It's fall in a cupcake! Perfect to cozy up with a warm drink and a nice book on a beautiful day!
Ingredients
For the salted caramel
- 1 cup sugar 200g
- ¼ cup water 60ml
- ½ cup unsalted butter 113g
- ½ cup heavy cream 120g
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the cupcakes
- 3 small apples, peeled Honeycrisp or Gala
- 2 cups all purpose flour 240g
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ tablespoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature 170g
- 1 cup granulated sugar 200g
- ½ cup sour cream, room temperature 120g
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon salted caramel
For the frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature 113g
- 2 cups powdered sugar 240g
- ¼ cup milk 60g
- 2 tablespoon salted caramel
Instructions
For the caramel
- Place the sugar and water in a deep saucepan over low heat.
- Stir until the sugar dissolves, then add the butter. Wait for the butter to melt, then increase the heat to medium. Cook without stirring until the mixture gets to a light amber color (about 15 minutes). Be careful because it will foam.
- Add the cream and salt, and stir well to dissolve everything.
- Cook for another 2-3 minutes to thicken the mixture, then remove from heat. Set aside.
For the batter
- Prepare a muffin pan with paper liners. Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Grate the apples on a grater with a coarse grater.
- In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter with sugar until creamy. Add the eggs and sour cream and mix to combine.
- Then, add the mixed dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Finally, added the grated apples and caramel sauce and mix to combine.
- Fill the cupcake liners until they are ⅔ full and bake for 15-20 minutes. Set aside and let cool.
For the frosting
- In a stand mixer, beat the butter until creamy and light.
- Add the powdered sugar, alternating with the milk, beating on low speed until combined.
- Add the salted caramel and beat until combined with the remaining frosting.
For assembly
- Use a piping bag with your favorite tip (I used Wilton's 1M) and frost your cupcakes.
- Decorate with a slice of dried apple and a little caramel drizzle.
Notes
- You can make a darker caramel by simply letting it caramelize for a little bit longer before adding the cream. Just make sure it doesn't burn!
- When you add caramel sauce to the buttercream it can throw the powdered sugar amount a bit off (specially if you measure the caramel with heart, like I did). If your buttercream looks split or too runny, simply add more powdered sugar and whip until it gets to the consistency you'd like.
- While you can make the caramel way ahead of time, I suggest letting it come to room temperature before drizzling over the cupcakes, as it can get a little bit too stiff right off the fridge.
- You can also adjust the spice amount if you think it's too much or too little. It also works well with pre-made spice blends like chai, egg nog apple pie or pumpkin spice. Use whatever you like best!
- This recipe yielded 10 jumbo cupcakes that are about 50% bigger than a regular cupcake. For regular cupcakes, it would likely yield about 15-18 cupcakes, depending on how large you like them.
- The buttercream and sauce can be used in many other recipes, and both also freeze very well! So you can double the recipe and freeze the leftovers for some other recipe that goes well with caramel!
