This month I was assigned to Cookin’ With Moxie for the Secret Recipe Club. Jamie is a beautiful Italian girl who loves to cook, and I was tempted by many of her Italian dishes, but circumstances led me to these wonderful cupcakes instead. I had volunteered to provide the cake for my sister’s boyfriend’s belated birthday gathering in the park, and had already decided to bring cupcakes since they don’t require forks. And since Jimmy’s favorite pie is apple, I just had to make these. Aren’t they so cool?
Vanilla cupcakes filled with homemade apple pie filling, topped with vanilla buttercream that mimics the ice cream you’d use on real apple pie. Totally delicious. And I have to tell you, I actually ran out of filling (more on that in a minute) and used some canned filling for about 4 cupcakes and I was nervous that people would like those better than the homemade ones. I didn’t get to taste the ones with canned filling, but another lady tried both and said the homemade version was SO much better. So there you have it. If you want to cheat, do it with the cake (using a vanilla or yellow mix) but please do make your own filling and buttercream.
OK, about running out of filling. This cupcake recipe makes 32 cupcakes if you fill the liners the appropriate amount–1/2-2/3 full. I don’t know if others have overfilled their cupcakes (don’t do it, they will spread out on the sides and it will not be pretty), didn’t cut their cones as deep, or just made more filling to fill the extra cupcakes, but there was not enough filling for all 32 cupcakes for me. So I have adapted the recipe to make more filling. If you use a mix, which makes 24 cupcakes, refer to Jamie’s original recipe for the filling as that will be the perfect amount.
Another strange discovery I had is that the batter that was left out waiting for a pan to be freed up (I didn’t have a third pan for the extra eight cupcakes) actually baked up better than the ones I put in right away. So weird, right? They didn’t brown as much and domed more in the middle instead of spreading out on the sides. They had a much better appearance. You can do whatever you wish with that information, as the taste will be the same whether it sits or is baked right away. Just know that if you have to let some of the batter sit and wait for a pan to be freed from the oven, the cupcakes will not suffer.
I want to thank my Group C hostess, Debbi, for all she does, and April who runs the entire club. They both keep things running so smoothly it’s easy to overlook all their hard work. And of course Jamie for sharing this fabulous recipe, which I otherwise never would have made. You ladies rock! And if you’d like to find out more about The Secret Recipe Club, click the link and join sooner rather than later to get a better place on the waiting list. It’s a popular club and it can take a long time to get in!
Apple Pie Cupcakes
Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture
Cupcakes
3 cups (12 ¾ oz) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups (14 oz) granulated sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
Apple Filling
2 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 cup granulated sugar
4 large apples, peeled, cored & diced small (I used Gala & Jonagold)
Vanilla Buttercream
1 ¼ cups (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Preheat oven to 350F. Line 24 cupcake tins with paper liners; set aside. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix well to combine. Add in the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
Fill the cupcake liners ½-2/3 full. You should have several cups of extra batter–set it aside. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 to 22 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pans. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely before assembling. Fill eight cupcake tins with liners and fill with the remaining batter and bake and cool as before.
For the filling, heat butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cinnamon and sugar and cook for a minute, until the mixture begins to bubble. Lower the heat to medium and stir in the apples. Mix well. Cook until the apples are somewhat tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
While the apple mixture is cooling, use the cone method to remove a chunk from the center of each cupcake, making sure to leave a rim around the top of the cupcake. Fill the holes with the cooled apple mixture.
For the frosting, beat the butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds. Add confectioners’ sugar and salt; beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened, about 45 seconds. Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium speed until mixture is fully combined. Scrape bowl, add vanilla and heavy cream, and beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 10 seconds. Then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl once or twice.
To decorate, top each cupcake with a swirl of vanilla buttercream; careful not to hide the lovely apples.
Recipe source: adapted from Annie’s Eats, as seen on Cooking with Moxie
Couldn’t resist sharing this photo of my sister eating a cupcake…
To check out all the other great Group C SRC recipes this month, click the linky man below!
Apple Pie Cupcakes
Veronica's Cornucopia 
Wow! Giant cupcakes filled with apple pie…looks and sounds delicious….can’t go wrong there! :)
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I just love your posts! Great recipes, and you make me laugh! What a personality! Can’t wait to make this recipe!!!!
