Inside Out Carrot Cake Muffins

You might want to sit down for this one...because you are about to be blown away. Think about delicious moist carrot cake topped with gooey wonderful cream cheese frosting. Now take that lovely slice of cake and invert it! Turn it's world upside down, by putting the cake on the outside and the frosting on the inside! I know crazy huh?! It sounds awesome, but does it taste good? Yes. Yes it does. There are some recipes that I have really high hopes for and end up falling a little short. This was not one of those recipes. It ended up being far better then I imagined, and trust me, I imagined it being really good.

Holli has been craving carrot cake for what seems like weeks now. We decided we would try something that she pinned on pinterest a long time ago. So while she was out garage saleing Saturday morning, I decided I would whip a batch of these bad boys up before she got home. This recipe is a definite keeper! The website I got the recipe from, King Arthur Flour, has a really nice step by step recipe with pictures. We also saw an inside out pumpkin recipe on the same website. You better believe we will be making those next!

Inside Out Carrot Cake Muffins
Source

Ingredients
Filling

one 8-ounce package cream cheese or Neufchâtel cheese

1/4 cup granulated sugar

a few drops of Fiori di Sicilia flavor, optional but very tasty

Muffins

2 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

¼ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup grated carrots, lightly packed; about 2 medium-large carrot

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a standard 12-well muffin pan. Or line the pan with paper muffin cups, and grease the cups.

2) To make the filling: Place the cream cheese in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat on low power for 40 seconds. Stir in the sugar and flavor. 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, and oil.

5) Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

6) Fold in the grated carrots, stirring to combine.

7) Drop about 2 tablespoons of the batter (a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here) into each muffin cup, spreading it to cover the bottom.

8) Dollop on a heaping tablespoon of filling; a level tablespoon 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, and 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.