I'M BACK! And I brought muffins...

...Cake Donut Muffins, to be exact...


::shakes off dust::

Well, hello blog! Long time, no see, right? Did you miss me? I'm sure I lost a few loyal followers during my absence, and I'm truly sorry for that. I'm back, though, and here to stay. Let's just pretend like this didn't happen, mmkay?

This weekend Alex was out of town, so it was just me and the newest addition to Brina's Kitchen:

This is Tizona, or Tizzie for short, and she came to live with us about 4 weeks ago. She's a rescue from South Carolina, but much to my dismay, she doesn't bark with a Southern accent. We're not 100% sure what her doggie lineage is, but we think it's part Beagle (based on her howl-bark) and part Rat Terrier (based on her coloring and shape). She's a brat at times, but we're totally smitten. She loves Alex and has no shame in rolling over so you can rub her belly.

So Tizzie and I kept each other company all weekend, and she hung out under my feet while I puttered around the kitchen. I was seriously craving something sweet and I wanted to use my King Arthur Flour cinnamon chips again, so I looked around for possible recipes. I hit upon this Cinnamon Sugar Muffin recipe on Epicurious and tweaked it a little bit. The resulting muffins are moist, light, flavorful and just sweet enough. A little like cake donuts, so I changed the name!

Cake Donut Muffins
adapted from Epicurious
Makes 6 muffins, easily doubled. No need to double topping!

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup milk
My additions:
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cinnamon chips

for topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:
In a small bowl stir together sugar and cinnamon. Preheat oven to 375°F. and butter six 1/3-cup muffin cups.

Into a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. In a bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until combined well. Beat in flour mixture and add milk, beating until mixture is just combined. Divide batter evenly among cups and sprinkle with topping. Bake muffins in middle of oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Remove muffins from cups and cool on a rack. Muffins keep in an airtight container 2 days.