No sugar banana muffins for Jay Bird's birthday

It was my dear friend Jay Bird's birthday today. We visited her with these muffins. She's diabetic so I didn't put any sugar in them but they were nicely sweet anyway because of the banana and raisins in them. The hardest part was trying to make them look a bit decorated without using icing. I glazed them with a little fruit spread and sprinkled with poppy seeds. Without icing, I think they fell short of being like birthday cakes but were a perfect accompaniment to our mid-morning birthday tea and chatter.

There must be something pretty and non-sugary that could serve as icing without using sugar. I'm thinking maybe something with creamed coconut in it like the filling for these biscuits I made a while back. In that case I would have to leave out the raisins and cinnamon from the cakes though, or there would be too much going on!


Banana and raisin muffins

1 cup soya milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
2 bananas
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 175c.

Mix the vinegar into the soya milk and set aside while you mash the bananas. Add the milk mixture to the bananas along with the oil, sugar and vanilla.

In a separate bowl mix all the other ingredients except raisins. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and combine well. Add the raisins and stir.

Spoon into 10 muffin cases (I made 12 from this mixture but they looked a bit small in their muffin cases) and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

This is not Jay Bird. This is just a bird I made for Jay Bird's birthday. Isn't she pretty? Of course, Jay Bird herself is much prettier.

Tropical stars

I made these for a friend's hen day. She's diabetic so I anted to make something sweet but fairly low in sugar and I didn't want to use artificial sweeteners because I don't like the taste. They came out pretty well. The best bit was the filling which had the texture of custard creams once it had set. Yum.

Tropical stars
1/3 cup canola/vegetable oil
1/3 cup sugar/1/3 cup dessicated coconut
1/4 cup soya milk
1/4 tsp almond essence
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

For the filling (don't make this until the biscuits are cool because it sets quite quickly):
1" x 2" block of creaamed coconut (heat in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted)
1 heaped tbs jam (I used no added sugar pineapple and mango)

Preheat oven to 177c or 350F. Mix up all the wet things and then add in the dry stuff and mix it up. Roll out the dough to 3 or 4mm thick between two sheets of cling film. Cut out star shapes and bake on grease proof paper for about 7 minutes or until golden brown.

Once the biscuits are cool, melt the coconut and mix up the filling then sandwich up your biscuits. Give them an hour or so in the fridge to set them properly but once they're done you can keep them in your biscuit tin at room temperature.

The hen day was lovely. The biscuits, along with a magnificent array of cupcakes and canapes provided by the other ladies, were enjoyed with sparkling wine whilst we all painted crockery and gossipped - so much nicer than trawling round nighclubs wearing willy hats and L plates! Oh, and in lieu of willy hats and L plates, we needed something to make us look festive so I knitted us each a flower to wear in our hair or as a brooch. Check them out!

Also I made a garter for the hen (thought she might like it has her 'something blue'). We used it as the gift in the middle of a pass the parcel game which was a good laugh. Every time one of us unwrapped a layer, we had to tell the group our celebrity crush. High/low point of the game was Marzia's appalling and shocking answer - Pierce Morgan - which had us all in fits. You think you know someone and then they come out with something like that ...