Date, orange and walnut muffins with caramel cream cheese frosting: Fathers day treats!

So we're not really big on fathers and mothers day celebrations in my family, we usually save all the big presents and fun for birthdays and holidays. In fact, dare i say i had completely forgotten it was fathers day until twitter graciously reminded me. I'd love to say i felt so bad about forgetting and that was the reason i had to whip up something delicious, but in all honesty with my slight baking obsession my thought process went a little like this: "Oh its fathers day tomorrow? i think my dad likes muffins, thats a legitimate excuse to bake i guess. Okay, i'm baking"I know i'm a terrible person, the starving children I know, but what else does one do on a lazy saturday? baking is productive and creative and... okay whatever, so these muffins are unjustifiable, but god they're good.
My mum bought me a huge box of dates the other day (my absolute favourite, with cream cheese and honey, at four in the morning. Don't judge me Nigella does it.) so i was so inspired to use them in some way. In my opinion they are one of the most underrated fruits for baking, i suppose thats because they were pretty much destroyed in the 80's by fruit logs shoved into terrine tins, but they add so much beautiful natural sweetness and flavour that sings when paired with any nut or citrus. I found the recipe for the muffin on joyofbaking.com, i couldn't go past the classic walnut pairing. But for me this wasn't enough, no no, not enough calories in this muffin just yet. So what dessert do you think of when you think of dates? luscious, moist, sticky fingers, sticky date pudding. This dessert has it made, and you know why? caramel. Dates need caramel like Sunny needs Cher, like Thelma needs Louise, like Oreos need milk, it is necessary. And that is why I will never apologise for the shameless decadence of the caramel cream cheese frosting addition i've made to this recipe, thank me later. Don't question it, embrace it.

Date, Orange and Walnut Muffins

To start preheat your oven to 205 Degrees C (400 Degrees F) with the rack place in the centre of the oven. Line a twelve hole muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, and orange zest.
In a separate bowl, mix together the orange juice, buttermilk, egg, vanilla extract, and melted and cooled butter.

Add the milk and egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until just combined (best to not use the electric mixer for this recipe, the gluten in whole wheat flour can develop a lot easier and all of a sudden you'll have a tough muffin. No harm in a little wooden spoon action)

Gently fold in the dates and walnuts.

Evenly divide the batter among 12 muffin cups. Place in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until very lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.

Orange Date Muffins:

1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour

1 cup (130 grams) whole wheat flour

2/3 cup (140 grams) light brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon grated orange zest(The outer skin of the orange which contains the fruit's flavor and perfume.)

1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh orange juice

2/3 cup (160 ml) buttermilk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 tablespoons (57 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cup (90 grams) chopped dates

2/3 cup (60 grams) walnuts, coarsely chopped

Orange Date Muffins:Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Place rack in the middle of the oven. Butter or spray, with a non stick vegetable spray, 12 muffin tins (or line with paper liners).

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, and orange zest.

In a separate bowl, mix together the orange juice, buttermilk, egg, vanilla extract, and melted and cooled butter.

Add the milk and egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir just until combined. Fold in the dates and walnuts. (Do not over mix the batter or the muffins will be tough when baked.)

Evenly divide the mixture among the 12 muffins cups.Place in the oven and bake for about 15 to20 minutes, or until very lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool. 

Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Melt brown sugar and 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil over medium heat, remove from heat. Whisk in cream and transfer to a heat resistant bowl and allow to cool to room temperature (you can put it in the fridge to speed up this process if you want) BE CAREFUL! caramel can get to very high temperatures.

 Place remaining 6 tablespoons of butter and cream cheese in a large bowl and beat with a mixer on medium-high until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add the cooled caramel mixture (it has to be cooled otherwise it will melt the butter and cream cheese). Add the icing sugar gradually until you have your desired texture, I ended up using less icing sugar because i wanted it to be more like a whipped cream consistency rather than frosting. 

Top the muffins with as much or as little as the frosting as you like. I found i had way to much frosting for the amount of muffins, so unless your doubling the muffin recipe i would half the frosting. I also had some extra dates so i garnished each muffin with one, bit of donna hay coming out there. 

Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 10 tablespoon butter, divided 
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Dash of salt
• 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar