Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Muffins

It's Teacher Appreciation week & today is Teacher Appreciation Day. My son has a great teacher & I've been throwing ideas around in my head for a week-long thank you celebration. Day 1: flowers & a handmade card (see picture below. The "card" is a pair of paper ice skates with yarn laces, all laced up. G's teacher is also a figure skater & skate teacher. The card says, "I APPRECI-SKATE you! Love, Gabriel").

I mean seriously, it's so easy to personalize a thank you, ignore that pinterest stuff! Do something FOR the teacher. I don't know about you but I had some great teachers myself. You know who they were... the ones who didn't count down the days till summer & who took a real interest in YOU. Yes, YOU. Well, I want to say a big thank you to all of them. They helped me so much.

I found out through G's teacher's sister that Ms. F loves carrot cake... I decided Day 2 would be cream cheese carrot cake muffins for the teacher & for the classroom aides. And these came out soooo yummy!!! You'll have to stay-tuned for Days 3 through 5 ;)

Love,
Lishie
Gabriel's mommy

Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Muffins

slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour

Filling one 8oz package cream cheese 1/4 c granulated sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla Muffins 2 1/4 c, a-p flour 1/2 c granulated sugar ¼ c light brown sugar, firmly packed 1 1/2 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp baking soda 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 3/4 tsp ground ginger 3/4 tsp salt 2 large eggs 3/4 c water 1/3 c vegetable oil 1 c grated carrots, lightly packed; about 2 medium-large carrots 1) Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a standard 12-well muffin pan. Or line the pan with paper muffin cups, & grease the cups. 2) To make the filling: Place the cream cheese in a microwave-safe bowl, & heat on low power for 40 seconds. Stir in the sugar & vanilla. Set aside. 3) To make the muffin batter: In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. 4) In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, water, & oil. 5) Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. 6) Fold in the grated carrots, stirring to combine. 7) Drop about 2 TBsp of the batter (a TBSp cookie scoop works well here) into each muffin cup, spreading it to cover the bottom. 8) Dollop on a heaping TBSp of filling; a level TBSp cookie scoop works well here. 9) Cover with enough batter to fill the muffin cups quite full. The batter will come to within about 1/4" to 3/8" of the top of each muffin cup. But don't try to use all the batter; unless you have particularly deep cups, you'll have abut 1/3 cup batter left over. Bake it in a separate custard cup, if desired. 10) Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted into the cake part of one (not into the cream cheese filling) comes out clean, about 20 minutes. The tops of the muffins will feel firm to the touch. 11) Remove the muffins from the oven, & as soon as you're able to handle them, transfer them to a rack. If you serve the muffins warm, the filling will be molten. If you wait for them to cool, it'll firm up. Yield: 12 filled muffins

carrots in a row

ooey-gooey goodness

"I APPRECI-SKATE you! Love, Gabriel"