Once upon a time there was... Apple Pie Cupcakes

Cornelius is really the cupcake expert but Apple Pie is one of my favorite desserts, so I feel like I have some expert knowledge too. We slightly adapted this fantastic recipe from one of our new favorite blogs, Annies-Eats.

ingredients:

3 cups sifted cake flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3 tbsp butter

1 Tbsp cinnamon

3 tbsp dark brown sugar

2 Tbsp spiced rum

3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced

whipped cream

instructions:

1. preheat oven to 350°. line cupcake pans with papers.

2. in a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

3. in the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix well to combine. Add in the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.

4. fill the cupcake liners 2/3-3/4 full. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 to 22 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pans. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

5. make the apple filling: heat the butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cinnamon and brown sugar and cook for a minute, until the mixture begins to bubble. Lower the heat to medium and stir in the apples. Mix well. Add the rum. Stir. Cook until the apples are somewhat tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

6. while the apple mixture is cooling, use the cone method to remove a chunk from the center of each cupcake, making sure to leave a rim around the top of the cupcake. Cornelius' cupcake trick is to fill a cup with very hot water and dip a pearing knife in the water between in cake. The hot water helps the knife cone the cakes easily.

7. when the apples are cool, fill the holes with the apple mixture.

8. when ready to serve, top each cupcake with a dollop of whipped cream.

this made 36 cupcakes for us and they were delicious! once again, thanks to Annies-Eats for the idea!

Moo.