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Salted Caramel Apple Cupcakes

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Consisting of moist, spiced apple cupcakes and a flavorful salted caramel buttercream, these salted caramel apple cupcakes are the perfect sweet treat!

Ingredients

Scale

Spiced Apple Cupcakes 

  • 2 Cups (250 g) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • 1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
  • 2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
  • 1 Teaspoon Ground Powdered Ginger
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Allspice 
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
  • 2 Large Eggs, Room Temperature
  • 2/3 Cup (140 g) Unsweetened Applesauce, Room Temperature
  • 2/3 Cup (146 g) Granulated Sugar
  • 1/2 Cup (125 ml) Neutral Flavored Oil i.e. Vegetable/Avocado Oil
  • 1/4 Cup + 2 Tablespoon Milk (90 ml), Room Temperature
  • 1 Teaspoon Apple Cider/White Vinegar
  • 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract 

Salted Caramel Buttercream 

  • 3 Cups (330 g) Powdered Sugar, Sifted
  • 1 1/2 Cups (12 oz) Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature, But Still Slightly Firm to Touch
  • 1/4 Cup + 2 Tablespoons (180 g) Salted Caramel Sauce, Room Temperature, Not Melted
  • 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • Salt (optional)
  • Cream or Milk, If Needed 

Assembly

  • Salted Caramel Sauce, Melted, Cooled to Room Temperature (Should be in Pourable State)

Instructions

Spiced Apple Cupcakes 

  1. Preheat oven to 325F(165C). Line (2) cupcake pans with cupcake liners. Alternatively, cupcakes may be baked in batches with (1) cupcake pan.
  2. In a medium mixing bowl, add the flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk ingredients together to combine.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl with a hand-held mixer, add the sugar, oil and applesauce. Mix ingredients to combine at medium speed.
  4. Next, mix in the milk, vinegar, and vanilla extract into wet batter. Stop the mixer and use a rubber spatula, to scrape down the sides and base of the bowl.
  5. Beat the eggs into wet batter one at the time at medium speed.
  6. Mix in the dry ingredients into the wet batter at low speed just until the spiced apple cupcake batter comes together without any streaks of unmixed flour, about 1 minute. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides and base of the bowl and mix batter for an additional minute at medium low speed.
  7. Divide spiced apple cupcake batter into prepared cupcake pan(s).
  8. Bake spiced apple cupcake batter for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through bake time. Cupcakes are ready when a toothpick inserted into one of them comes out clean.
  9. Allow spiced apple cupcakes to rest in the pan(s) for 4-5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature.  

Salted Caramel Buttercream 

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl with a hand-held electric mixer, add and cream the butter at medium high speed until it is smooth and fluffy in appearance, about 3-4 minutes.
  2. Mix powdered sugar into creamed butter at low speed. Once all of the powdered sugar has been incorporated into creamed butter, mix in the salted caramel and vanilla extract into buttercream. At this point, taste buttercream. If it is not salted to your liking, add some fine salt starting with 1/4 teaspoon (optional).
  3. Increase speed to medium high and mix salted caramel buttercream for 1-2 minutes. The resulting buttercream should be thick and fluffy in appearance.
  4. If salted caramel buttercream appears to be too thick (not pipeable), thin out buttercream by adding 1 teaspoon at a time of cream or milk until a thick but pipeable consistency is reached. 

Assembly 

  1. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1M or preferred pastry tip with salted caramel buttercream.
  2. Pipe salted caramel buttercream in a swirl design over the top of spiced apple cupcakes. Here is a video reference. 
  3. Drizzle top of piped buttercream with melted, cooled salted caramel sauce. 

Notes

  • Salted caramel apple cupcakes are best eaten the day it is prepared.
  • Frosted and decorated salted caramel apple cupcakes stored in an airtight container will last up to 3-4 days in the refrigerator.
  • For even shaped cupcakes, use a cookie/ice cream scoop to divide spiced apple cupcake batter into prepared pan(s).
  • For regular salted caramel apple cupcakes, omit the spices from apple cupcake batter.
  • When making salted caramel buttercream, make sure used butter that is at room temperature but still slightly firm to touch. If butter is overly softened, this will result in a buttercream that is too soft to pipe. 
  • Any leftover salted caramel buttercream stored in an airtight container will last up to 1 week in the refrigerator and 3 months in the freezer. When ready to use frozen buttercream, simply thaw out in the refrigerator overnight and re-whip to restore fluffy texture before using.

 

Find it online: https://nourishedendeavors.com/salted-caramel-apple-cupcakes/