Banana, Apple and Cranberry Muffins

It's muffin time again! I went through a phase of constantly baking muffins and then not baking them for a while. They are really good for using up leftovers and the recipe is so versatile and forgiving you really can't go wrong. I created this recipe to use up leftover fruit and a bag of chocolate coated cranberries that I found in my cupboard. I also added some spice as it enhances the flavour and smells really good when baking. The muffins turned out beautifully - really soft and moist and I love the chocolate coated cranberries. It's a really tasty breakfast and perfect for lunch boxes too. 

I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary.

As it's a frugal recipe, it's also perfect for Credit Crunch Munch hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla from Fab Food 4 All.

 dry ingredients andmwet ingredients 

 adding in apples and chocolate coated cranberries 

An original recipe by bakingaddict
Makes 12 muffins

200g plain flour
150g soft light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 ripe bananas
1 large apple - peeled, cored and diced
150g dark chocolate coated cranberries
2 eggs
125mls vegetable oil
60 mls milk

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
• In a separate bowl, roughly mash the bananas with the fork.
• Add in the vegetable oil, milk and eggs and mix.
• Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in the middle.
• Mix until just combined,
• Add in the chopped apples and chocolate coated cranberries.
• Divide into 12 muffin cases and bake for approximately 18-20 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Carrot, Ginger and Rum Spiced Cake

When I think of Bonfire Night treats, I immediately think of toffee apples or a variation of toffee apple desserts. Something sticky with caramel and something sweet. This year I've made something a little different but still perfect for this time of the year. I had some leftover crystallised ginger from making my Crystallised Ginger and Beer Cake so I started to think about what else would go well with ginger. I had a root round my cupboard and my fridge and they provided the inspiration for this recipe. I based it on my favourite carrot cake recipe with a few amendments. I found some rum at the back of the cupboard and decided to soak the dried fruits in rum overnight. I also dug out my tropical cake tin as the rum and dried fruits felt tropical. 

The combination of ginger, carrot, dried fruits, rum and spices was heavenly. The flavours worked really well together and there's a bit of a kick to the cake. The ginger was the predominant flavour and every so often you get a burst of fruit with a hit of rum. I used my speculaas spice mix which really added a depth of flavour to this cake. The spices smelt amazing and really complemented the ginger. 

The cake was so good I made it again when I needed some 'thank you' cakes. I've been having a nightmare with Ikea delivery so I had to rely on my friend's parents to house sit. I also needed a 'thank you' cake for a colleague who very kindly carved a gorgeous cat pumpkin for me for Halloween. Plus I gave some to my neighbours who we asked to put out our bins and keep an eye on the house whilst we were away. I baked them in mini loaves this time which are ideal for gifts and they were very well received. 

 The cat pumpkin carving

I actually baked these cakes just before November so I'm really pleased that I can enter them to a number of blog challenges this month. 

Tea Time Treats hosted by Jane from The Hedge Combers and Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme this month is Bonfire Night. 

Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from the Baking Explorer. The theme this month is Thank You and as I mentioned earlier these were made to thank various people for their kind deeds. It's very fortuitous that Stuart picked this theme for November!

Biscuit Barrel hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... The theme for this month is Winter Warmers and this ginger, rum and spiced cake will definitely warm you up!

Baking with Spirit hosted by Janine from Cake of the Week. I rarely get to enter this challenge so I'm really pleased that this fits in November's challenge which is warming and alcoholic. This cake definitely fits the bill! 

Credit Crunch Munch hosted by Alida from My Little Italian Kitchen on behalf of Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla from Fab Food 4 All. This recipe used up leftover crystallised ginger, mixed dried fruit and the end of a bottle of rum. 

Extra Veg hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle from Utterly Scrummy. The carrots here are an extra portion of veg and it's well hidden in this cake.

Love Cake hosted by Ness from Jibber Jabber. The theme this month is 'In with a Bang' and this cake definitely fits the bill with the spices, ginger and rum!

