Honey granola muffins

Honey granola cupcakes (Primrose)

Cuspcake rating: 4

Funny how something can be so different served warm and not! These cupcakes – really, I think they're better called muffins, ingredients like granola aren't expected in cupcakes, plus when you call it a muffin, the cakelike, light and crumby texture is a bit of a surprise and all the more enjoyable.

I love granola, especially on frozen yoghurt (the only topping I'm in the habit of paying for!), but somehow never buy it to eat as a cereal – cereal-and-milk, while one of my favourite foods in the world, somehow isn't a habit of mine, strange, I know. And granola is expensive for a boxed cereal, so I've never bought it I think, and instead nurse a perpetual granola craving.

These are hearty, tasty, and really yummy warm, especially split open and slathered with salted butter and/or cream cheese. Cold (by which I mean room temp) however, they are too sweet, dense, and the honey is sharp and pungent.

All in all, I'd make these with less honey next time, but will have to research a replacement first. Or perhaps with a lighter honey (can't remember what I used this time, though). And I think I'd toast the granola first, so perhaps it'd be crunchy – that'd be perfect, because they were mainly chewy bits of oats this time now.

Not a child-pleaser though, I suppose the lack of frosting doesn't help. But something I'd be pleased to have for a decadent breakfast every so often.

In search of frostings that are good to eat

Roasted banana cupcakes with honey (Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)

Cuspcake rating: 2

Very spur of the moment attempt – returned home after work to discover bananas on the verge of overripeness, so decided to look up a banana cupcake and settled on my first-ever Martha recipe.

It's likely that I baked the cupcakes too long – I used my new smaller cups for the first time and tried to adjust the time accordingly, but think I got it wrong. Also forgot the vanilla essence in the cakes, so added it to the icing instead. So much for successful after-work baking! Think in future I'll leave it to weekends when I'm concentrating a little more.

The cakes were a tiny bit too dry, and since I left out the essence, tasted a little salty. The frosting on the other hand, while it does smell and taste quite satisfying of honey (I'd thought the icing sugar would have covered the little bit of honey), is way too sweet for my taste.

Which leads me to my main thought today. Are there no frostings that are good to eat? So far, I've not met a cupcake frosting which wasn't too oily, too sweet, too rich or too heavy, either of my own making or not. I wonder about the limitations, because icing has to hold its shape at room temperature etc. I'm sure there must be a way to create icings I'd actually want to lick off my fingers (or the bowl), and am bent on finding it. Guess some experimenting is on the cards!

Have also wondered if perhaps my standards are too high. Will any cupcake ever attain the elusive 5 cuspcakes rating? The closest so far, the lemon curd-filled cupcakes with cream cheese frosting seemed to have been a 5 in everyone else's books. But I just can't bring myself to give them a 5 till the cakes are corrected...

Well, if nothing else, I should have a repertoire of pretty great cupcake recipes when this is over.