Carrot cake muffins with orange-cream cheese filling

  Sometimes the last thing you want to do on a lazy Sunday morning is fiddle around with icing tips, offset spatulas and pastry bags.  These carrot muffins are great because you get the deliciousness of cream cheese icing baked right into the muffin.  I've used raisins soaked in rum but you can skip that step if you want.  This recipe will make one dozen standard size muffins or one 8 inch cake.

Carrot cake muffins with orange-cream cheese filling

Carrot cake

½ cup butter, softened 

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ cups carrots, grated

½ tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

¾ tsp baking soda

1 ¼ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup pecans, roughly chopped

2 tbsp rum

Cream cheese filling

6 oz cream cheese

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp orange zest

Directions

Soak the raisins in the rum for at least half an hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease and line a standard muffin tin (or grease and flour an 8 inch cake pan, if using).

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon.  Set aside.

Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars.  Add the eggs one at a time.  Add the vanilla and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the carrots and mix.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the bowl in three separate additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl each time.  Drain the raisins from the rum, and fold them into the mixture along with the pecans.  Set aside while you make the cream cheese filling.

Using a hand or stand mixer combine the cream cheese, orange zest and sugar.  Beat for two minutes on medium high. 

Drop a large tablespoon of the carrot cake into a muffin cup.  Place a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture on top and top that with another heaping tablespoon of carrot cake.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Cool the muffins on a wire rack.

 

Comments

[Kristen]

Absolutely wonderful! I just pulled them out of the oven, and they are phenomenal!

[Aggie]

I had a surprising amount of company and made these muffins. They went down very well. Thank you heaps for sharing!

[Hypnotherapy London]

This looks great!!!!

[Lynne]

Hi, I made these muffins twice in the last week. Delicious! The first time I chopped some candied ginger and added it to the mix in the end when adding the pecans.

The second time I had some shredded sweet potato on hand and used that instead of carrot. On this batch for the cream cheese filling I used brown sugar instead of white and added two tablespoons of butter. Thanks for the recipe, I've never made muffins before and they turned out great. I love your blog!

[Julia]

delicious! Love the filling inside instead of adding frosting, YUM!

[Louise]

Your muffin photos are stunning!

[Melissa]

Catherine:
I don't use light cream cheese so I'm not sure if that is what caused the problem. Perhaps try to add a bit more carrot batter to the bottom before adding the cream cheese filling. Hope this works out and if anyone knows if this could be related to using light cream cheese please let us know!

[Catherine]

hello, i tried these at the weekend and they were delicious but the cream cheese filling ended up on the bottom of the muffin, any idea why this might have happened, i did use light cream cheese

[rita]

lovely and delicious looking

[Term papers]

It’s quite appreciable that such information is being shared through a huge network. Keep it up.

[Melissa]

my bad, yeah it's teaspoons. I add the carrots to the wet ingredients.

[holly]

also- is it better to add the carrots into the wet ingredients or add them with the dry?

[holly]

1 1/4 CUPS of cinnamon? could this actually be true? I am in the middle of making them and I think I will substitute with teaspoons....if you made it with 1 1/4 cups than you are a stronger woman than I

[krista]

oh my these look good!!! i'm gonna have to make these!

[grace]

well, this saves me from the inevitable frosting mess on my face since i tend to shove whole cupcakes into my mouth at once... :)

[Lucy]

I love your way of baking the filling right in - simpler yet so delicious! These look irresistible.

[Jennifer]

These look and sound SO good! Im loving the orange cream cheese filling!