Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Well, as you can see, there is a Pumpkin Festival going on in my house. It seems like everything I want to make has pumpkin in it. It won't last forever, I promise, but I sure am enjoying this!

I found this recipe in Kraft Food and Family Magazine (Holiday 2009) and they're pictured with a cup of coffee and called Pumpkin Cream Cupcakes. I can't feel good about calling anything I eat for a breakfast a cupcake, so I changed the name to suit my needs! :-) In my world a cupcake should have gobs of buttercream icing on top anyway...

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

1 pkg spice cake mix
1 pkg vanilla instant pudding
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare cake batter as directed on package. Add dry pudding mix and pumpkin; mix well. Spoon into 24 paper-lined muffin cups.

Beat cream cheese with mixer until creamy. Blend in sugar and egg; spoon over batter. Swirl gently with small spoon.

Bake 18-21 minutes (longer for me) or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes and cool completely.

Special extra: Stir 1/4 ground nutmeg into 1 1/2 cups thawed Cool Whip and spread over cooled cupcakes. Keep refrigerated.

I actually froze these and Riley and I ate them in the mornings on our way to school and work. When there were only 3 left, he said, "Okay Mommy, you can have one and I can have two, right?" He loved these, told me I needed to make some more because they were "the best", and they froze well. I just zapped them for 30-45 seconds in the morning right before we walked out the door.