Banana & Chocolate Caramel Surprise Muffins {Guest Post: Bits of Sunshine}

Thanks for stopping by again guys! I promise, I will be back soon! Thanks for bearing with me, and most importantly, thank you Heidi for keeping me sane, and guest posting for me! And thanks for sharing these delicious treats! I wish you could come cook for me too! You are the best!!!

Hi everyone! Its me again, Heidi from Bits of Sunshine, if you saw the post earlier in the week on the caramel treat/Dulce De Leche - and now (as promised) I am going to be sharing banana and chocolate caramel surprise muffins..

I love to make these because anything called a muffin with a fruit in it would lead one to believe that these hold some form of nutritional value. BA HA HA HA! But you can always try and fool yourself - I mean anything that starts off like this:

 ...has to be somewhat healthy hey?!!? But then you add this:

..aaannnd the general healthiness seems to lower! :) I used dark chocolate, which apparently is a tad bit better for you.

Oh well! Now the muffin bit starts. The list of ingredients is pretty standard:
cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla flavour. Like a typical mixture you mix em up well.

 and then add the fruit and veggies (yes its true, I totally forgot earlier - but cocoa is a bean)

At this point, just stir them through the mixture - don't beat it, too much beating results in a denser, tougher end product!

Now for the surprise part... When filling the cupcake holders, fill each holder about 1/3 way full, then place a spoonful of caramel treat               on top of the mixture.

 Then fill them to about 2/3 way full - but make sure the caramel is totally covered.

Then pop them into a preheated oven and bake them. I usually use the baking time to clean up all the dishes!

Once they are baked, let them cool a couple of seconds before removing them from the muffin tray (if you have used one) Leaving them to cool in the muffin trays makes them sweat and get a little soggy - not cool!

So there you have it! Enjoy! Just kidding - here is what they look like inside - with their soft, gooey caramel centre...

YUM! I couldn't just leave mine there - the tops looked a little naked to me, so a covered them in lashings of extra caramel and Nutella.

AND these particular little baking cups I had bought came with their own little lids - how cute!

They look like little space ships! If that were the case I would say to them "take me to your leader" - that could end well!


Ok - so there you have it - yummy and easy! Here is one last shot at the muffin...

Hope you enjoyed these last posts! Thanks so much for stopping by! Thanks so much Carla for letting post here! I hope your move is all going well and that your next post will be using the world wide web from your home in the USA!

Banana & Chocolate Caramel Surprise Muffins | Printable Recipe


ingredients:

• 500ml cake flour
• 10ml baking powder
• 1ml baking soda
• 2ml salt
• 5ml ground cinnamon
• 125g butter
• 250ml white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 large ripe bananas - mashed
• 100g chocolate chips
• 5ml vanilla flavouring
• caramel treat
  

directions:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside
   
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Alternating,  add the eggs one at a time, and the flour mixture to the butter and sugar
4. Add the banana and chocolate chips and stir well
5. Fill prepared cupcake holders 1/3 fill
6. Add a teaspoon of caramel on top of the mixture
7. Full 3/4 full with the remaining mixture - be sure to cover the caramel
8. Bake at 180 C for about 20-25 min or until golden brown
9. Enjoy!

Thanks so much Heidi! You have really helped me out this week. I hope you all enjoyed her posts, and see you back next week for my recap on Sydney, and for Fresh Friday next week :)