Winter is now in full swing in SA and I crave comfort food day in and day out. One of the foods I crave most often is warm Apple Pie with its cinnamon and nutmeg fragrance wafting through the house served with a dollop of double cream. Yum!

That’s exactly how I came up with the idea of this cupcake. I really like the chunks of apple in the cupcakes and the fact that it really does taste like Apple pie. I added cinnamon and a pinch of both nutmeg and cloves to the cupcake batter to ensure I get the spiciness I so love. I wanted to mirror that spiciness in the butter cream so decided to make a creamy, cinnamon-vanilla buttercream to pipe on top.

The mini-toffee apples are taken directly from an episode of Masterchef Australia I watched last week. You could use tinned baby apples for this but I used a melon baller to get little balls out of the apples. To ensure the pretty ‘points’ the caramel makes when the apples are dipped in, I used liquid glucose (found in most baking shops) in the caramel and I allowed it to boil gently for 5-10 minutes until the caramel was a deep amber colour. Just remember to be very careful when doing the apples as a sugar burn is one of the worst!

These cupcakes are the perfect thing for tea over the weekend and your friends and family will be SO impressed by your efforts! Enjoy!

Makes 12

200g (7.05 ounces) Cake flour
150g (5.29 ounces) Castor sugar
125g (4.41 ounces) Butter, Room Temperature
125ml (4.23 fluid ounces) Milk
2 Large eggs
2.5ml (0.08 fluid ounces) Salt
10ml (0.34 fluid ounces) Baking Powder
5ml (0.17 fluid ounces) vanilla extract
2 medium apples, peeled and chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch each of ground nutmeg and cloves
Frosting
100g (3.53 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
400g (14.11 ounces) sifted icing sugar
5ml (0.17 fluid ounces) vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
50ml (1.69 fluid ounces) milk
Apples
12 baby apples/apple balls
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup liquid glucose

1. Preheat the oven to 180° (356 degrees Fahrenheit) and place cupcake papers in a muffin tin.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and beat until the batter is smooth.
3. Divide the batter between the cupcake cups and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes in the tin before placing on a cooling rack to cool completely.
5. For the frosting, beat the butter until pale and fluffy. Beat in the icing sugar and mix for 5 minutes.
6. Add the vanilla extract and spices and mix.
7. Add the milk slowly whilst mixing until you have reached the desired consistency.
8. Pipe the icing onto the cupcakes.
9. For the toffee apples, combine the sugar, water and glucose in a small saucepan and heat slowly. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and then allow it to come to a gentle simmer.
10. Simmer until the sugar becomes an amber colour. Swirl the saucepan to ensure the mixture doesn’t burn.
11. When the sugar is thick and amber coloured, place the apples on kebab sticks and dip into the sugar. Slowly lift the apples out of the sugar allowing a ‘point’ to form.
12. Place the toffee apples on top of the cupcakes and add a sprinkling of ground cinnamon.

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Tags: apple cupcakes, apple pie, apple pie cupcakes, apple pie cupcakes with cinnamon butter cream, cinnamon butter cream, Cupcakes