Bonfire Night Cupcakes!

Smiley Pumpkin - Happy Halloween!

I love this time of year...The clocks go back and it gets all wintry, then there's Halloween and Bonfire Night...not to mention all the food that goes with it!!

Feeling inspired after spending a week apple picking in Somerset, I really wanted to put some of the seasonal produce to good use and make a cupcake version of Toffee Apples(Caramel/Candied Apples in the US), which are my favourite Bonfire Night Treat.

I set out to make an apple sponge, with a toffee/caramel buttercream, however I couldn't find any recipes for apple cupcakes that I was convinced by. I decided to take my favorite cupcake book, 'Cupcakes from The Primrose bakery', and I adapted their vanilla cupcake recipe..it was a bit of a freestyle but it worked! I have made a few tweaks to the recipe below which I think will improve it for you - I originally only added half the amount of apple stated, which still tasted great but I think a whole cooking apple will be much better. I also think you could add more maple syrup to the buttercream, so add this you like depending on how sweet your tooth is!

Toffee Apple Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

110g Unsalted butter at room temperature

225g Caster sugar

2 Large eggs

150g Self-raising flour, sifted

125g Plain flour

120ml Semi-skimmed milk at room temperature

1 Cooking apple (approximately 225g) peeled, cored and grated

1 tsp Cinnamon

Icing:

110g Unsalted butter, at room temperature

60ml Semi-skimmed milk

500g Icing Sugar

Maple syrup to taste - I used about a tablespoon but make it to taste by adding a teaspoon at a time

Caramel:

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup water

Method:

1. Preaheat your oven to 160c(fan)/180c/350F and line a 12 hole muffin tin
2. In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition
4. Combine the flours in a separate bowl along with the cinnamon.
5. Grate the apple directly into the bowl - If you do it beforehand it will just go brown
6. Add one third of the flours to the creamed mixture and beat well. Do the same with the milk and continue these steps until all of the flour and milk have been added.
7. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for around 25 minutes - they should be raised and golden brown 
8. Remove cakes from the oven and leave the cakes in their tins for about 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool. Once they're completely cooled, ice them following the steps below!

Icing:

1. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, milk and half the icing sugar until smooth
2. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar, and beat again until smooth
3. Add maple syrup gradually to taste and beat once again to ensure the mixture is combined

Caramel:

1. Mix sugar and water in a heavy based saucepan. Bubble furiously until the mixture is dark brown - if you have a jam thermometer the temperature should read 'Hard Crack'
2. Dribble the caramel over a piece of greaseproof paper - flick it if you want thinner shards.
3. Leave to cool and use hardened caramel to decorate iced cupcakes!