Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Andrew and I went apple-picking with some friends a couple of weeks ago and came home with a lot of apples! So I started looking for some yummy-looking apple recipes. I’m not brave enough to try apple pie, because I hear crusts are tricky. Plus Andrew isn’t a big pie guy. Something about the cooked fruit…

Anyway, I was most excited to try out the caramel apple cupcakes recipe that I found at fort & field. And yes, they are delicious! The recipe makes a dozen cupcakes, which is about 11 more than we needed. So I brought 11 cupcakes to the childcare center that I used to work at. 🙂

Ingredients:
1-1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2-3 Granny Smith or Rome apples (about 1 pound), peeled and shredded
1-1/2 cups chewy caramel candies
1 Tablespoon heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a cupcake pan with baking liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Grate your apples to ensure you’ll get apple with every bite of caramel.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar and granulated sugars until smooth. Whisk in the oil and vanilla. Stir into the flour mixture until just combined; stir in the apples.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan until almost full. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
5. In a small, microwavable bowl, combine the caramels and cream. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between each one until caramel is melted and smooth. Dip cupcakes upside down into caramel and let cool. (I chose to just spoon the caramel on top and spread it with a spoon… seemed easier to me!)

That’s the cupcake that I barely shared with Andrew, because it was so delicious! 🙂 Oh, don’t put plastic wrap on them or you’ll be scraping caramel off and re-applying it to cupcakes. Probably should have seen that coming…