Morning Message Muffins

It only takes a few extra minutes to add a touch of magic to a summer morning, with a special message written right on a batch of otherwise, plain old, morning muffins.

First off, mix up the muffin batter.  We prefer the Best Ever Muffin recipe from Allrecipes.com.  Not only is it quick, easy, and fairly foolproof, but it's extremely adaptable, and can be made into banana-nut, berry, savory (think bacon or cheese) or chocolate chip versions with just a few quick substitutions.  Nuts, berries (though they might be tricky if they "bleed"), bacon, or chocolate chips would all work for this sort of thing - so choose your own favorite.

We (meaning the children) prefer chocolate chip muffins.

Mix up the muffins as usual, and place them into the muffin pan, but save aside a little of the add-in ingredient (again for us that would be chocolate chips) to spell out a message on top of each muffin.

The message could be anything (that uses 12 letters or symbols) - such as a birthday greeting, or smiley faces, or even a special child's initials.

Once you have your message in place, pop the muffins in the oven (in our case, for 24 minutes at 350° F).  Again, save a few of the add-ins aside, out on the counter, where they are handy...

...so that if any of the message disappears into the muffins during baking, you can add a few replacement pieces right to the top, as soon as you take the pan out of the oven. 

For chocolate chips, that means pressing them down into the hot muffins, point first, and then not touching them again, as the heat of the muffin will instantly melt the chocolate into place.

Arrange the muffins on a plate to display the message, and serve without saying anything.

It's fun to watch the look of surprise as your family realize their breakfast has something to say.