Raspberry Cream Cheese Muffins

These are the tastiest muffins EVER! They are from the cookbook "More from Magnolia: Recipes from the World-Famous Bakery." If you've never been to the Magnolia bakery in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, you are missing out! Too bad I live on the other side of the world now! These muffins are soft and fluffy and would be nice for a mid-morning snack. This recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins.

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 1/2 tspn baking soda
• 1/4 tspn salt
• 8oz (225 g) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick unsalted butter (115 g)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 tspn vanilla extract
• Raspberry jam
  

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F).
2. Grease and lightly flour muffin tins (I have 2 tins that make 6 muffins each).
   
3. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
   
4. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, butter and sugar until smooth.
5. Add the eggs and beat well.
   
6. Add the dry ingredients in two parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins filling them about two-thirds full. Drop 3 small dollops (about a teaspoonful each) of raspberry jam onto the top of each bun (the recipe says to use the tip of a sharp knife, swirl the preserves into the batter, forming a decorative pattern. I had a hard time doing this).
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a fork inserted in the centre of the bun comes out clean.
   
8. Allow the buns to cool for about 30 minutes before serving. Yum!
   

p.s. I stole the photo from another blog here, because mine didn't look quite as pretty!!