BANANA STRAWBERRY MUFFINS

It’s been two weeks since I started posting stuff on here and this morning I suddenly had a mind-blowing realisation. I’ve only been posting chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate cake and cookie recipes one after the other. No fruit in sight! No vitamins! As any sensible reader would say, this needs to be fixed. So today I thought I’d share with you this brilliant banana and strawberry muffin recipe from Ms. Cupcake, with a slight tweak to redeem myself even more: wholemeal flour.

Strawberry season is finally here, so it’s actually the perfect moment to make these muffins. You can bring them with you to your picnic/garden party/barbecue (24 degrees in London today everyone!!!!) and show off like there’s no tomorrow. So let’s all make these and then get our shorts and flip-flops out and practice our best lizard impression under the sun while it lasts. PLAN!

Notes: Some people think that using wholemeal flour rather than a combination of white+wholemeal makes cake/muffins too dense and heavy. I personally believe that the texture of these muffins turns out fine using only wholemeal, but feel free to use half white+half wholemeal or even only white flour if you prefer!

BANANA STRAWBERRY MUFFINS

Slightly adapted from Ms Cupcake’s The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town

280g (2 ¼ cups) wholemeal self-raising flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

125g (2/3 cup) golden caster sugar

1 small over-ripe banana, mashed

175ml (3/4 cup) soya milk or other non-dairy milk

160ml (2/3 cup) rapeseed oil or other flavourless oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 medium fresh strawberries, chopped

Glaze:

60g (1 cup) icing sugar

1 tablespoon soya milk or other non-dairy milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F and line two muffin trays with cases. In a bowl, mix together flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and sugar. Add the mashed banana, the milk, oil, vanilla and strawberries and quickly mix everything together with a metal spoon, until the ingredients are just combined. The batter should still be lumpy. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases. Put the tray in the oven and bake for 18 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the muffins comes out clean. Cool in the muffin tray on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Next make the glaze: simply mix together icing sugar, milk and vanilla. Spoon a tablespoon of the glaze onto each warm muffin and then transfer the muffins to the cooling rack to cool completely. Decorate with banana chips if you like.