Versatile Muffin/Cake Recipe

I always make muffins at Hallowe'en for either (sometimes both) my daughter's class or troop at Girl Guides. I know I have posted this recipe before, but I don't think I ever mentioned that it is the same versatile recipe that I have used for other occasions, just changing the ingredients slightly. So here I am stating the other possible ingredients!

3 cups flour [I usually do approx 2 cups white & 1 cup coarse ground]
2 tsp baking soda [same as bread soda]
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground clove
4 eggs
2 cups sugar [I usually mix brown & white]
1 ½ cups sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla
**2 cups {approx} grated carrot OR crushed pineapple OR smushed banana OR apple sauce OR pumpkin mush [OR combination, for instance when making “Hawaiian” I whiz up 1 can of pineapple with 2 mushed bananas and infuse the cake with some rum before frosting!]

OPTIONAL:  walnuts, pecans, raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C
2. In a large bowl mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, & spices
3. In another large bowl beat together eggs & sugar; then beat in oil & vanilla.  Slowly stir in dry ingredients, then fold in fruit or veg mush.  Add nuts or raisins last, if using.
4. Grease & flour bundt cake tin, or other large tin IF making a cake.  If making muffins, put muffin cases in deep muffin tin.  For cake bake approx 1 hr 10 mins or until tester comes out dry; for muffins the time is between 15 –  20 mins depending on the size of the muffin tin.

NB this is a large recipe, for 1 large cake (like a bundt), a sandwich cake or about 5 dozen standard size muffins (less if making large muffins, more if making small muffins!).

For cakes I tend to make a butter frosting (butter, icing sugar, small amount boiled water, vanilla, food coluring) but for muffins it is simple enough to frost with a glace frosting (small amount of boiled water, icing sugar, vanilla, food colouring). I don't have a cake decorating kit, but a zip-lock bag with a cut corner serves as a squeezy sack for coloured frosting to decorate (the smaller the cut corner, the finer the decorative line).