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I’ve had these cupcakes dancing around in my head for a few weeks. I was chatting with my friend Grant and for some reason the conversation turned to cupcakes—every conversation with me tends to drift towards food eventually. You’re surprised, I can tell. Anyway, he claimed that cupcakes were over-rated and always dry. I maintained that a good cupcake is moist, fluffy, and any possibility of dryness could be eliminated by hiding a delicious filling inside if you suspected that you might have managed to create something akin to sawdust. But the crux of the matter was that good cupcakes are not dry.
Intrigued, he asked me what I would fill a cupcake with. And then it happened. My brain just hit upon cupcake gold.
Cinnamon cupcakes… moist, fluffy, spiced just right… filled with apple butter and topped with a cream cheese frosting and a drizzle of caramel.
Mmm… it sounded so good, and I just haven’t been able to shake it, despite baking cupcakes a couple of weeks ago with Auntie Cake. So, while in the grip of a PMT-induced need to bake—does anyone else find themselves almost aggressive with a need to bake?—I decided that I had to make these cupcakes happen.
And do you know what? They were every bit as good as I’d hoped. The cake itself was incredibly tender and fluffy. It tasted as though someone, you know, professional had made it. Unlike most sponges it wasn’t completely ruined by refrigeration, which is quite a triumph. The cinnamon spicing was assertive but not over the top, and biting through to the apple butter goodness in the centre was just such a treat! I’ll definitely be making these beauties again!
Cinnamon cupcakes
Source: Adapted from Chocklit
Makes 10-12 cupcakes
- 110g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 200g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 190g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch salt (table salt, not sea salt)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 125ml full-fat milk, room temperature
Preheat oven to 180C (fan 160C). Line a 12-hole standard muffin tin with papers.
Cream butter for two minutes until light and fluffy. Drizzle in sugar, increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture has increased in volume, paled and very fluffy.
One at a time, beat egg and trickle into creamed mixture while mixer is running. Scrape down sides well after each egg is absorbed.
Sift flour, salt and cinnamon together. Mix milk and vanilla together in separate bowl or jug. Add 1/3 of flour to mixer and beat on slowest speed until absorbed. Scrape down sides. While mixer is running, trickle in half of the milk mixture. Scrape down sides. Add half the remaining flour. Scrape. Trickle in remaining milk. Scrape. Add remainder of flour, mix and scrape.
Divide between the prepared cases. Bake for about 20 minutes until the top is springy. Cool in the tin for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Assembly
- 100g apple butter
- one recipe cream cheese frosting (see below)
- your favourite caramel sauce (bought or home-made) to drizzle
Bring apple butter to room temperature (if it was in the fridge) and beat to loosen it to a pipable consistency. Using a piping bag fitted with a Bismarck tip, fill each cupcake with as much apple butter as you can squeeze in.
If you don’t have a Bismarck tip, then cut out a large cone from the top of each cupcake, dollop in plenty of apple butter and replace a flat disc of cake on top.
Frost with a generous swirl or mound of cream cheese frosting and finally drizzle over some caramel sauce. Less is more in this case!
Cream cheese frosting
- 200g full-fat Philadelphia cream cheese, chilled
- 70g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 270g icing sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- pinch of sea salt
Using an electric handmixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until completely blended. Beat in the sugar in three additions, on low speed. Finally beat in the vanilla extract and sea salt to taste. If the frosting is too stiff then beat if for a couple of minutes longer. Be careful, though. Overbeating will make this frosting runny.
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They look heavenly. I’ll have to make these.
You had me at Apple Butter! The idea of apple butter filled cupcakes topped with cream cheese icing and then caramel sauce is sending me into sensory overdrive. Fantastique stuff Angela!
Hi Katy! They taste even better than they look! Hope you enjoy them
Hi Lorraine! Those were the cupcakes that you talked me into baking a few weeks ago, although I didn’t take much persuasion! The apple butter was fantastic. I’ll definitely be making it again next year and hopefully finding more things to use it in. (Although, it is fantastic on toast or crumpets!)
They look fabulous from top to bottom and inside out. “Cupcake Gold.” I love it!
Those cupcakes do look scrumptious. The icing is pure temptation.
Finally a new way for me to use up my aunts apple butter! These look absolutely delicious!
I’m salivating just thinking about them. They sound like cupcake heaven!
Cream cheese frosting is the best. These look wonderful!
Hi Reeni! Thank-you so much! You should totally give them a go
Hi Utenzi! I do love cream cheese frosting on cupcakes; I think the slight tang from the cheese really helps to balance out what is a very indulgent cake…
Hi Erin! Another idea for the apple butter… I saw someone whip it into buttercream and use it to sandwich together biscuits. I think it could be really great with gingerbread or maple biscuits.
Hi Katie! They really were heavenly! I gave a bunch to some friends who’d just had their second baby, and they loved them too.
Hi Megan! Thank-you!
Yum those do look and sound delish! Great job!
~ingrid
Thanks, Ingrid! They were indeed very yummy
Gosh I’ll bet that drizzle of caramel sends these cupcakes over the top!!
these sound absolutely delicious!! i’ll have o give it a try…
hiya, I am licking my lips at the thought of these - i need to make cakes for a CF fundraiser at my local church, but have never heard of “apple butter”! please excuse my ignorance but how do you make it? I think i will be ok with the rest of the recipe - if you could just help me with this slight problem! Thanks x
Hi Debs! Apple butter is a thick, slightly spiced apple preserve. It’s very smooth and spreads onto toast like butter, hence the name. You won’t find it in the shops over here, as it is primarily a North American thing. I used Zarah’s recipe (http://foodandthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/10/kind-of-apple-y.html ) with a few tweaks to the spices to make mine.
You could use apple sauce, but it would be a lot runnier than the apple butter filling. Good luck!
oh these look amazing and just what i was after for cooking up in the kitchen ! I too have never heard of apple butter (not sure where ive been to have missed this treat tho !) so am really gratefull for the link to food and thoughs blog for how to make this, the recipie was simple enough to follow and i cant wait to fill these goregous cupcakes with it ready for my mothers birthday treats fridy so thank you keep up the good work !
Thanks, Sarah! Hope they turn out well for your mum’s birthday!
(BTW, be sure to use full-fat cream cheese, and you might need to chilli the frosting or add extra sugar if you want to pipe swirls. Cream cheese frosting is always runnier than buttercream.)
oh my goodness, these have come out sooooo well, thank you so much for the tips !! only problem now is i think i may need to spend four days down the gym working off the amount ive already eaten lol