Blueberry Muffin Cake ~ #TheCakeSliceBakers

This Blueberry Muffin Cake tastes exactly like a cross between a blueberry 

muffin and a coffee cake, and you won't believe how easy it is to make.

Caramel-Banana Muffins

Once again I found myself with an excess of bananas - note to self, maybe only buy one bag of bananas from Costco each week.  As much as I love banana bread, I thought that muffins would be a good change of pace and they are easy for my girls to carry to school and share with their friends.

I really wanted to add caramel to the bananas and found this recipe on the Midwest Living site.  Their recipe had a pecan-cinnamon sugar mixture added to it but, as much as I would have enjoyed it, I knew that the muffins would be enjoyed more by the girls if it was left out.

The muffins were baked for 20 minutes but they did not get very brown.  Since I did not want to over-bake them once they were ready I took them out of the oven. Maybe the pecan mixture would have helped the browning process, so I'll try adding it next time.  Also, I think that in future I would make my own caramel.  I was happy to use up some of the ice cream topping that has been in my refrigerator for a while, but it was very sweet.

Caramel-Banana Muffins
(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients 

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• ¼ cup butter, softened
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 medium banana, peeled and mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons caramel-flavored ice cream topping
• 1 medium banana, peeled and thinly sliced (optional)
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375℉.
2. Line twelve muffin cups with paper bake cups.
3. In a small bowl mix 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. 
4. In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese, softened butter and ⅔ cup sugar with an electric mixer until well combined. 
5. Add egg and beat well. Beat in the mashed banana and vanilla until combined. 
6. In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
7. Add to the banana mixture, beating on low speed until just combined. 
8. Spoon half the batter into prepared muffin cups,
9. Drizzle ½ teaspoon caramel topping over batter in each cup. Top with remaining batter. If you like, top each muffin with 2 thin slices additional banana.
10. Sprinkle with tops with the cinnamon sugar mixture. 
11. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. 
12. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan. 
13. Serve warm drizzled with more caramel topping, if you like. 

Recipe from Midwest Living.

To Try Tuesday - Jam Filled Buttermilk Donut Muffins

Checking through my extensive list of recipes I would like to try one day I wondered which would be the lucky one today?  I was in the mood for muffins and I found something that I thought sounded really good - cinnamon coated donut muffins.

I remember when I saved this recipe it seemed like everyone was making them.  I guess I am a little behind the trend, which quite honestly is nothing new.  I have to face the fact that I am not a trendy person, and for the most part I am OK with that.  I realized that I actually saved two recipes - one from Food Gal, and another from King Arthur Flour.  I honestly can't remember why these recipes stood out more than the abundance of others around at that time. It is hard to figure out who came up with the original idea because there were so many recipes and adaptations floating around.

In my refrigerator sat a lonely carton of buttermilk so I decided that I would make buttermilk donut muffins.  Then I spotted some Fruits of the Forrest jam that I had brought back from Australia, and I decided that I should fill the muffins too.

It was tough to decide which recipe to go with but I chose the King Arthur one, replacing the milk with buttermilk and sandwiching the jam between two layers of batter. The nutmeg in the batter really gives it that donut-like smell. This is quite a thick batter so I found it easier to spread the top layer of batter with my finger to smooth it out and cover all of the jam




I had mixed emotions about the end result.  Some of the jam over-flowed so I think that next time I will just fill them after they have been covered in the cinnamon sugar. Also, I used cupcake liners and I think that the muffins would be better without them.  Even though I greased them they were still hard to remove, and presentation-wise I didn't like the groove marks they created. As Randy Jackson might say, they were just OK for me.  In hindsight I probably should have gone with the other recipe as it was by Beth Hensberger.

Jam Filled Buttermilk Donut Muffins

(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

• ¼ cup butter
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup buttermilk 
• ½ cup jam
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 3 tablespoons cinnamon sugar

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin, or line with 12 paper or silicone muffin cups, and grease the cups with non-stick vegetable oil spray.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth. 
3. Add the eggs, beating to combine. 
4. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla. 
5. Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined. 
6. Spoon the batter about ½ way into the prepared pan, add about 1 teaspoon jam, and then fill muffin cups almost full with the remaining batter.
7. Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they're a pale golden brown.
8. Remove them from the oven, and let them cool for a couple of minutes.
9. While they're cooling, melt the butter for the topping.
10. Brush the top of each muffin with the butter, then sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar. Or simply dip the tops of muffins into the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon-sugar.
11. Serve warm, or cool on a rack and wrap airtight. Store for a day or so at room temperature.

Yield: 16 muffins. 
Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour.

 

Papaya-Pear Sour Cream Muffin Cakes

Don't muffin cakes sound great? A muffin and a cake in one bite.  I went looking for a recipe for basic muffin that contained sour cream and I found this recipe at the Big Red Kitchen.  I like to use sour cream in muffins because it makes them so moist.  I still had a pear left over from last nights soup and a rapidly ripening papaya so I decided that they would make a nice addition to the muffins.

These muffins were so quick and easy to put together.  They barely took 30 minutes from start to finish.  You have to love a recipe like that.  We barely waited for them to cool before peeling the liners off so that we could try them with our coffee.  You could still see the little pieces of pear but the papaya melted into the batter to provide just the right amount of sweetness.  It made me glad that I had cut the sugar by half from the original recipe.

Papaya-Pear Sour Cream Muffin Cakes
(Printer Friendly Recipe)
 
Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups AP flour
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup butter, softened
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup finely diced pear
• ½ cup finely diced papaya
• 2 teaspoons raw sugar

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large mixing bowl add flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and mix until combined.
3. In a medium bowl combine eggs, vanilla, sour cream and mix until well blended.
4. Add pear and papaya to the egg mixture.
5. Add egg
6. Sprinkle with raw sugar before baking.
7. Pour 1/3 cup into a standard paper muffin liners in a muffin pan and bake for about 20 minutes.
8. Makes about 12-14 muffins.

Adapted from a recipe on Big Red Kitchen.