Corny “Muffcakes” - Muffin-Cakes with Honey-Chili Frosting and Candied Corn

Ingredients

For the corn muffins:
1 cup Gluten Free flour blend
1 cup coarse-ground yellow cornmeal
6 tablespoon sugar
2½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled completely
3 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
1 cup frozen corn kernels

For the buttercream frosting: (this is for light frosting, you may want to double or triple this recipe depending on your frosting desires)
2 egg whites
6 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoon sugar
pinch of salt
2 sticks of butter, softened at room temperature and cut into small cubes
chili powder to taste (optional)

For the candied corn:
a handful of frozen corn kernels
a skinny pat of butter
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon honey
dash of chili powder (optional)

Directions

Make the muffins: Preheat oven to 400F and line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners (or alternatively, grease the tins with butter). In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (Gluten Free flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda) until combined. In another bowl, combine all the wet ingredients (buttermilk, melted butter, oil, eggs) and whisk until well-mixed. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and with a spatula, fold everything together gently and quickly. You don’t need to go crazy mixing here and it’s actually better to err on the side of undermixing or the muffins might turn out tough. Add in the corn kernels and fold a few more times to incorporate. Divide batter amongst the muffin cups.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the tops of the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick or knife tip stuck into the centers comes out clean. Move muffin pan to cooling rack. Let cool completely.

While muffins are cooling, make the candied corn: In a small bowl, mix together salt, brown sugar, honey, and chili powder if using. Over medium-high heat, melt butter in a nonstick skillet until foamy. Add corn kernels and cook for 2-3 min until corn is tender. Add in sugar-honey mixture and toss to coat. Let cool.

And make the buttercream: Using a double-boiler or a heatproof bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water, whisk together egg white, honey, sugar, and salt until sugar is melted and the mixture thickens. You’ll need to whisk constantly here for about 7-10 min, until the mixture is hot enough that it’s uncomfortable to touch (test using a fingertip).

Remove from heat and whip the mixture until it forms stiff peaks. Add in two cubes of the butter and whip again until completely incorporated. Repeat until all the butter is used up. At some point, it will look like the buttercream is curdling but don’t worry, just keep mixing and it’ll eventually set up. Once all the butter has been added and the buttercream looks smooth, add in a dash of chili powder and mix well with a spatula. Taste a bit of the frosting and see if you want to add more chili powder.

Assemble the muffcakes: frost the cooled muffcakes with desired amount of frosting. Once frosted, sprinkle with candied corn and a little pinch of chili powder for color.

Recipe Conversion from an original by Rice and Wheat - a note below from Angi at Rice and Wheat about the name "muffcake" -

It started with a completely innocent comment. I swear.

First of all, I should tell you that I have this terrible (wonderful?) habit of mashing words together. I caught the bug a few years ago when some guy friends of mine joined a fantasy football league and kept referring to it as “mantasy football.” From then on, I saw every pair of words as an opportunity for word play. Buffalos in Yellowstone laying idly about became “loaffalos” and “blogurt” is the only logical term for the unfortunate condition resulting from over-consumption of frozen yogurt (ahem, completely hypothetical of course). Yes sir. Just call me Queen of the Frankenwords. All hail me!

So when some of my fellow bloggers were debating the merits of muffins and cupcakes over on Twitter, it’s not very surprising then that I spotted yet another opportunity. In a stroke of pat-myself-on-the-back genius (thank you thank you), I casually wondered if there’s such a thing as “muffcakes.” Next thing I knew, Mariko of The Little Foodie got wind of this made-up word/baked good and quickly became the second member of the newly-minted “muffcakes” fan club.