I'm not going to ask if you know the muffin man

Ever since I was old enough to lick a spatula I've been obsessed with baking. I've always loved baked goods, but I think I just might like having other people enjoy something I've concocted even better. (As long as I get to try the first bite.)

Tonight's baking adventure started mainly due to my recent desires to eat the things in my fridge before they go bad. Pretty logical, but it has also lead to some pretty weird meals (like the bowl of baked beans next to the bowl of green peas I had tonight...). While gazing upon my nearly bare refrigerator shelves I noticed a large tub of sour cream and a little bit of orange juice left.

I immediately (and when I say this I mean after dinner and a movie) jumped onto AllRecipes.com and clicked on the Ingredients tab, typed my two main contenders and not even halfway through the results I found my destiny: Orange/Sour Cream Muffins

Now of course I made my own modifications, just because I like things to be a little more personal. So below is the recipe I ended up using:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 6 tablespoons shortening
• 1/2 cup orange juice

And you know how recipes go. Mix the dry ingredients, then in another bowl mix the wet ingredients then add the smaller bowl to the bigger bowl. Easy as pie. Or in this case muffins. (You see what I did there?)

These baked for the full 20 minutes at 375 degrees F. As soon as they were out of the oven I transferred them to a wire rack. While the muffins were cooling (and smelling absolutely divine) I was already on a hunt for a good glaze or frosting.

Luckily in my fridge I had a random 2 oz. chunk of cream cheese. I'm also a girl, so of course I had chocolate on hand. Which lead me to chocolate cream cheese frosting. Which in turn took these treats from muffin to cupcake. Muffcake.

Here are my modifications:

• 1 (1 ounce) square unsweetened chocolate
• 2 ounces package cream cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 teaspoons half and half
  
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon custard powder
  (I totally eyeballed most of these measurements)
  

There are so many modifications because midway between mixing the melted chocolate into the room temperature cream cheese I was horrified to discover I didn't have any confectioners' sugar. I thought it was all over. But I think quick on my feet. (Let's just add other tasty powdered things!) So that's when I added the custard powder and cocoa powder. Made it tasty, but it still needed to be sweeter. I decided to say screw it and ended up using granulated sugar. It made a tasty frosting, but I won't lie, there is a crystal crunch to it. I don't mind it at all though.

I put the frosting in a ziploc bag and snipped off the corner. There was a lot more of it than I initially thought. I probably could have just covered all 12 of muffcakes, but I went for something a bit more fun. And to finish them off I placed a single chocolate chip on top of each one.

They are easily the best random muffcakes I've ever made.

moist and fluffy inside, chocolaty crunchy outside