Birthday Banana Nana Muffins

We're all having a birthday tea party for Nana Ruth!

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, Grandpa James. He's really old. He was the second Canadian to get off Noah's Ark, you know. I'm five. I go to the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre on Sandwich Street.

 Oh. Wait! Chance lives with us, too. He's a newborn cubby someone left in a basket on our doorstep. He's a wee little thing. I look after Chance, too. He's a handful! Oh. Wait!

Oh! Wait! Frankie lives with us, too. He's four, you know. He goes to the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre, too.

Know what? Today is Nana Ruth's birthday. We're having a birthday tea party. We have herbal tea and pretzels and hummus and Smarties. We're gonna have birthday banana nana muffins. Muffins are like cubcakes. I know what cubcakes are. They are little cakes a cub can eat in one bite! cubcakes have icing and muffins don't. We eat muffins bear naked. That is a pun, you know.

 Look at Chance. He's upside down on the table! He doesn't have very good manners, you know. That's 'cuz he's newborn and doesn't know any better.

Here's how to make Birthday Banana Nana Muffins. It's Uncle Jesse's recipe. We make them on the table and then we put them in the oven.

First you gotta put on the oven to 200C.

Put the dial on 200C and let it get hot. But first, make sure Frankie and Chance aren't hiding in the oven. We don't want half-baked brothers!

We're good helpers. I'm the Minister of Stirring. Chance is so newborn he really isn't much help but he's the Deputy MINI-stir of Stirring. Frankie is a good helper. He's the Minister of Good Taste.

Now we put these things in a big bowl--
500 ml gluten-free flour
15 mls of xanthan gum
30 mls baking powder
30 mls baking soda
a pinch of salt

Then you get a second bowl and put stuff in here--
2 black bananas
125 ml extra virgin olive oil
175 ml maple syrup
175 ml unsweetened almond milk
30 mls pure vanilla extract

Mix up the dates and nuts with--
  15 mls of flour
125 mls pitted and chopped dates
90 to 125 mls walnuts

Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the black bananas and stir them up real good.

Black bananas look like this.

Make sure the walnuts and dates don't land all on the bottom. Then we get to put the little muffin papers in the muffin pan and pour the batter into them. Then we put them in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until they're nice and toasty brown--just like us!

While we wait for the muffins to bake we sing songs with Nana Ruth. She taught us a new song and it goes like this--

Do you know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Do you know the muffin man,
Who lives in Labrador?

Yes, we know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Yes, we know the muffin man,
Who lives in Labrador!

Did you hear the timer ring? The birthday banana nana muffins are done! We can take them out of the oven and eat them when they cool off. They're too hot to eat right now.

We know  a secret. We know who the muffin man is. It's Uncle Jessie. He's the muffin man 'cuz he made the recipe.

We sang the Happy Birthday Song. It goes like this--
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday Dear Nana,
 Happy Birthday to You.

Bonne fête à toi,
Bonne fête à toi!
Bonne fête, chere Nana
Bonne fête à toi!

Then Nana Ruth blows out the candles and makes a wish. Then we give her our presents.

We got Nana Ruth chocolates from Ganong Brothers.

Did you hear that? Grandpa James is hollering, "Where are my handsome bear cubs? Where are my Sons of Windsor? Where are my Princes of Ontario? That's me! Charles! That's Chance! We're handsome bear cubs. We're Sons of Windsor and Princes of Ontario! Grandpa James hollers, "Where's Frankie? Where's no Knight of Knewfoundland and my Lord of Labrador? That's Frankie! We gotta go find  Grandpa James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed.

This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Be kind and thoughtful. Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us! We can play together! Okay! Over and out!"