Banana bread cake muffins

When I was young, my dad and I would occasionally share a muffin over the kitchen sink for breakfast. Our favourite part of the muffin is the cap: there's something extra delicious about the slight crunch and the fluffy underside that you just don't get with a muffin base. Often times, the cap would be quickly devoured and then we would grudgingly pick at the base so as not to waste food. We don't really buy muffins anymore, and I've been away at school long enough that I don't get to share breakfasts with him too often, but when I make muffins for myself, I always think of our mutual lack of enthusiasm for the base. Enter, mini cake moulds.

One of my best friends gifted me this mini cake mould this christmas - it's a silicone baking tray that has decorative icing ribbons built into the mould. I've never used silicone bakeware, but I admit that I was 70% hooked after I found out you don't need to grease the pans. I decided to make banana bread this morning since I have a whole bunch of very sad looking bananas in my freezer...

Seriously. How adorable are these???

And this was what the pan looked like after I popped all the cakes out. No scouring required. Definitely 100% impressed. But the most exciting part?? Baking the mould upside down means the base expands and rises like a muffin (= crunchy cap win!!)...

...and the traditional muffin base is made ten times more interesting because it has tiers and decorative ribbons!!

These are dangerously delicious and fun to eat.

I wanted to keep the recipe simple so I could try out the pan, so I took out a lot of the extras from the recipe. Here is the revised:

1 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 mashed bananas
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix dry ingredients together in a big bowl. Mix wet ingredients together in a separate smaller bowl. Add wet to dry along with chocolate chips and mix until just blended. Bake for 22-23 minutes. I checked mine at 20 and they were undercooked and took them out at 25, and they look a little brown at the top tier, so I assume somewhere between there is perfect :) Happy sunday!