Pumpkin Carrot Muffins with Cream Cheese Swirl

To my chagrin, my daughter has taken a liking to the white diet. It consists of pasta, potatoes, chicken, bananas, crackers, and milk. The exception is gummy bears, of course, and sweets. Fortunately, gummy bears come in the form of a vitamin. So, my latest challenge is integrating colored vegetables into her meals. That's where the muffin comes in handy. And, its appeal is most certainly doubled when dubbed a cupcake and presented in a pretty paper liner. Well, who am I kidding? Once you swirl in the sweet cream cheese filling, there's nothing barring it from cupcake status. On the flip side, it's loaded with pumpkin and carrots. I baked a batch of these goodies this morning and little missy gobbled up one, then smiled and squealed, "Mo!" Translation: more.

Pumpkin Carrot Muffins with Cream Cheese Swirl

Muffin Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 grated carrots

Cream Cheese Filling Ingredients
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill two muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.

Prepare the cream cheese filling. In a medium bowl, blend together cream cheese and butter. Add sugar, egg, and flour and blend until smooth. If the mixture has a lumpy texture, the cream cheese is too cold. Cover and set in refrigerator while preparing the muffin batter.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, spice, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together wet ingredients and carrots. Stir in dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.

Fill muffin liners partway, then add a tablespoon of the cream cheese filling. Top with more muffin batter so that the liners are 3/4 full.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
Makes 24 muffins.