Baking ideas

&Banana Muff in Chocolate

LAUREN DAVIS King’s Cake Emporium 07731 800129 Gorleston, Norfolk

Lauren from King’s Cake Emporium is a selftaught home baker who spends her free time creating delicious, fantastically decorated treats for special occasions. One day she’ll open her own bakery, but for now, she’s sharing her baking tips, tricks and know-how with Places&Faces.

What to do with a “giraffey” banana? No, I haven’t gone crazy. Think of the pattern that appears all over on the long-necked animal and then think about a banana that has sat in your fruit bowl for quite a while and you may see the resemblance. This delicious recipe will be the end of those over-ripe bananas going to waste.

INGREDIENTS: Makes approx 8-12 muffi ns • 120g self raising fl our • 120g sugar • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda • Pinch of salt • 100g chopped milk/dark chocolate • 1 beaten egg • 120g melted butter • 1 tsp vanilla extract • 2 very ripe bananas METHOD: Heat your oven to 180˚C/Gas mark 4 and line a muffi n tin with muffi n cases. Sift the fl our, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl, then stir in the chopped chocolate. Make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients. Add in the egg, melted butter and vanilla extract. Give this a gentle mix through.

Mash the bananas and stir into the mixture. Don’t worry if you have some lumps, this is the texture we are looking for. Divide the mixture out between your muffi n cases.

Should you have a third “giraffey” banana laying around, top each fi lled muffi n case with a piece of sliced banana and give it a brush with some melted butter.

Bake for around 25-30 minutes until fi rm. Give them 5 minutes to cool in the tin before removing and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack. 1 You don’t need to make a special trip to the supermarket to buy caster sugar. This recipe (and many others you will be surprised to know) will work just fi ne with granulated sugar and it will save those pennies!

2 Dark chocolate is a little too bitter for my very, very sweet tooth but feel free to use either milk or dark chocolate, or even a mixture of both.

3 It is best to give the melted butter a little time to cool before adding it. This will prevent it heating the egg and melting the chocolate.

4 Finally, I think a little extra cinnamon never hurts, so if you add a little extra (on purpose or by mistake) you will get the thumbs up from me!