When I was a kid I loved baking I loved making cakes and biscuits and a mess in the kitchen in general, I thought I was the bomb.

No icing bag? Who needs one? I’ll just Cellotape this one lonely nozzle I found lurking in the back of the cutlery drawer to this plastic bag with the tip cut off  job done.

My cookery bible was The American Womans Cookery Book, Printed in 1950 with the most amazing recipes inside, and jazzy technicolor photos.

I loved the all the names which I guess are pretty standard now, Red Velvet Cake, Angel Cake, Devils Food Cake, but back then they were so new and exciting to me and what about New England Pandowdy and Lady Baltimore Cake? Never heard of them before. And using cups to measure! Imagine! Icing wasn’t icing it was frosting biscuits were cookies I was hooked.

Every Sunday without fail I would be down in that kitchen mixing up recipes and experimenting with anything I could find that was even vaguely cake or biscuit related related.

In retrospect maybe it was just my way of escaping Sunday nights and having to watch The Antiques Road Show and Last Of The Summer Wine, but in time I got bored with messing about with flour and sugar and suchlike, got bored of cooking in general. Left home, went to University blah blah blah…

Fast forward to now, I had got myself into the mindset that puddings weren’t really proper cooking? But how wrong I was…such inspiration everywhere and do you know what?

Becky got her groove back and it turns out I can make a pretty good cake and biscuit if I say so myself. ( I do, I just did)

So here for you, my super easy peasy lemon squeezy  recipe for Rocky Muffins. Which essentially are a combination of you guessed it; a rock cake and a muffin.

(Sorry no actual Lemons involved)

8 oz Self Raising or Spelt flour if you wish (gives a deeper flavour no gluten etc)
3 Tbsp fruit syrup

4 Oz chopped Glace Cherries

A hearty slug of Vanilla Extract

3 Oz Almond Milk

3 tsp baking Powder

1 Mashed ripe Banana

preheat the oven to around 180 C and grease a muffin tray

Into a large mixing bowl sift the flour and baking powder, squoosh in the banana, cherries and  milk, add the fruit sugar and the vanilla and mix well adding enough milk to make a nice gloopy thick mixture.

And it’s that simple!

Dollop it into the muffin tins about three quarters full and bake for about 20-25 minutes, check they are done by inserting a sharp knife into the centre of a muffin which should come out clean.

Delicious at breakfast with Alpro Coconut Yoghurt jam or just as they are!

If any of you are interested in hunting down the cookery book it was published by The Culinary Arts Institute Chicago and edited by Ruth Berolzheimer

It’s over 598 pages long by the way, but such an insight into to “vintage recipes” if that’s  a thing?

It is ! I just said it!