Why oh why oh why did I not bother to go to the airing cupboard to grab a clean tea towel?  Why did I attempt to use flipping great thick oven gloves to try to get the muffins out of the oven and then give up and try getting the tray out by pulling out the whole shelf?

Probably because I thought it would be fun to have the muffin tin fall off the back of the shelf onto the shelf below so that the muffins ended up splodged on top of each other and had to be rescued with a teaspoon to even them out again.

They aren’t photogenic.  They look a mess.  But they taste good.  In fact there were only 2 left to photograph by time I decided it had to be done – warts and all!

I will try again and photograph next time I have some bananas going black in the fruit bowl.

Ingredients

100g pitted dates

100g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

100g soft light brown sugar

100g butter

2 good sized ripe bananas

2 eggs

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1.  Chop the dates and then soften in just enough water to cover them over a low heat until they have absorbed all the water and then set aside to cool.

2.  Melt the butter and allow to cool.

3.  Put all the ingredients in a food processor and whiz until creamy.

4.  With an ice-cream scoop, divide the mixture into 12 muffin cases in a muffin tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for 25 minutes.