Very Very Berry Muffins

Last Friday night, I got to celebrate my birthday with a group of my favorite girls, and it was blast.  We ate lots of food (English muffin pizzas, s'mores, cake, French toast :), played Just Dance 2, watched a movie, and talked.  It was a great way to have a birthday :)

But birthdays mean thank-you notes (and the girls totally spoiled me! You'll be seeing the results here- haha), which have never been high on my love list.  I wanted to do more than a simple card, and I really wanted to use the adorable muffin liners I was given, so I decided to say thank you with these muffins.  They were a hit, so I'm marking the recipe :)

Very Very Berry Muffins


from Cooking with the Colts (Hillsdale Academy fundraiser cookbook)


makes about 19


1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla*
2 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 cups blueberries and/or raspberries**
2 1/4 flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375.  Spray or line two muffin pans. Beat butter until creamy.  Beat in sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Beat in vanilla, baking powder, and salt.  Fold in flour and milk, alternating.  Fold in berries.  Scoop into  muffin tins and top lightly with sugar.  Bake 25 to 30 minutes.  Best served warm.

*We were completely out of vanilla, so I used 1/2 tsp almond extract and 1/2 tsp orange extract.
**If using frozen berries, don't thaw first.

One more note: I took mine out of the oven right at 25 minutes, but it seemed like they could have come out a minute sooner, so watch them carefully!

How darling are these muffin liners?  I was so excited to get to use them! I also got a pterodactyl-shaped cookie cutter, so you'll be seeing some awesome dinosaurs soon! :)