BANANA MUFFINS WITH HONEY BUTTERCREAM

There are so many places to get a great cupcake these days, but who can pass up a handful of homemade, cakey, buttercream-iced goodness? Ha, not me! I must admit that, sometimes, I'm not disappointed to discover that the last few bananas have seen their best days, because it means that we get to make banana bread. It's a family favourite, so for a recent get-together, I decided to switch things up and make these little cakes. Honey and bananas are the best of friends, and you can't go wrong with this silky buttercream icing. It's like a banana milkshake in your hand!

PIKELETS WITH MAPLE-WALNUT BUTTER AND BANANAS

I feel like pikelets are one of those dishes you are supposed to grow out of as you progress on to pancakes. I remember cooking them for lunch with my parents when I was young, we'd slather them in the most delicious strawberry jam that had been made by either myself, my Mum or my Nan. There are so many jars in the cupboard that the hand-written label is the only feature which allows us to distinguish between makers. Jam aside, pikelets are such a nostalgic eat, but I thought I'd put a (kind of) grown up spin on them. Maple-walnut butter is just as good as it sounds, and even better with fresh slices of banana.

FINGER LICKIN' FRIDAY

Banana Pancakes with Blueberry Jam

MOST mornings I wake up feeling like "a really big, yummy breakfast" but I just never get around to making anything. Well, this morning I defeated the cold and got up early to make Josh and I a delicious pancake stack.

The price of bananas has finally overcome the devastation of Queensland's floods and cyclones so I decided to grab a couple to have a freshly boiled blueberry jam. Unfortunately, fresh blueberries (actually, all berries) are unreasonably expensive in supermarkets at the moment but I figured I was only making jam so frozen ones will do just fine.

As Josh and I shared our pancake stack outside on a wonderfully cloudless winter day, I realised that we definitely do not eat banana pancakes enough! They are sponge-like and flavoursome and when paired with that sweet, aromatic blueberry jam, breakfast doesn't get much better!

What you'll need:
Pancakes:
2 bananas
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup plain flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
Butter

Blueberry jam:
250g frozen blueberries
200g caster sugar
70ml water
10g jam setta (available in the baking aisle of the supermarket)

What to do:
Place the blueberries, sugar and water in a small saucepan and stir consistently until it comes to the boil. Reduce heat and let it simmer away until reduced by at least one third. Increase the heat and bring the syrup to the boil, add the jam setta and stir well for 3-5 minutes.

Peel the bananas and place in a small bowl. Use a fork to mash them up really well. In another bowl, combine the flour and sugar. Make a well in the middle and add the lemon juice, eggs and milk. Whisk together until smooth. Stir in the bananas.

Heat a tab of butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. When it sizzles, add a ladle full of batter to the pan and swirl the pan to make a nice pancake. Let it cook until the bubbles start bursting and then flip. Cook until golden. This batter will make about 6 pancakes so you may like to heat the oven to 100C so you can keep the cooked pancakes warm. Once all the pancakes have cooked, serve them with blueberry syrup and a scoop (or two) of vanilla ice-cream for some extra indulgence.