Carrot Oat Banana Chunk Muffins - #MuffinMonday

Have you seen the Muffin Man
The Muffin Man, the Muffin Man?
Have you seen the Muffin Man 
Who lives on Drury Lane?


That song has been stuck in my head since Stacy invited us to join her for Muffin Monday. Stacy has been baking muffins weekly for the last THREE years. I may or may not have gone through 150 of her Muffin Monday posts. (Definitely went through them and you should too.) I love muffins! For some odd reason, I dislike baking cupcakes but love baking muffins. I'd try to explain it but it's one of those "Kelly things" that gets me the "nod and smile" from friends while they pat me on the head and quickly change the subject. While I love muffins, I don't bake them very often. I usually bake them for my favourite toddler but I don't see him often enough. This affects both my muffin baking and overall happiness. But with Muffin Mondays happening the last Monday of every month, my cupcake pans will be seeing more action.

I'm starting off Muffin Mondays with a pretty simple muffin - oats + carrots + diced bananas. Bananas are always a go-to muffin ingredient for me but I didn't want the bananas all through the muffin. I thought I'd try something different and dice them. I liked having little banana surprises in my muffin and may have eaten 6 muffins just so I could "hunt for them". (Definitely ate 6 muffins yesterday.) I first baked the oats + carrot version of this for my little toddler friend some months ago. They were a bit bland to me. Maybe it's because I used a different sugar from the original recipe. Or maybe it needed the dried fruit that I skipped. Who knows. But I knew that this time I needed to double the sugar. Great decision. They are far from sweet - definitely not cupcake territory. Next time I will also increase the spices.  Some ginger would have been wonderful.

There are more muffins for you below the recipe. Be sure to visit them all!

Carrot Oat Banana Chunk Muffins

Recipe by: Kelly   Adapted from: Brown Eggs and Jam Jars

Yield: 12 small muffins

Ingredients 1 cup old fashioned oats 1 cup milk  1 teaspoon vinegar 1 egg, room temperature 1/2 cup oil 1/2 cup sugar 1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon  1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg 3/4 cup grated carrots 1/2 cup diced bananas

Directions Pour the oats, milk, and vinegar into a large bowl. Let sit at room temperature for an hour. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease a muffin tin or line a 12-cup muffin pan Whisk the egg, oil and sugar into the oat mixture. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Carefully fold the dry mixture into the wet ingredients. Then gently fold in the carrots and banana pieces. Don't over mix! Divide batter equally among the 12 muffin wells. Bake for ~ 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the loaf comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in the pan then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes Be gentle! Don't over-mix. If you've watched Good Eats, I'm sure you have heard Alton Brown shout "Walk away!". Just give the batter no more than 10 gentle stirs and walk away. Don't let the lumps bother you. "Walk away!"

• Apricot, Almond, and Toasted Coconut Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Caramel Apple Buttermilk Muffins from Making Miracles
• Carrot Oat Banana Chunk Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Ground Cherry Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pesto Pine Nut Parmesan Muffins from Food Lust People Love from
• Sour Cream Peach Muffins with Pecan Streusel from The Spiced Life

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page

Vanilla Mini Bundts - #BundtBakers

I had two very different Bundt plans for this post. One was inspired by a special childhood memory and the other was a virtual celebration for a friend who has spent the last nine and a half months battling breast cancer. However, I am the most indecisive person and spent much too much time hemming and hawing. Would my batter be thick enough for the special ingredient required for the "memory" Bundt? What would be the pink element in J's Bundt? It needed to be extra special. This summer she had a mastectomy, a devastating setback and went back in for a radical mastectomy that finally left us with good news - benign margins. Mere drops of food colouring just would not do.

Alas, life had other plans for me this month. Things got a little extra topsy turvy and there was just no time to experiment with all the ideas in my head. I decided to keep it simple with these mini vanilla chiffon Bundts. Vanilla barely gets any love from me. But I am glad that I got to take a moment away from all the chaos and bake these little vanilla cakes. They are light, moist and flavourful. This is definitely one of those recipes that I will go back to again and again. A friend's birthday is next week and if life calms down just enough, she'll get her birthday cake on time. Hopefully, I can find a chocolate version of this. She's one of my chocoholic friends who likes nothing but chocolate in her chocolate so this vanilla just will not do. I may sneak in a vanilla chiffon layer though. Don't tell her - she'll just be surprised when she cuts the cake.

All our Bundts this month are a bit dressy and ready for a celebration. Thanks to our host, Terri for choosing this sprinkles theme!

Vanilla Chiffon Mini Bundts

Barely Adapted from: Cook's Country

Yield: 10 one-cup capacity mini Bundts

Ingredients Cake 5 eggs, separated 10.5 oz sugar, divided use 5.35 oz cake flour  2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup water 1/2 cup oil 1 tablespoon vanilla Glaze  2 cups confectioner's sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla milk Sprinkles

Directions Preheat oven to 325F. Grease 10 mini Bundt pans or a 10-12 cup capacity Bundt pan.  Beat the 5 egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Slowly add 2 tablespoons of sugar and beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy.  Whisk the remaining sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In separate bowl, whisk together the 5 yolks, water, oil and vanilla.  Whisk the egg mixture into the flour mixture until smooth. Whisk a third of the beaten egg whites into the batter then gently fold in the remaining egg whites one scoop at a time. Scrape into prepared pans.  Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the mini Bundts comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from the pans.  Whisk together confectioner's sugar and vanilla then add just enough milk to reach your desired consistency. Pour over cooled cake.

