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As seems to be the trend for the last few months, I’m behind. Apparently I hit one year of blogging last week! Whoops, but yay! It’s been quite an adventure… and I must say I didn’t have a good start. Somehow, I thought that people would somehow find my blog all on their own and I just had to sit back and write posts. Oh how wrong I was, and how much I’ve learned! I’ve met so many amazing bloggers over the last year, and I want to thank all of you for your support and kind words. Before I post a new recipe, I want to do a little recap of some of the top posts over the last year.The most popular post was this awesome Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread with Spiced Glaze, which was derived from the very popular cinnamon sugar pull-apart breads that swept the blogospere.Surprisingly enough, the second most popular post was the very first post I ever made, these Chocolate Cupcakes with Baileys Buttercream. Just goes to show how great it is! It’s also the first recipe that was shared on another blog!Third is Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Homemade Barbecue Sauce, because who doesn’t love pulled pork!And fourth is Blueberry Sour Cream Pie, which was another surprising hit. I think I assumed this post was a more unique recipe and hence wouldn’t be as sought after, but maybe that was it’s appeal!

Now before I bore you all to death, I just want to share a couple of my own favorites from this past year, which you might have overlooked or missed.Mango Bread. Tropical, moist, and oh so delicious!Croque Monsieur/Madame. Classic French food which makes for a simple yet indulgent meal.Broiled Shrimp with Tomatoes and Brie. Nuff said. You gotta try this!!

Anyways, on to the main attraction! It may not be a very celebratory food, but I do love me some muffins! Yes it’s pumpkin, and yes it’s spring, but I believe I’ve mentioned before that I eat pumpkin year round. It’s a super tasty superfood! I made these muffins once before, following the original recipe exactly and making my own vanilla glaze. They were very good, but the muffin was a little too tender for my liking, and the glaze didn’t quite match up as I wanted. So, on to take two and I was in heaven! I used my go-to family recipe for pumpkin bread, which is a little sturdier of a bread. Topping was the same, since that was perfect the first time around. As for the glaze, a vanilla glaze didn’t quite seem right for a cinnamon roll muffin, so this time around I made a cream cheese glaze. Yum!

So in conclusion, try these muffins and hurray for my first year blogoversary!!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Muffins
Yield: 15 to 16 muffins

Muffins:
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
½ cup vegetable oil
⅓ cup water
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground ginger

Topping:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Glaze:
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners; set aside.

To make the muffins: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and ground ginger; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, oil, water, eggs, and sugar. Slowly add the dry ingredients; mix until smooth. Split batter equally between prepared muffin tins, filling about ¾ of the way full.

To make the topping: In a small bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Crumble on top of uncooked muffins and swirl into the batter.

Bake the muffins for 17 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Move muffin pan to wire rack and cool for 5 minutes, then remove muffins and finish cooling on wire rack.

To make the glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk or beat together the cream cheese and powdered sugar. Stir in the vanilla extract; stir in 1 tablespoon of milk, checking the consistency and adding more milk as needed. Drizzle the cooled muffins with desired amount of glaze.

Source: Adapted/inspired from The Teenage Taste

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