Monday, baking day

Does anyone else remember that advert?

I've had Mondays off for the past week while, being on a Tuesday-Saturday roster instead. In some ways it has sucked but in alot of ways it has been nice and so I'm sad to see it coming to an end. I got to potter around a little more, as the kids were both at kindy/school on Mondays. It was just Simon, myself and the babies at home - and that feels like break. It became my day to prepare for the coming week with baking being one of those things.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely do not bake every week. Especially now the twins are here. I did alot more baking when I was pregnant because I was continuously craving stuff and nothing to do with trying to be super mum. These days I barely have the energy to pull myself out of bed so baking isn't on the list much,but when I do I often do it on my Sunday - which are Mondays.
Some weekends its just a simple batch of pikelets to share, and alot of times its a batch of muffins or cupcakes.

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The following recipe has quickly become one of my favourites for four main reasons:
1. Its so bloody simple I always have the ingredients in my kitchen.
2. Its kid-helper friendly. In fact its 2 kid helper friendly - You can easily get one measuring and sifting dry ingredients with you while the other mashes.Which is ideal in my case because my two older ones love to get in the way help out.
3. No icing is needed. Really these are more muffins than cupcakes, and it has quite alot of sugar in it so it really doesn't feel lacking not to have icing/frosting.
4. No power tools needed. No electric mixers, not even a wisk. Gold.

Banana Cupcakes (v1.0)

Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp (or so) of cinnamon.
75 grams of butter (melted)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
3 ripe large bananas

Process:
Preheat over to about 170C (mine is fan forced).
Sift the dry ingredients together in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, mash the bananas up, add in melted butter (slow and stir as you go), the egg and sugar. Mix well.
Fold in the dry ingredients to the wet, just enough so its incorporated.
Spoon into cupcake liners in a muffin tray. It makes about 12-16.
Bake for approximately 20 minute or until golden brown, spring back when lightly touched. Test with a wooden skewer if unsure.

Tips/notes:
I took this recipe from online somewhere and its my first experiment with adding or tweaking, so its version 1. In this I have added the cinnamon because i love the flavour combo, but you can easily leave it out.
I fill the liners quite high to get a nice rounded top more like a muffin, but for smaller dainty cupcakes only do 3/4 full.
I chop up the butter into chucks and put it in a pot on a very low heat to slowly melt. I don't know how to really describe this but I try not to let it get too hot or melted, just liquidy - I feel this changes the final product alot.

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