Notes Sorry about the mix of weights and volumes. Cook's Country's weights and volumes are always a bit different from what I normally use. For example, they use 5 oz for 1 cup of all purpose flour while I use  4.25 oz.  It's a lot easier to just find the weights they used and use that instead of volume for flour and sugar.  For a chiffon cake baked in an angel food pan, do not grease the pan.  Be gentle! Don't overmix.

Here are this month's "Sprinkles" Bundts:

• Black Onyx Bundt Cake from Living the Gourmet
• Bourbon Walnut Pound Cake from Magnolia Days
• Bubblegum Frosted Funfetti Vanilla Bean Bundt from Baking in Pyjamas
• Bundt Cake Extra Chocolateado from la mejor manera de hacer... 
• Celebration Confetti Bundt Cake from Cali's Cuisine
• Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake from Tea and Scones
• Chocolate Sprinkles Sour Cream Bundt Cake from Spice Roots
• Chocolate Walnut Cake with Sprinkles from FoodJam
• Confetti Bundt Cake with Whipped Chocolate Ganache Frosting from How to Philosophize with Cake
• Crazy Coco Bundt Cake from Los Chatos Chefs
• Eggless Vanilla Confetti Bundt Cake from SimplyVeggies
• Funfetti Bundt Cake from Liv for Cake
• Funfetti Bundt Cake from Recipes, Food & Cooking
• 'Guild the Lily' Bundt from Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Irish Butter Chocolate Sprinkle Cake with Ganache from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Jammin' Jimmies Bundt from Noshing With The Nolands
• Nutella Bundt with Nutella Glaze from Food Lust People Love
• Oatmeal Cookie Bundt Cake with Sprinkles from The Spiced Life
• Orange Dreamscicle Confetti Cake from Our Good Life
• Pistachio Sprinkle Bundt Cake from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Raspberry Ricotta Bundt Cake from Brunch With Joy
• Red Velvet Sprinkle Explosion Bundt Cake from Love and Confections
• Sprinkled Jelly Donut Bundt Cake from Making Miracles
• Sprinkles of Love Cake from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Strawberry Sprinkled Bundt Cake from The Freshman Cook
• Triple Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Sprinkles from Baking and Creating with Avril
• Vanilla Bundt Cake with Sprinkles from I Love Bundt Cakes
• Vanilla Mini Bundts from Passion Kneaded
• Watermelon Bundt Cake from Eat, Drink and Be Mighty

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving Bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest Board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers can be found on our homepage.

Coffee Spiked Banana Cashew Bread

I was lucky enough to be home one year when some of my favourite fruits were in season. My brother got me a bounty of fruit including mangoes from our trees and some from friends. Among the fruit, were cashews. It had been several years since I had had cashew banana and I devoured them with glee, setting aside the nuts to be roasted at a later date. I related this to a friend and he was confused. What in the world is a "cashew banana"? Now it was my turn to be confused. What did he mean? Then it hit me that it could just be that some parts of the island may have a different name for the fruit. "Cashew apple," I offered. That rang no bells.To him, a cashew is just a nut. He had no idea that this was actually a seed attached to delicious fruit. I declared him a horrible Jamaican and sent him the picture above. He accused me of making things up.

Cashew Fruit aka Cashew Apple or Cashew Banana

I remembered this story when cashews and coffee won the vote for this month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge. I briefly thought of getting my hands on some cashew bananas. But even if the stars aligned, and cashews were in season and I miraculously got my hand on some, I had no clue how I would pair it with coffee. I guess it would have had to be a drink. I tossed that idea aside and retreated to my comfort zone - the almighty flour.

It's always exciting every month to see how we used the two ingredients. Look for what others made in the links below! We'd love to see you join us for CIC so be sure to check out information on how to join also.

Coffee Spiked Banana Cashew Bread

Recipe by: Kelly   Adapted from: Alton Brown

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients 1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 tablespoon hot water.  340 grams banana  210 grams sugar 100 grams oil 2 large eggs, beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla 220 grams all purpose flour 35 grams oats, ground to oat flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt  1 cup cashews, chopped

Directions Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9" x 5" loaf pan. In a small bowl, mix the coffee, sugar and hot water until the coffee and sugar have dissolved. Set aside. Mash the bananas and the sugar until smooth. Mix in the oil, beaten eggs and vanilla.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, oat flour, baking soda and salt.  Gently fold the flour mixture into the banana mixture. Add small amounts of flour at at time and be careful not to overmix. Gently fold in the chopped cashews.  Next, transfer half of the batter to another container. Gently mix the coffee mixture into this half.  Pour the batters into the prepared loaf pan. You can alternate adding scoops the batters then swirling for a marbled effect or you add the batter in multiple layers.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the loaf comes out with just a few moist crumbs.

Notes I used about 2 1/2 large bananas.  Be gentle! Don't overmix.

An InLinkz Link-up