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Thanks Mary, you always make me smile. :)
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These look delicious! Great SRC pick
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What a great fall treat. YUM!
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BOOKMARKED my friend I have been searching for a perfect apple pie recipe like this :)
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
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These look amazing! I love the idea of combining cupcakes and pie!
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These look simply beautiful!! The pictures are awesome!
Clyde the pacman ghost? Really? :-)
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You can thank Dennis for that one. He was cooking the apples while I was cutting the cones out of the cupcakes and he said, “look, Clyde the Pac-Man ghost!” He cracks me up. :)
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Oh dear God I love your sister! And I haven’t even met her :) She makes THE best faces of all time. I love your photos of these cupcakes. I love the idea of the apple pie filling in a cupcake. I had Jamie’s blog once for SRC too… such a good blog! Great selection.
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LOL, I know, she’s quite the character. I marked a ton of Jamie’s recipes and was glad to have a reason to finally give up trying to choose and make on based on necessity.
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These look fantastic! Maybe I’ll do these for Thanksgiving instead of pie!
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I’m sure they’d be a hit! People were telling me to take them on cupcakes wars before they even tasted them b/c they thought they looked so neat.
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Apple Pie + Cupcake = Heaven!
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yum those look so good!! I never thought you could make an apple pie into a cupcake but that is pretty darn clever. The picture of your sister is hilarious, I bet popeye would prefer those cupcakes over spinach :)
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I don’t know about Popeye, but I sure do…and I actually love spinach straight from the can just like Popeye. I’m a weird one.
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I love anything apple pie!
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You are the sweetest. Thanks for all the recipes and tips.
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There aren’t many things that could be better than cupcakes and apple pie in one! Great job!
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Clyde!!!! You are too funny! I love this idea. How cute would it have been if you had used a mini-ice cream/cookie scoop to scoop on the frosting like a dip of ice cream? And then you could have drizzled it with caramel…..and then you could have sprinkled it with cinnamon….whoa…I better stop now! :)
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You are a friggin genius! Why didn’t I think of that? I’m so sad now-lol! I did try piping on a lattice pattern to resemble crust and it utterly failed so I went with the swirl. If I make these again, I’m stealing ALL your ideas. :)
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nothing wrong with these! Love! Look delicious!
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These cupcakes look amazing. I remember being confused between these and the recipe I chose when I had the same blog as my assignment. Now I know I want to try these too!
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You should! :)
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This is such an awesome idea! They look good and I wish I had one now. I am still on my sweet tooth kick too…incredible I know! ;)
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Wow, this is like a world record. For…person who hates sweets liking them for any period of time? Think there’s any kind of record for that? Well if so, you’ve surely beat it! lol
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We should check V, maybe there’s a prize…lol! ;)
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Love these…and the filling! I would probably eat up all the apples first. Great pick!
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Jamie did suggest doubling the filling so you could eat half of it before using it on the cucpcakes! lol!
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whoa, great SRC choice :)
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Oh my goodness, this is my idea of cake heaven! Can’t wait to try!
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I am quite glad you chose these cupcakes because they look like a dream come true! All the fabulousness of apple pie in cupcake form…can’t go wrong!
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Haha….Popeye, sister…I’m giggling for sure. There’s nothing funny about those cupcakes, hello apple pie in a cake. Seriously killer!
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These look so yummy. Loving Clyde the pacman ghost!
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Oh, my. These look amazing! I’m a sucker for apple desserts, but this combines cake, pie, and frosting….love it! Great SRC pick, Veronica!
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Thanks for the kind words! I’m so glad you liked them – I thought those cupcakes were sooooo delic!
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They’re so beautiful and unique! Apples are my most favoritest fruit filling!
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I love them too. I’m kind of having an applesauce thing right now–I just made my second batch in two weeks. But this time I’m turning most of it into apple butter for gifts. I added vanilla bean and rum and brown sugar and tastes really good. I hope it’s just as good once it’s cooked down.
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YUM! these look fantastic =) You are so clever, my friend!
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Well, maybe sometimes, but usually (as in this instance) I’m just a good copycat. hehe
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you really are the cupcakes queen! look a that. simply heavenly…
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whats the “cone method”?
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