Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins!

Okay, okay - I know it's not fall yet (far from it!), but since I recently started a new job (yay!), I decided to bake one of my favorite muffins to bring into my new office. As always, I like to celebrate any occasion with baked goods, so why should this be any different? :)

These are just heavenly - delicious, lightly spiced pumpkin muffin with a creamy center of cream cheese filling. The combination makes for such a moist, flavorful muffin that goes so well with a glass of cold milk.

Recipe link here!

Fall Baking!

Fall is my favorite season. Though we miss out on beautiful leaves changing color, it finally does cool down here in South Florida and there are a handful of days where we can legitimately wear scarves (closer to December/January).

My birthday, my husband's birthday, our dating anniversary, and our wedding anniversary are all within the next three months (not to mention Thanksgiving and Christmas!) so this is a special time for us and our family.

What better way to celebrate so much love, than with baking? And holiday flavors no less! I love breaking out that pumpkin!

Pumpkin Ale Cupcakes With Baileys Cream Cheese Frosting - Recipe here!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins -Recipe here!

Cream Cheese Swirled Pumpkin Muffins - Recipe here!

White Chocolate Macademia Nut Muffins With White Chocolate Glaze - Recipe here!

Halloween Cupcakes!

Vanilla bean pumpkin cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting!

Pumpkin Ale Cupcakes! 2

Pumpkin ale cupcakes are a dream. A beer-enriched chocolatey batter and a pumpkin spice-flavored heady buttercream to tie all the flavors together.

Recipe courtesy of My Baking Addiction.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins!

Hearty and healthy pumpkin chocolate chip muffins! Recipe courtesy of Joy of Baking.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcakes!

Happy October! It is most definitely the season of pumpkin. To kick off the pumpkin baking, I started with basic pumpkin spiced cupcakes and cream cheese frosting - a classically delicious combination. Recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart.

Pumpkin Ale Cupcakes! 1

In honor of a friend's Halloween party tonight, I baked up some Pumpkin Ale Cupcakes, recipe courtesy of My Baking Addiction! I haven't baked with beer before, and I was very happy with the result! Even though there is an entire bottle of beer (12 oz) in the cupcakes, what you taste is an enhanced, deeper chocolate flavor. The only change I made was to the frosting, instead of using all butter, I added cream cheese and sour cream, along with a bit more of the pumpkin ale, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar. I topped them with little candied pumpkins I picked up at the Fresh Market! I was very pleased with these turned out, as I was naturally wary of using such an odd ingredient in cupcake-making, however they are both tasty and festive!

My love affair with Pumpkin....

As October marches on towards the end of 2012, I find my love affair with pumpkin to be still going strong. Today's baking was no exception! I wanted to make honey pumpkin muffins from Better Bee Honey, however I realized I didn't have any honey on hand! I did however have maple syrup, and after a quick Google search to find out the exact substitution (a little less maple syrup per 1 cup of honey, plus some white sugar), I was raring to go! I paired the pumpkin maple syrup mini muffins with cinnamon mascarpone cream cheese frosting, garnished with a walnut. I love this combination of fall flavors!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins!

As its obvious all over my blog, I am a BIG fan of the lovely blog known as Annie's Eats. Annie has recipes for every genre of food, and seasonal cooking always features heavily. As the year marches towards the end (how on earth is it October already?!), I am getting more and more into the spirit of fall cooking. Fall is my favorite season, and probably the only time during the year that I will lament living in sunny South Florida. Leaves changing! Pumpkin patches! Apple picking! These activities are not a part of my life down here, but a girl can dream.

Let's starting dreaming with the most glorious pumpkin spice muffin recipe EVER. Pumpkin muffins flavored with traditional fall spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves, topped with a crackly cinnamon-sugar topping, and cream cheese-sugar filling inside! Are you drooling yet? I was so intrigued by this recipe - the filling is not piped in at the end, but instead frozen, and then sliced and placed halfway through the batter! This muffin-making was a two-day process. I whipped cream cheese and confectioner's sugar yesterday, and rolled it into a log, wrapping it carefully in plastic wrap and aluminum foil, to hold its shape. Today I made the muffin batter, and filled the bottom of the baking cups with a bit of the batter, then sliced the log into rounds, and placed a round (or ball - it is sticky to work with!), and then filled the cup the rest of the way with batter.

Next step was making the topping. Flour, white sugar, cinnamon, and unsalted butter gets mixed together until crumbly, and sprinkled over the top of the muffins.

I HIGHLY recommend that you put these on your "To-Bake" list! They are perfectly flavored with spices and pumpkin, and the slight crunch of the cinnamon sugar on top, along with the oozy, sweet, creamy center, makes it truly the best muffin. They are a bit more work then your average muffin (more similar to cupcakes with the frosting inside maybe?), but they are so worth it! :) Happy Baking! Here's the recipe link!

What I have made thus far .... Annie's Eats Edition!

Caramelized Sea Scallops!
Made on 01/22/12.

Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes!
Made on 12/10/11.

Rum Cupcakes!
Made on 06/28/11.

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes!
Made on 05/09/11.

And with a twist .... Blueberry swirl cheesecakes!
Made on 09/29/11.

Pumpkin Cupcakes!
Made on 10/30/11.

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes!
Made on 12/31/11.

Thanks to Annie's Eats! :)