More baked goods!

Today, I've been mostly eating cake. So, I'll post a couple of healthy breakfast muffin recipes that have been developed in an attempt to make me feel less guilty about needing said cakey things to fuel my baby bump (which, just in case you're wondering, is rather large and starting to be uncomfortable at 25 weeks/6 months). They both stemmed from the fact that I didn't have certain ingredients for a recipe that I'd found on-line, and I improvised with what I had in the cupboard/fridge. The basic recipe was this:

• 300g plain wholemeal flour
  
• 50g rolled porridge oats, plus extra for decoration
• 3 heaped tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp mixed spice
  
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  
• 100g raisins
  
• 50g pecans, chopped
  
• 50g caster sugar
  
• 100ml sunflower oil
  
• 150ml natural yogurt
  
• 150ml milk
  
• 1 medium egg, beaten
  
• 2 medium bananas, mashed
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 2 small apples, grated
  
• 1 medium carrot (100g peeled weight), coarsely grated

To Decorate
Sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C, gas mark 5. Lightly oil a non-stick muffin pan with 12 large cups (or two six-cup pans) (Or use muffin cases, like I did!)

Sprinkle with oats, sunflower and pumpkin seeds (or not), and bake for 20 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes, then cool on a rack. Eat when still warm.

You can prepare the dry and wet ingredients the night before. Combine the two in the morning and you'll have a fresh-baked breakfast."

The ingredients are many, but I love the fact that you just sling them all together and give them a bit of a stir. The first time, I didn't have apples, so I put pears in, and substituted the raisins and apricots for dried dates and figs, chopped into tiny pieces. I didn't have pecans and didn't want the seeds on top, so I just put pine nuts into the mix. I also left a bit of the sugar out. Ta da!


These were really lovely, and inspired me to think of what else I could put in to up the "healthiness" factor. Have a guess. Go on....

Change the carrot for beetroot, and keep the apple. Swap the raisins and apricots for figs and dates again, and all the seeds and nuts for the pine nuts, and you get these:


Even more delish. I promise! If these are a bit too healthy for you, just wait two ticks, and read on...

August is a manic birthday month for me, with 10 all in the first two week, and four of those are in my direct family! As well as the birthday party for the first-born next weekend, Mr Love_Crafts has also requested various chocolatey treats in order to celebrate his birthday, which is this weekend. So, after my little cupcake adventure a couple of weeks ago, I found a buttercream recipe that fitted my concept of icing much better than the cream cheese abomination that curdled (see here if you have no idea what I am on about). I perked this and the cake base up with a bit of fairtrade cocoa, and le voila as they say.


I also made jams and rocky road, but seeing as those are neither baked nor as pretty, I shall leave them out!

So tell me, if you're still here... does the thought of beetroot muffins appeal to you?