Disastrous Baking - Marbled Muffin

I bought a new muffin cookbook over the weekend called the "Muffin Bible". Monetarily, I paid a small sum for it. Realistically, I wasted over an hour and a half making 2 different recipes from the book. The results, HORRIFIC. Mind the pictures too, I was too pissed mad to even bother trying to make the muffins look nice.

Here's my attempt with the Marbled Muffin.
The batter had to be divided into 3 different sets;

1) the original batter, 2) batter with red food coloring & 3) batter with cocoa powder.

Batter no.1

Batter no.2. Ok, i admit going a little over board with the red.

Batter no.3

By the time i took a look at all the 3 batters, I was seriously starting to get skeptical about the damn muffin. There wasn't sufficient batter and all their textures were weird.

Only 1 or 2 turned out looking pretty with the marble effect. I left too much red in the rest.

The others looking like my mum's "fatt gou" for prayers. Sigh.

Final outcome.

Looks ok just cause of the colors but it tasted so bad. I baked them for a good 20-25 mins but they came out sticky. I really doubt that it was cause they weren't fully cooked through as the texture was as if the muffin had been steamed rather than baked. Just like the chinese "fatt gou". Never have I baked and have something turn out like this. Stressful & disappointing.

Conclusion, I'm binning all the muffins along with that damn book.