Banana oat muffins

After about three weeks of being MIA I've finally returned with a new recipe. The thing is, I guess it's been pretty busy around here. Spring quarter of college has always been the heaviest load and also the most distracting of all quarters. What is it? The nice weather? maybe. The lack of time because I want to do a million other things? maybe. Quite frankly, it is probably a mixture of both of those things. The funny thing is, I haven't been baking very much in general. I don't know if it's because of the change in weather, but I'm not as hungry all the time, nor do I crave as many decadent sweets as I did a few weeks ago when it was still cold and rainy. Yeah, that must be part of it. There's just something about being cooped up at home and cozying by the warm oven while enjoying a wafting aroma of baked deliciousness.
I guess what I now crave is more fresh air and outdoorsy things-the stuff I couldn't do not too long ago because I was cooped up at home. Regardless, I still have a passion for baking, and that, I know deep within my heart will remain forever. Actually, just last week I baked a cake for my friend, Amber who happens to be stationed in Hawaii right now for a short-term job. Some friends and I threw her a surprise party and I decided to provide the cake. It might appear in my next entry, although the pictures and presentation are a bit below my usual standards. However, the cake does have a special meaning to me. After all,I took the time to carefully carve the edges in hopes that it may somewhat resemble a loaf of bread (Amber love, loves fresh baked bread. It turned out alright, though the frosting did not. This is a side note,but I have yet to successfully make frosting without it going bad in some way.

On to more relevant things, this week's recipe is banana muffins. I actually made these a few weeks ago, on a cold cold afternoon after class. The smell must have been heavenly, because my housemate had a friend over to study, and as he walked in through the door he said, "it smells nice in here!" It really makes me smile when people notice and appreciate the fact that I bake. In some ways I bake for me because its something I thoroughly enjoy and relaxes me, but I would say that the majority of my satisfaction comes from those that try my desserts and tell me how good they are and really show appreciation for the time and effort mixed and baked into them. I must say, as modestly as I can possibly make it sound here on my blog *wink* that he ate 2 muffins with a smile and a twinkle in his eye and probably would have asked for another if had he not felt the need to be polite. These muffins turned out really great. I tried adding a topping and was surprised at how simply adding brown sugar and oats could give the muffins that extra kick of umph. Hopefully you can bake these muffins up on a cold day when you're all cooped at home, like I did. But by all means, bake these in the dead heat of summer. They will taste good either way.

As adapted by Abi Godfrey on allrecipes.com
RECIPE:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes, and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.

Note: I substituted honey for about half of the called for white sugar. I then lowered the baking temperature by 25 degrees because of the honey. I also added a mixture containing about a 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 quick-cooking oats to the muffins about halfway through the cooking time.

Ba-na-na-na-na Cake

I was going to wait a whole week before I went ahead and wrote my next post, but as a new "blogger" I simply couldn't put off my excitement. I always thought that I would stick to cookies when baking, but I've found that to leave all the other categories of decadent desserts out would be a baking sin. Baking is humdrum when there is only one genre to choose from. Therefore, I decided to break my cookie focus, and begin an adventure into "uncharted territory" with this recipe for Banana Cake. The title, I assure you, is not a typo. I know how to spell "Banana" but I couldn't resist reference to comedian, Demetri Martin's one-liner, and this is how it goes.

"It makes me feel stupid whenever I try to write the word 'banana,' because I don't know when to end it. It's like how many '-na's' are on this thing? Because it's like bana, keep going, bananana, damn!"

Tangent set aside, I love bananas. It wasn't always so, but along with a lot of other things that I no longer hate but love, the banana has taught me that tastes change. Or perhaps it was a texture-thing in the case of the banana. Anyways, I love it now and that's exactly why I am posting this recipe. Gosh, it's one of those distraction-prone days, I think.

This recipe is a very good one. I found it on allrecipes.com. If you aren't already familiar with the site, I'm telling you, it's amazingly useful. I utilize it to find the perfect recipe because you can further narrow your search by relevance and rating. I could ramble on about the wonderful features of allrecipes, but then you would miss out on the encore presentation that is my banana cake, and why exactly I decided to post it! So it all started with some overripe bananas, gosh, how does that even happen when I love them as I do? Well it did, as simple as that sounds, and I looked up banana recipes when I realized I couldn't eat them as fast as they were ripening. Truth is, I don't much like bananas once they've entered that brown-spotted stage-it's all about the firm, barely ripe phase.
Though a much lighter version than banana bread, I feel that this recipe does not pail in taste to its bread counterpart. Bake this cake, and you might never go back to making banana bread again!
As adapted by Carol on allrecipes.com
RECIPE:
Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter (or margarine works too)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sour milk
1 cup mashed bananas
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, mix together butter or margarine, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, sift together flour, salt, soda, and baking powder. Add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Add sour milk and bananas to the batter. Beat together well.
3. Line two 9 inch round cake pans, or one 9 x 13 inch pan with wax paper; the pans can be greased and floured instead, if desired. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 17 to 20 minutes for the layered cakes, or for 25 to 40 minutes for the sheet cake.

Note: I baked the recipe as is using 2-9 inch round baking pans. To make your own buttermilk (aka sour milk): mix 2 tablespoons white vinegar per every cup of milk, and let sit for 15 minutes or until it begins to curdle. I did not make my own frosting for this recipe, but I recommend a cream cheese frosting.