Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Now just to clarify a thing before getting into this recipe. It doesn't taste very much like a caramel apple. It is more of an apple pie type cupcake with an old fashioned caramel frosting. It is absolutely delicious...and if I didn't have to share them I probably would have eaten all of these myself. Honestly I had a hard time of not eating all of the batter before actually getting it into the oven.

Fresh Apple Cupcakes
Yields 12 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 large granny smith apples (peeled and chopped)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Line your cupcake tin with liners and spray them with nonstick spray.
2. Stir together first 5 ingredents in a large bowl until blended.
3. Combin flour and the next 3 ingredients together. Add to the butter mixture stiring until combined. Stir in the apple. It will look like there isn't much batter but you should have just enough if you don't eat half of it before you bake it.
4. Spoon your batter into liners 2/3rds full and bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Allow cupcakes to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then remove and allow them to finished cooling completely on a wire rack.

Old Fashioned Caramel Frosting

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
1/2 of a 16oz package of brown sugar
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tbsp light corn syrup
2 cups of powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and bring to a boil, constantly stirring. Stir in evaporated milk, baking soda, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil once more. Remove from heat and allow to completely cool. This takes about 1 hour.
2. Transfer caramel mixture to a mixer bowl. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. 

Viola! Pipe your frosting on your cooled cupcakes and decorate however you want. I was going to put little crab apples on top of mine....but they're really bitter....they're edible but I didn't want to risk the chance of someone straight up biting into that crab apple and hating me fore it.

Raspberry Lemonade

Since summer was winding down I felt the need to make a cupcake to capture the refreshing feeling that summer brings so many people. I decided that I would make some sort of lemonade type cupcake. I few weeks prior to this experiement I was walking around downtown Saint Petersburg, FL, where I live and walked into a local cupcake shop. This is a habit of mine since I want to own a shop myself one day. When I walked in I purchased a Pink Lemonade cupcake and was sadly dissapointed when I ate it :(. It tasted like a pink cupcake...not a pink lemonade cupcake....all I could taste was vanilla and food coloring....which for those of you that dont know...too much coloring makes food incredibly bitter.

So with that in mind I went home and told myself....I can so do better. It actually took me 2 tries to get this cupcake right. I tried making a buttermilk based cupcake first....I hated it. For some reason I can just taste the bitterness of the buttermilk no matter what I put it in. So I nixed that idea and came up with the recipe I am about to share with you all :D

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Yields 12 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 whole egg
1/3 cup thawed raspberry lemonade concentrate (you can use whatever lemonade you want)
1/4 cup whole milk
pink food coloring (if you use gel you don't need a lot...i used a smidgen and it was uber bright!)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Line your cupcake tin with your liners and spray with a flour based cooking spray to keep your cupcakes looking nice.
2. In your mixer bowl whisk together your sugar, oil, egg and lemonade concentrate.
3. In a seperate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add the flour mixture and the milk in 3rds starting and ending with flour (flour, milk, flour, milk, and flour) Mix until just combined.
5. Add your food coloring and mix until evenly colored.
6. Fill your cupcake liners 2/3rds full and bake in the oven until the tops of the cupcakes spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 
7. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove the cupcakes to completely cool on a wire rack.

Raspberry Lemonade Frosting
INGREDIENTS
3 cups confectioners sugar (you can use more if you need to)
1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/8 tsp of salt
2 tbsp thawed raspberry lemonade concentrate (use more if you want a stronger flavor)
pink food coloring

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat together the butter, salt and concentrate until creamy.
2. Slowly add in your powdered sugar until you get the consistency you would like.
3. Add in your food coloring until you achieve the desired color.

That's all there is too it! All that's left to do is pipe on that frosting and enjoy!

Blog Neglect!!!

Alright. Let's take a second to acknowledge the fact that I neglect my poor blog like whoa. I feel like a bad parent. I don't even know how this happens! One minute I'm telling myself lets get this blog up to date and the next minute I'm like "WAHHHHHHH I HAVE TO MUCH HOMEWORK" -facepalm-

I have absolutely no idea how Julie managed to cook recipes from Julia Child and blog about it on a daily basis but I applaud her for it. Now that my first quarter of culinary school is winding down I find myself with no homework (for now...I'm sure my work load will become insane again after my 1 week break) and a bit more free time. Mind you...I still bake once a week. That never changed. I just haven't gotten around to writing about it.

So. For the next few days I will be attempting to catch this blog up with the cupcakes that I have made over my weeks of absence....as well as updating it with the cupcake that I made this week. I will keep my fingers crossed that I will be able to manage this.