Cinnamon and Beetroot Muffins

I've always found the concept quite strange of putting carrots in cakes. Why would you put a vegetable you normally have with your Sunday dinner in a cake? But we do, and the thing is, it works! I absolutely love carrot cake - topped with a layer of cream cheese frosting, it's probably up there as one of my favourite afternoon treats. It has a wonderful flavour, it's beautifully moist and it's so sweet. And actually, I guess that answers my question. Carrots are sweet, so it makes perfect sense to put them in a cake. After all, sugar comes from a vegetable - sugar beet - and apparently carrots are pretty high up the scale in terms of their sugar content as well so why not substitute a bit of sugar for a slightly healthier option? In the past, when sugar was reserved only for the rich of society, it was far cheaper to grate a bit of carrot that you could grow in your own back garden than to use the much sought-after sugar. How times have changed...! A bag of sugar only costs 89p at Sainsbury's!

Anyway, I'm getting side-tracked and probably boring you with my historic ramblings. For a while now I've wanted to have a go at putting some kind of vegetable other than carrot into a cake mix, because I'm intrigued to know whether other vegetables work just as perfectly. Well last week I decided to satisfy my intrigue, as I came across a recipe for these beetroot muffins in a Sainsbury's magazine that ended up in our letterbox. I had a lot of fun making them and spent a good twenty minutes grating a lot of beetroot and getting a lot of red all over my hands and the kitchen! But to be honest...I'm not really sure what to make of them! They're definitely sweet enough to go in a cake that's for sure and the vibrant red of the beetroot makes the cakes look tantalisingly appetising! I couldn't stop going on about how red they were every time I ate one. And I even managed to use a bit of beetroot dye to colour the icing. But I think the colour may have been the best bit about them unfortunately. You could still definitely taste undertones of beetroot which you just don't get with carrot cake and beetroot is such an earthy vegetable that sometimes it did feel as if I was eating something that had come straight from the soil! My mum and dad said they liked them, but they were probably being polite, as I don't think they were that convinced. However, I am not going to let this put me off baking with vegetables and I will be persevering! Maybe with the addition of my best friend chocolate, because that always makes everything taste a hundred times better. Anyway, I urge you to make some for yourself and let me know what you think. Because even if you don't like them, I hope you'll be impressed by their astonishing red and the fact that you've just made a cake with beetroot in!    

Oh, and I have to explain the addition of the pink icing and mini eggs on top! I made them just before Easter (as you probably guessed) and felt like I had to decorate them with at least a bit of an Easter theme. But I actually prefer the plain red tops so you can show off that they have beetroot in them!

Cinnamon and Beetroot Muffins (makes 12) 

Ingredients:
500g Fresh Beetroot, peeled, trimmed and coarsely grated
300g Self-Raising Flour
100g Light Brown Soft Sugar
1tsp Baking Powder
1tsp Ground Cinnamon
180ml Sunflower Oil
3 Eggs

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cases.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the beetroot, flour, baking powder and cinnamon together. 
4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and stir in the oil.
5. Pour this into the dry ingredients and mix together well. 
6. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases so they are almost full.
7. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until just risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool and enjoy!

A sweet burst of energy to start your morning...try these Banana and Honey Muffins

There are two reasons why I decided to make these yummy muffins:

i) I've just bought these cute little silicone cake cases on a recent excursion to Ikea and I couldn't wait to try them out. Just look at them, how could anyone resist?

ii) I LOVE breakfast! But cereal everyday gets a bit boring after a while and I wanted to experiment with something different. If you make these muffins in advance, you can just heat them up in the microwave in seconds..and voilà, a quick (fairly) nutritious breakfast that fills you up. A perfect start to the day in my opinion!

Another great thing about these is that they're not dry at all. Perhaps it was the honey addition which made them more gooey than usual, but whatever it was, they have just the right texture you want from a muffin. I also added a drizzle of extra honey on them just before serving. Pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds and then the honey will soak into the muffin, giving you that extra burst of sweetness you need in the morning. They're only small (and I tend to be quite a hungry person when I first wake up!), so have two. You can make yourself feel less guilty by telling yourself that they're healthy - I mean, they have banana in them! Of course, I had the usual problem with the oven (I'm sorry, this is getting boring now, but it's just SO frustrating). Normally, muffins take about 20 minutes to cook, but realistically, with my extremely outdated oven, they had to be in for about 45 minutes. What I thought was going to be a quick bake stretched out into the night - who needs to go out partying when you can stay in and bake all night?! Their smell and beautiful taste afterwards made it all worth it though...who says that these breakfast muffins have to be eaten for breakfast? They taste just as good (if not better) straight from the oven at 11.30pm at night. Just keep reminding yourself they're healthy and you won't feel so bad when they're gone in days!

Banana and Honey Breakfast Muffins makes 12

Ingredients:

225g Self Raising Flour
125g Butter
100g Caster Sugar 
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
300ml Milk
1 Banana (mashed)
1 1/2 tbsp Runny Honey (plus extra for drizzling when serving)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line cake tray with cases or grease individual silicone ones.
2. Cream together butter and sugar.
3. Beat in the egg.
4. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, milk and honey. Stir gently until all ingredients are combined.
5. Stir in mashed banana, but be careful to not over stir.
6. Spoon into cases, so they're about 2/3 full.
7. Bake in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. A knife should come out clean when inserted into one of the muffins. 
8. Enjoy...straight out of the oven as a late night snack or a burst of energy in the morning!