Off to the Scrap Shop today!

My neighbour, Lorianne, and I are off on the ladies bus to Khobar today to visit Zamil's the scrap shop!! Wooo hooo! It isn't really a scrap shop, more a craft shop but it does have some scrap stuff in it. I'm going to be investigating the ribbons and beads and bits and pieces and see what falls into my basket!!

I've been baking, these are bran muffins made from.... All Bran!! LOL I couldn't find bran flour in the supermarket so bought a packet of All Bran cereal and used that instead... they turned out really nice, added some raisins and brown sugar and they are pretty good!

Another banana loaf - I think Chris is deliberately leaving the bananas to go brown so that I have to bake this to stop them going to waste... and I jazzed this version up by making a streudal type topping on it which is delicious!

Recipe for those that want to try it...

115g margarine, softened

200 g sugar (I did half brown half white)

2 eggs

340 g mashed banana

250 g self raising flour

Preheat oven to 175C

Grease and flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan

Cream marg and sugar until smooth, beat in the eggs, then add the mashed bananas. Add the flour and stir till its all combined.

Pour into your prepared pan and bake at 175C for about an hour (test with toothpick).

Remove from pan and let it cool, can be stored in fridge or freezer.

Nb. The riper the bananas the better and I add some cinnamona nd ground nutmeg and a dash of vanilla essence to the mix which gives it a wonderful flavour.

If you want to do the topping you need to mix 15grams of butter, 75 grams of brown sugar, 15 grams of all purpose flour and half a teaspoon of cinnamon in a bowl... you need to rub between your fingers till its a crumbly consistency and then spoon it over the top of the banana bread mix before baking it... it gives a lovely crunchy sweet topping!!