Rainbow Cream Cheese Muffins

These muffins are ideal for Pride Month, any celebration, or just to brighten your day. Baking is a fun way to take care of yourself! It’s especially meaningful for groups like the LGBTQ+ community, who’ve often been treated unfairly, to find new ways to express themselves. Making and sharing these colorful muffins can show support and unity. Don’t worry if you’re new to baking—this guide is easy for anyone to follow!

Equipment

• Large mixing bowl
• Medium mixing bowl (3)
• Small mixing bowl (6)
• Muffin tin
• Rainbow paper muffin liners (12)
• Whisk
• Rubber spatula
• Large mixing spoon
• Fork
• Butter knife
• Cookie scoop (2 sizes - 1 oz & 3 oz)

Filling

• Cream cheese – 8 oz brick (softened)
• Sugar – 1/3 cup
• Vanilla extract – ½ teaspoon
• Food coloring (Gel)

Tip: For best results, use gel food coloring.

Muffins

• Vegetable oil – ¼ cup
• Unsalted butter – 4 tbsp (softened)
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Eggs – 1 large egg & 1 egg white
• Buttermilk – ½ cup
• Vanilla extract – 1 ½ teaspoons
• Flour – 1 ¾ cup
• Cornstarch – 1 tablespoon
• Baking powder – 2 teaspoons
• Salt – ½ teaspoon
• Blueberries – 1 ½ cups
• Cooking spray

Streusel

• Flour – ¼ cup
• Brown sugar – ¼ cup
• Salt – 1/8 teaspoon
• Butter – 2 tablespoons (melted)

You need:

Rainbow paper muffin liners (12)

Muffin tin

• Preheat the oven to 375F.
• Place two paper liners of each color in the muffin tin.

Hint: Before you start baking, it’s a good idea to measure, separate, and organize all your ingredients into groups. This makes the process smoother.

You need:

8 oz softened cream cheese

1/3 cup sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Food coloring

• Soften the cream cheese in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
• Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract.
• Stir until thoroughly combined.

• Divide the cream cheese mixture evenly into six parts, using small bowls.
• Add 8 drops of gel food coloring to each bowl of cream cheese, creating the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. 
• Refrigerate the cream cheese mixture until it’s time to assemble the muffins.

Here's a helpful tip when working with primary and secondary colors:

For orange, mix 2 drops of red with 6 drops of yellow.

For purple, mix 3 drops of red with 5 drops of blue.

Pro-Tip: Prepare Ahead. Create the rainbow filling a day early. Form two balls per color, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and freeze them until firm. This makes them easier to add to your muffins.

You need:

¼ cup vegetable oil

4 tbsp softened unsalted butter

2 eggs

½ cup buttermilk

1 1/3 tsp vanilla extract

• Stir together oil and softened butter.
• Add egg, and egg white, buttermilk, and vanilla extract.
• Whisk until thoroughly combined.  

Tip: It is best if you separate the egg whites from the yolk by cracking the egg in half at the widest point of the shell, and gently pass the egg yolk back and forth between the two shells. As you do this, the egg whites will fall. Use a bowl to catch the egg whites. Discard the shell and yolk.  

You need:

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tbsp cornstarch

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

Whisk

• Add flour, cornstarch, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
• Whisk until thoroughly combined.  

You need:

The bowl with the wet ingredients in it and the bowl with the dry ingredients in it.

Spatula

• Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
• Fold ingredients together with rubber spatula or large spoon.

Hint: Only mix until the dry ingredients are moistened. 

You need:

1 ½ cups of Blueberries

Bowl with wet & dry ingredients mixed together in it.

Spatula

• Add blueberries to the bowl with the combined wet/dry ingredients.
• Gently fold blueberries into the mix.  

Now it's time to make the streusel!

You need:

¼ cup flour

¼ cup brown sugar

1/8 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter

Fork

• Add flour, brown sugar, and salt.
• Whisk until thoroughly combined.
• Melt butter in microwave for 30 – 45 seconds.
• Pour melted butter over the dry ingredients and mix gently with a fork.
• Stop mixing when streusel is moist and lumpy.

Assemble muffins:

• Fill each muffin cup 2/3 of the way full.

• Use a small spoon to make a crater in the center of each muffin.

Add filling:

• Remove rainbow filling from the refrigerator (or freezer).

• Spray the 1 oz scoop with cooking oil to keep the cream cheese from sticking.

• Fill each muffin with one scoop of the colored filling, making two muffins for each color.

Final touch:

• Add 1 tablespoon of muffin batter on top of each muffin.

• Sprinkle even amounts of streusel over each muffin. 

Tip: For tidy muffins, use a 3 oz cookie scoop to fill the cups and use a 1 oz cookie scoop for adding cream cheese filling to muffins, especially if the filling isn’t frozen.

Progressive Quick Release Cookie Scoop - 3 Tbsp.

Progressive Quick Release Cookie Scoop - 1 Tbsp.

Bake your masterpiece:

• Place muffin tin on top rack in the oven.
• Bake for 25 minutes.  

Careful! Muffin tin is hot and may cause serious burns. Be sure to use potholders to remove the muffin tin from the oven.

• Allow muffins to cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the muffin tin.
• Serve and enjoy!

Storage Tips:

At room temperature: Keep in a sealed container for up to 2 days.

In the fridge: Store in a sealed container for up to 5 days.

This work is marked with CC0 1.0 Universal