly amazing. I incorporated everything she wanted in the cake and added a cream cheese frosting as well. The cake was really moist and full of banana flavour. You can taste the walnuts and the chocolate chips in there which also added a depth of texture to the cake. Unfortunately you can't really taste the honey but you can clearly taste the maple syrup cream cheese frosting. 

The following week, my colleague who helped me create the cake told me what happened when she took a slice home for her house mate. She described the cake to her housemate who did not look impressed particularly as she does not like bananas. However, she decided to have a taste and after a few bites said "if I'd known it was going to be so good, I'd have taken it to bed with me!!" That's honestly how I feel about this cake as well and I'm definitely going to have to bake it again. 

I'm sending it to a few blog challenges this month...  

Love Cake hosted by Ness from Jibber JabberUK. This month is the anniversary of the challenge and the theme is For The Love of Cake. This is not a typical Valentine bake but it came about through our love of cake and it's definitely one of my favourite cakes ever. 

No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This recipe uses up old bananas and ingredients from my cupboard. 

Cook Blog Share hosted by Lucy from Supergolden Bakes

Recipe of the Week hosted by Emily from A Mummy Too

 dry ingredients and wet ingredients 

 adding in chocolate chips and walnuts

 ready to go in the oven 

 I love how you can still see the chocolate chips and you can definitely taste them! 

 with the maple syrup cream cheese frosting 

 decorated with chopped, toasted walnuts 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

For the cake 
250g plain flour
100g brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 or 4 ripe bananas
250mls milk
80mls vegetable oil
2 eggs
100g chocolate chips
150g walnuts ( I left them whole for extra crunch but you can chop them up but not too finely!)
60ml honey

For the frosting
100g butter
100g light muscovado sugar
85mls maple syrup
220g cream cheese

To decorate
20-25g toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Grease and line 2 x 18cm round baking tins.
• Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
• In a large bowl, roughly mash the bananas with a fork. 
• Add in the milk, vegetable oil, honey and milk and mix well.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix.
• Finally stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
• Divide the batter evenly into the cake tins and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Place the remaining walnuts for the topping in the hot oven and roast for about 5-7 minutes making sure that they don't burn. 
• Allow the cakes to cool completely before decorating. 
• To make the frosting, beat the butter and sugar until smooth.
• Add in the cream cheese and maple syrup and continue beating until very smooth.
• Place a generous layer of frosting on top of the first layer of cake. Place the second layer on top and spread the remaining frosting on top of the cake.
• Sprinkle with the toasted, roughly chopped walnuts.