Cook Blog Share hosted by Lucy from Supergolden Bakes.

 adding eggs and oil to the flour mixture

 the fruits plumped up nicely after being soaked in rum overnight 

 adding grated carrots, chopped crystallised ginger and rum soaked fruits 

  

 Add a sprinkling of icing sugar for definition and wow factor

 You can see the bit of ginger, carrot and fruits 

 Mini loaves baked as a thank you

An original recipe by bakingaddict

175g self raising wholemeal flour

150g soft dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

100mls vegetable oil

2 eggs

250g carrots, peeled and grated

100g mixed dried fruit

60mls rum

100g crystallised ginger, chopped

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon gound nutmeg

1 teaspoon allspice 

OR 2 teaspoons Speculaas Spice

• Place the mixed dried fruit in a small bowl and soak in rum preferably overnight or longer if you can. 
• Preheat the oven to 170C
• In a large bowl, mix the wholemeal flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices.
• Add in the eggs and vegetable oil and mix well.
• Stir in the grated carrots, chopped crystallised ginger and rum soaked fruits. 
• Pour into a tin and bake for approximately 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• The mini loaves will take about 30-35 minutes - check with a skewer at 25 minutes. 

Banana, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Muffins and a review

A few months ago I was sent a set of 6 Pantry Design Spice Tins by DotComGiftShop to review.  They also sponsored the same set as our September AlphaBakes prize which was won by Linzi from Lancashire Food. It's taken me a while to review this as it was packed away in one of my boxes in preparation for moving house and I've only just finished unpacking all the kitchen and baking stuff. I debated about what recipe to make and settled on spiced cookies or muffins. In the end, I decided to make muffins as I've been on a muffin craze recently. This recipe was inspired by ingredients in my kitchen and my love of peanut butter and chocolate.

The spices added warmth and flavour to the muffins and are perfect for this time of the year. Banana, peanut butter and chocolate go well together and the predominant flavour here was the peanut butter. I love the chopped nuts on top which added more texture and increased the nutty flavour. This makes for a substantial breakfast on the go and will be good for an afternoon snack too.

The spice tins come in 6 different colours. The design is simple yet elegant and they look great in my new kitchen. It's a great gift for yourself or for a baking friend/relative. They also have lots of matching items including a tea coffee sugar set which I have my eye on.

I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge run by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary and hosted this month by Vohn from Vohn's Vittles as I used up some old bananas for this recipe. I also had half a bag of roasted peanuts which I chopped up and sprinkled on top of the muffins before baking.

It also fits in to the Credit Crunch Munch challenge created by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla from Fab Food 4 All.  This month it is guest hosted by Hannah from A New Addition. This is quite a good recipe for using up old bananas and store cupboard items such as peanut butter. You can use nuts or raisins instead of chocolate chips if you have the end of a bag of one sitting around.

This is my third entry this month to the Biscuit Barrel Challenge hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... as she has chosen the theme comfort food. I've already sent in two other muffins so I hope Laura will accept a third muffin recipe! They are so comforting to eat and this spiced version is perfect for the current cold and rainy weather.

 set of 6 pantry design spice tins 

 I made a double recipe so it looks like a lot of ingredients! 

 stir in chocolate chips 

 sprinkle with chopped, roasted peanuts 

 yum!

An original recipe by Ros @bakingaddict

Makes 12 muffins 

250g plain flour

100g caster sugar

100g soft brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 ripe bananas, roughly mashed

250mls milk

190g smooth peanut butter 

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100g chocolate chips

Chopped, roasted peanuts to sprinkle on top (optional) 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Place 12 muffin cases in a muffin tray.
• In a small bowl,mix together the flour, sugars, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.
• In a separate large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla extract and oil together. Add in the mashed bananas. 
• Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix well.
• Finally stir in the chocolate chips.
• Divide evenly between the muffin cases.
• Sprinkle chopped, roasted peanuts on top of each muffin.
• Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Disclaimer: I was sent a set of 6 pantry design spice tins for review purposes. A positive review was not required and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a sponsored post. 

Banana and Berry Loaf

Apologies for the long absence, September has been a really busy month as I was away celebrating my birthday and moving house in between! I then got a bad chest infection/sore throat which meant no unpacking, no baking or blogging! Anyway I am just about back on my feet so I thought I'd share this recipe with you quickly. I baked this back in August before moving house as I had leftover ingredients to use up. It's a really quick and simple bake and tastes amazing!! I really loved the chocolate chunks with the berries and bananas. 

I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge run by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This month it's guest hosted by Mireille from Chef Mireille's East West Realm. I used up leftover fruit and half a bag of chocolate chunks for this recipe.

Similarly it's suitable for Credit Crunch Munch hosted by Sarah from Maison Cupcake for Helen and Camilla.

It's also perfect for the Vegetable Palette hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen. The September challenge is purple and blues. The blueberries are blue but they look purple after baking! 

