Do you know the Muffin Man?

While I like to cook, I rarely ever bake. This is a combination of the fact that I lack kitchen space for baking equipment (which DD is very against me buying), I don't have a decent counter top to work on for all the measuring and mixing and the 1001 little bowls that I always seem to need when I'm baking, and really the fact that unlike the vast majority of my female friends, I can't eat cake for meals. While I am fond of my desserts, I am more of a savoury girl at heart. Gimme a curry puff over cake for tea, thankyouverymuch.

But there were some bananas -- which Noey had recently been rejecting -- that were spoiling and I thought I ought to pull out the muffin trays that I'd been given for Christmas and put them to good use. I decided to use this recipe that I'd used before successfully and with my trusty assistant, set to work.

"What can I do, what can I do, what can I do?"

Since it was near impossible to keep Noey out of the kitchen while I got this done, I put him a stool and let him join in. Noey had fun stirring the egg-banana-sugar-butter mixture, trying to eat all the strawberries before I could toss them into the flour, and trying to taste the batter everytime I wasn't looking. My helper and I had our hands full trying to stop him from doing anything he wasn't supposed to and from preventing him from falling off his stool! Still, we managed to get it all done, despite all Noey's "help"!

Strawberry-banana muffins, fresh out of the oven. I'd substituted some of the all-purpose flour for wholemeal flour and so these turned out a little grittier and maybe a little drier than they did the first time round. I think I'll need to tweak it a bit. Also I think I left them in the oven for a wee bit too long! Got to get me a timer next time.

After all the help that he was, Noey wasn't really that interested in the end-product and had to be persuaded to try it. But after he finally took a taste, I'd say it went down rather well.

Tasting the fruits of his labour...

If you're only an occasional baker like me, I think this is a good recipe to use. It was dead easy, fast and the end product was moist and yummy. I did cut down on the sugar required by a quarter (didn't dare to cut too much in case it didn't turn out right) and everyone loved the muffins, especially when eaten hot.

Now I'm thinking of trying the blueberry ones next!