Baking a cake can be a tremendously rewarding experience. Creating a delicious desert gives you a special sense of accomplishment, and you’ll also bask in the glow of compliments friends and family are sure to offer. But before you start taking victory laps, you’ll need to make sure that you select the proper baking pan for a given recipe. Remember the general rule that a “pan” refers to a metal receptacle and a “dish” is typically made of glass.

It’s also crucial that your baking pan is the right size for the recipe. Otherwise you might end up with an overflowing desert. If your dish is too small to accommodate a recipe, don’t despair. You can pare down the ingredients and the cooking time, ending up with fewer servings but just as fulfilling of an experience. Some recipes will call for greasing your pan, but this might not be necessary if you have cast iron baking pans.

Here is a delicious recipe for excellent banana nut muffins-enjoy:

~2 eggs
~2 ripe bananas (mashed)
~1 cup of buttermilk
~1 stick of butter (softened)
~2 cups of flour
~½ cup of chopped pecans
~1 cup of granulated sugar
~1 teaspoon of vanilla
~1 teaspoon of salt
~1 teaspoon of baking powder
~½ teaspoon of baking soda

Preheat the oven to 400 F and prepare one of your cast iron muffin pans.

Beat together butter and sugar, then add eggs and beat thoroughly, then beat in bananas until the mixture is smooth.

Mix together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and then stir the flour mixture and buttermilk into the egg mixture.

Stir in the chopped pecans and vanilla.

Spoon batter into the muffin pan, filling each tin about 2/3 full.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

1 cup canned or fresh pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup canola or veg oil
2 Teaspoons ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour OR unbleached white flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon each: baking soda, cinnamon, salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup chopped pecans or walnut – optional
3 teaspoons raw sugar - optional

Heat oven 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Blend Pumpkin, Water, Oil, Flax Seeds and Vanilla until well blended. Set aside.

Mix together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg; in a large bowl, add pumpkin mixture stir until well blended (add a little water if mixture seems too dry). Fold in Chocolate Chips and Nuts , if you are using them.

Spoon into cast iron muffin pans and top with raw sugar if using it.
Bake approx 30 min
Yield: 12 muffins