Finally to Four Seasons Food hosted by Louisa from Eat Your Veg and co hosted by Anneli from Delicieux. The theme this month is "getting fruity" and there's plenty of fruit in this!

 I like adding chunks of banana rather than completely mashing them up 

 adding sour cream 

 lovely fresh berries 

 leatherwood honey - a really fragrant solid honey from Australia 

 chocolate chunks for extra indulgence

 

An original recipe by bakingaddict 

220g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
115g brown sugar
1 tablespoon Leatherwood honey
80mls vegetable oil
2 eggs
125mls sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 bananas, cut into large chunks
blueberries,raspberries and a handful of chocolate chunks (I forgot to weigh the berries but just throw in what you have)

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Whisk the sugar and vegetable oil together then add in the eggs and continue whisking. 
• Stir in the mashed bananas followed by the sour cream .
• Gently fold in the berries by hand.
• Add the flour and baking powder to the mixture.
• Stir in the honey.
• Mix briefly being sure not to overmix.
• Finally stir in the chocolate chunks and pour into a loaf tin. 
• Bake for approximately 50minutes - 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Check at 45 minutes as you will need to cover the top with foil if it's too brown. 

Chocolate, banana and peanut butter cake for £1

This month's We Should Cocoa challenge run and hosted by Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog challenges us to make a chocolate cake for £1. There is an active fund raising and awareness campaign called Live Below the Line which challenges people to live on £1 a day for 5 days. Participants are asked to spend only £1 per person per day on food and drink. Having made this cake for £1, I am in awe of those who participated in the challenge as I'm not sure if I personally would manage! 

I know I am extremely lucky to live a comfortable lifestyle. I often spend a fair amount on baking and baking related items as you can probably tell from this blog. I have to say I was sceptical about making a cake for £1 as basic ingredients such as butter and eggs cost more than £1. I decided to fully embrace this challenge and to my surprise found out that you can make a delicious cake for only £1. I incorporated my favourite flavours of banana and peanut butter and used regular ingredients that I had at home. I know you can buy cheaper versions but as I only needed a small quantity I decided to work with what I had. My secret ingredient was a packet of Morrison's Saver Sponge mix for only 22p!! I've taken a picture of the shelf in case you don't believe me. The packet instruction says to add 1 egg and 5 tablespoons of water. 

I brought the cake into work and offered it up as usual. I didn't mention that this was a budget cake as I wanted to see everyone's reaction. The comments I got were  "The cake is really light and moist"; "It's really flavourful"; "Can I have the recipe please?" At this point, I'd not tried the cake myself so I had a slice and I was honestly surprised. I really thought it was going to be dry and tasteless as I had my reservations about the sponge mix and the small quantities of peanut butter and cocoa powder. You can clearly taste the banana, peanut butter and cocoa. I think the sour cream added to the lightness of the cake which was my intention hence making sure there was budget for it. If you want to make a chocolate drizzle for the cake then I would recommend reducing the amount of cocoa powder and peanut butter slightly to account for the chocolate. 

The cake I made weighed 482g and I managed to cut it into 9 decent slices as shown which makes it approximately 11p per slice! Definitely a very tasty economical cake.

I'm entering this to several challenges this month.

We Should Cocoa hosted by Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog. The challenge was to make a chocolate cake for £1 and mine came up to exactly that.

Family Foodies hosted by Vanesther from Bangers & Mash and Lou from Eat Your Veg. The theme this month is cheap and cheerful.

Credit Crunch Munch hosted by Alex from Gingey Bites this month. This challenge was created by Camilla from FabFood4All and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours.

 peanut butter, sour cream, cocoa powder, banana, egg, sponge mix 

 mix everything in a large bowl 

 ready to bake 

 fresh from the oven 

 You can see the banana bits in the cake 

Ingredients and cost 
Morrison's Saver Sponge mix 22p
1 egg 17p (24 eggs for £4)
5 tablespoons water (0p)
18g cocoa powder 21p (Cadbury Bourneville cocoa powder £1.16/100g)
1 banana 8p (0.68p/kg)
50g smooth peanut butter (Sainsury's smooth peanut butter 0.39p/100g)
30mls sour cream 12p (Morrison's sour cream 40p per 100ml)

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Pour the sponge mix into a large bowl.
• Add 1 egg and 5 tablespoons water.
• Add the remaining ingredients.
• Whisk until smooth.
• Pour into a loaf tin and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely before slicing.