Carrot Date and Almond Muffins with Bananas Inside and Sunflower Seeds on Top!

This has been my first full week away from blogging since I started a couple of months ago and it was agonizing! I had a lovely week though with my Mother around. And then, she left yesterday. I got so used to her being around, and even though we got on each others nerves every now and then, I miss her a lot!

After I made the carrot cake when Mother was here, I had mentioned to her that I wanted to try making it substituting bananas for some of the sugar. I also wanted to use sunflower seeds in it somehow. I thought these muffins would be a nice welcome home present for my Mother when she got onto the Internet after a long flight and some rest back in India.

I used pretty much the same recipe as my Aunty Freda's carrot cake recipe. The only things I changed were:

1. Substituted 1 cup of mashed bananas for 1 cup of sugar

2. Used chopped almonds instead of the pecans

3. Sprinkled sunflower seeds on the top and used a spoon to press them in a bit

4. Pre heated oven to 400 degrees and baked at 400 degrees for 10 minutes and then lowered to 350 and baked for another 15 to 20 minutes (25 to 30 minutes in total). Apparently the high temperature makes the muffins puff up.

5. My batter filled a 12 muffin tray (I used paper liners), and I had extra batter which I baked in a square tin.

I tasted one right out of the oven, barely giving it a chance to cool. I cut it in half and it was steaming! It was soooo good, I think the bananas and sunflower seeds give it a couple of extra layers of taste. These are going to become a staple I can tell!