Banana cupcakes

Last night, I pulled one of my old what-to-feed-littles cookbooks from the shelf and had a curious flip-through. This morning when we were invited to a friend's house for morning tea, this recipe was fresh in my mind. It baked up in no time because--get this, Mamas--you whip up the entire recipe in the food processor! Yippeee! I've included regular instructions too, in case you don't have a food processor, but for those of you who do, this may become a go-to recipe. Enjoy!

Banana cupcakes*

from "Feeding Made Easy" by Gina Ford

175g (6 oz) butter

50g (2 oz) caster sugar

225g (8 oz) self-raising flour (I used wholemeal)

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

3 very ripe bananas

85 mL (3 fl oz) maple syrup

Preheat oven to 180c/350F.

Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Cream butter and sugar together. Beat the eggs in separate bowl and gradually add to butter-sugar mixture. Fold in flour and baking powder, then mashed bananas and maple syrup. Mix until well combined.

or even better...

In a food processor, whiz together butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and eggs until well mixed. Add bananas and maple syrup. Mix until smooth.

Spoon into muffin cases (maybe 2/3 full) and bake 15-20 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch. Cool for 5 minutes in tin and then remove from tin and finish cooling on wire rack.

Watch them disappear.

*this recipe was listed as "banana muffins" but with so much sugar and butter, calling them cupcakes seems more accurate