Banana Bee Muffins

This recipe is a part of Yummy Cards project. More about it here an on my Etsy shop.

Back to the recipe.
Again, as most of my recipes, it is a very healthy snack. Very little sugar as the whole sweetness comes from honey and very sweet ripe bananas.

Ingredients:

makes 9 large or 12 medium muffins
for muffins:
250 g plain flour;
2 [about 200g] very ripe bananas, mashed - best when they already have brown spots on the skin;
2 tbsp of light brown sugar;
2 medium eggs;
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda;
2 tbsp clear honey;
55 ml sunflower oil;
5 tbsp whole milk;

This is a website extra - it is a decoration of the muffins. 

for bees:
gold marzipan;
few almond flakes;
dark cocoa

1. preheat the oven to 190C. Line a 9 or 12 - hole muffin tin with paper cases;
2. in a bawl combine flour, soda, sugar, bananas and oil.
3. in the next bowl whisk honey, eggs and milk until frothy [2-3 minutes with an electric whisk];
4. add egg mixture to the dry ingredients mixture and mix until combined; it will be a bit lumpy and it will look like this:

5. spoon the mixture into the paper cases and bake it about:

- 18 minutes for 12 muffins;

- 23 minutes for 9 muffins;

Do not keep it too long in the oven. They should be golden-brown on the top otherwise they will be too dry and dark inside.

6. you can glaze the muffins with some honey when still hot to make them shiny.

website extra - bee decoration:

1. make a thin flat strip of gold marzipan [about 1cm x 10cm x 2mm] and place it in the freezer;

2. to make a brown paste cut a chunk of gold marzipan and knead it in your hands with some dark cocoa until the paste is evenly brown;

3. make two long rolled shapes about 1.5 cm in diameter - one from gold marzipan and one from cocoa marzipan; 

4. slice them into 3 mm wide shapes;

5. join them arranging colours like this: yellow-brown-yellow-brown-yellow;

6. roll them slightly together so they will be conjoined and shape the body of the bee;

7. add a small yellow ball at one end - a head;

8. make tiny balls for eyes and a nose and also roll some smily [or not?!] lips - add to the face; it should stick without any problems;

9. take the strip of marzipan from the freezer and cut out a crown from it; place the crown on the bee's head;

10. push two almond flakes into the sides of the bee body - the wings!

READY! Place your bees on top of muffins!