Begin by cubing your butter & letting it soften & come to room temperature. Cubing roughly to about 1cm (less than ½ inch) cubes as a smaller surface area will soften faster. (See ingredient photo before recipe). If you forget to take out to soften, here's a hack I reviewed to soften butter in about 10 minutes. Once softened enough (see my video of how to check if it's soft enough), add the butter & your dark brown sugar to a large mixing bowl, and give a little mix with a wooden spoon. And then use a hand/stand mixer to 'cream' the butter and sugar together, for about 1 or 2 minutes. Do this until the mixture is smooth. See Photo 1 below. Next mix in the honey, before breaking in one of the eggs, and mixing with the electric mixer only until the egg is completely mix through. Then repeat for the second egg & add in the vanilla. To make Vanilla, go to my Homemade Vanilla Extract recipe. Heat the oven to 180°c/160°c Fan Oven/350°f/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12-hole cupcake tray with paper muffin liners.
Place to the side & in a separate bowl, measure out the wholemeal/wheat flour over a sieve, & then add the spices - cinnamon, ginger, mixed spice & also the salt and mix till evenly distributed. ( I like to tip the bran in to the mixture too, that's left over when sieving the flour. When I make for my younger son, I sometimes freeze the some of the bran and use for smoothies and protein shakes). See Photo 1 above.
Add these dry ingredients to the mixture already prepared, firstly mixing a little by hand. Then fold in the yoghurt, & mashed banana, before using the mixer to mix through. (See Photo 2 above). You can even do by hand. Mix just until evenly distributed and don't over mix. The mixture will be quite thick.
Grate in the nutmeg now too (if using ground nutmeg, add in with the other spices). You can also fold in chocolate chips now if using. See Photo 3 above.
Divide the batter up into the muffin cases (they will be quite full, at least 80%). Give the tray, a few bangs on the counter/worktop, before popping in the oven to bake. See Photo 4 above.
Cook for 15 - 20 minutes until risen and a deep golden colour. You can add sugar nibs/pearls to the top of the muffins if you like. You can add before placing in the oven, but I find they stay a nice white colour if you add after the half-way mark of baking (try at 11 minutes). See Photo 5 above.
Test the cakes are done by inserting a wooden cocktail stick in the centre most part of the biggest muffin, and it should come out clean of crumbs. See Photo 6 below.
Leave the muffins in the tin and place on top of the cooling rack for about 5 - 10 minutes, before transferring the muffins to the rack only, to cool down completely. See Photo 7 below.
Eat now, or store in an airtight container. I prefer cake tins and they can last at least 3 days. You can also freeze once cooled, by wrapping individually in baking/parchment paper, before adding some cling film/plastic wrap and a food baggie. They can be defrosted at room temperature.