Mash, sift, stir

I was not keen on going out into the cold windy day today - so suggested to O we bake some muffins. O loves cooking and eating, so my suggestion was well received. We made Annabel Karmel's carrot and pineapple muffins.We've made them lots - but never with the pineapple... I always substitute whatever fruit we have around. Today's muffin flavour: banana and raisins.

There is so much good fun to be had with muffin making: mashing, weighing, sifting, whisking, stirring, patty panning... We made large and mini muffins - the recipe below filled one large tray and one mini tray. I had wanted to pretty the muffins up a bit with some icing and sparkle, but with a six month old babe in arms who is teething and clingy this was not going to be possible. We had the muffins and we were happy with that!

We decided to have a teddy bear (muffin) picnic in O's bedroom. O set the picnic and we scoffed the muffins! To tell the truth, today's batch was not super tasty... I usually use six banana's but only had four...perhaps that was it?

What?

100g/4oz plain flour                        100g/4oz plain wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder                       ¾tsp bicarbonate of soda 
½ tsp ground cinnamon                  ½ tsp salt 
200ml/7fl oz vegetable oil               90g/3½oz caster sugar 
2 eggs                                          120g/4½oz finely grated carrots 

100g/4oz raisins                            225g/8oz tinned crushed pineapple, semi-drained 

How?

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Sift together the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt and mix well. Beat the oil, sugar and eggs until well blended. Add the grated carrots, crushed pineapple and raisins. Gradually add the flour mixture, beating just enough to combine all the ingredients. Pour the batter into muffin trays lined with paper cases and bake for 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.