Cream Cheese Filled Carrot Muffins

When I finished my months of paper-hell I spent the morning watching 4 hours of Tabatha's Salon Takeover while my roommates continued to suffer exam misery. So I decided to bake them a treat and felt like making muffins. These muffins were especially awesome because of the gooey cream cheese filling.

Ingredients
Filling
1 8oz. pkg. light cream cheese
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Muffins
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 tsp. salt
2  eggs
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup grated carrots, (about 2 medium-large carrots)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a muffin pan with paper muffin cups, and grease the cups (strange I know but it actually makes it much easier to eat the muffins).

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 set aside. 

3. To make the muffin batter, in a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Fold in the grated carrots, stirring to combine. 

4. Drop about 2 tablespoons of the batter into each muffin cup, spreading it to cover the bottom. Dollop on a heaping tablespoon of filling and cover with enough batter to hide the filling. The muffins cups will be quite full. 

5. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove the muffins from the oven, and 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 (so I advise microwaving them before eating (about 20 seconds will do)!

Surprise muffins!