Caramel Apple Pie Cupcakes ♥

Fall Caramel Apple Pie Cupcakes ♥

These are a few of my favorite things...

about Fall.

By: Amanda Cupcake

 The cupcake is a conglomeration of spicy fall flavors swirled with salted caramel frosting, dripping with caramel on top. A mini handmade apple pie rests on top of each little cupcake creation (and although some might say the pies are too pretty to be eaten, I say that the pies are yummier because they are pretty!)

..And a surprise inside! 

Do you see the apple pie that is baked inside?

Pie and Cake together..I've said before..and I will say it again.

Somehow this pie & cake combo is a movement toward World Peace. (because..it unites pie & cake people!):

Watch my video tutorial here on how to bake a pie inside of a cupcake:

..The recipe for Fall in a Cupcake here, from start to finish:

Your first step,  Mini Handmade Apple Pies, by you:

Use a ready made crust…Pillsbury is the ready-made pie crust I recommend!

Ingredients Needed:

Apples (4-6 depending on how many mini pies you are making)

Dash of lemon juice

¼ Cup of Sugar

1 Tablespoon of All Purpose Flour

1/2 Tsp ground Cinnamon

1/8 Tsp Ground Nutmeg

For Mini Pie Crusts:

1. Use tartlett cutters as your tools to cut out pie crust shapes.
2. Take out a mini cupcake pan, and spray with non stick spray.
3. Mold the mini pie crusts into the mini cupcake liners. Make sure they are deep enough to get filled with delicious pie filling
**I always bake enough mini pies to bake inside of the cupcakes and also to use as decoration for the top of the cupcakes. For example: If you are baking 18 cupcakes, you'll need to bake 36 pies.  One pie for the inside of each cupcake, and one pie for the top of each cupcake.

For Filling:
1. Dice apples as tiny as you can get them (they have to be able to fit into a mini pie crust).
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg together.

3. Add diced apple to this mixture and toss all of the ingredients together.

4. Fill each of the mini pies with your apple pie filling and bake at 350-375 for appx 15-20 minutes, until crust is crispy and brown (but not burnt or overbaked).

To take pies out of the pie crusts:
Use a toothpick or a fork.  They come out of the mini pie pans best after cooling in the mini cupcake pan for about 10-15 minutes (so they are still slightly warm).

Your second step..Spiced Cupcake Batter:

Dry Ingredients:

2 Cups all-purpose Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger

Creaming Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Butter, Softened
1 1/4 C Packed Brown Sugar
3 Large Eggs

Liquid Ingredients:
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/1/4 C Milk

Instructions:
1. Preheat the Oven to 325.
2. Line your cupcake pans with about 18 liners (this makes about 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes).
3. In one bowl, sift flour.
4. Add remaining dry ingredients and whisk together with flour.
5. In a second bowl, combine your liquid ingredients (milk & vanilla extract). Set aside.
5. Cream Sugar & Butter together in your mixer for about 2 -3 minutes. Make sure to scrape down the bowl as needed so all the delicious ingredients are evenly combined.
6. Add eggs one at a time and blend well.
7. Add one-third of flour mixture to the creamed mixture.
8. Add one third of liquid mixture.
9. Repeat about two times until all ingredients are evenly blended.
10. Remember: There may be some amazing yummy-ness being left on the bottom of your bowl so I would recommend scraping the bowl with a spatula several times throughout mixing.

Before you scoop the batter into the cupcake liners..read below:

Your Third Step, Baking the Mini Pies & Cupcakes together!

1.  Make sure your cupcake pan is lined with cupcake papers!
2.  Fill a ziploc or a piping bag with your cake batter.
3.  Pipe some cake batter into the bottom of your cupcake liner (with a small amount of batter - just enough to cover the bottom of liner) and stop here.
4. Place your mini pie on top of the batter.
5.  Pipe the cake batter on top of the pie, and fill liners about ¾ full.
6.  Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes.
7.  The result: A trip to the apple orchard inside of a cupcake.  (I like to cut the cupcake open and look inside before I eat it, because it looks so festive and pretty!)

Simple Salted Caramel Frosting:

Ingredients Needed:

1 Pound of Butter (cut up into squares)
6-8 Cups of Powdered Sugar3/4 Cup of Ready Made Caramel (You can find it in the ice cream section at the grocery store. I use Mrs. Richardsons brand).1 Tablespoon of Sea Salt1 Tablespoon of Vanilla

Instructions:

1. Blend Butter Squares in your mixer until creamy and light like butter should be.
2. Pour the caramel into the butter, and enjoy this moment. (It looks really pretty when you do, swirls of light caramel in the butter! Yum!)3. Blend your Butter & Caramel together until the mixture is a very light brown. Sadly, the swirls will disappear. But they have gone to a wonderful place.4. Mix in Sea Salt.5. Add The Vanilla Extract6. Make sure your mixer is turned down low. (Unless you want snow showers of powdered sugar which could be fun in some kitchens..)7. Gradually add the powdered sugar until the frosting looks light, airy, and dreamy.8. Optional: You can add 1 Tablespoon of Milk or Heavy Whipping Cream if you want a more "spreadable" frosting. (I add milk all the time to the frostings I use to spread on cakes).

For Decorating:  Cut a hole in the end of a disposable piping bag. You can push piping tip 1A through to the tip of the bag and swirl your frosting on with the tip! Or you can simply cut a hole at the end of the bag and pipe the frosting out ♥
Drizzle caramel on the top of your cupcake, and adorn each cupcake creation with a second mini apple pie!

Thankful for Cupcake Smorgasbords!

I came up with this Crazy Smorgasbord inside of one cupcake.

I wasn't even sure if it was possible. I am very thankful that it is.

The bottom layer of the cupcake is a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Crust.

I baked an apple crisp pie on the inside.

There is even a finely blended Cinnamon Toast Crunch on the inside of the apple crisp mixture.

I topped the Cupcake with a pretty swirl of Salted Caramel Frosting, mini apple crisp pies, and glittery crunchy pieces of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

I was inspired by creating cupcakes out of favorite Thanksgiving desserts.

And I love Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

I lined the bottom of my cupcake liner with this Cinnamon Toast Crunch "crust". Created by mixing 2 T of melted butter with 2 Cups of Crushed Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Then I added my batter & a mini apple crisp pie.

The last step-hiding the pie under the batter.

You would never know the pie is there!

I baked the pie inside the cupcake at 350 for 25 minutes.

And this was the fabulous result.

A pie like crust at the bottom of the cupcake-made out of cereal.

A pie inside of the cupcake.

Tiny little flavor morsels of Cinnamon Toast Crunch mixed in with fresh apples.

Look how cute the cupcake looks from the back!

You can try it too.

Here is the recipe:

For The Cupcakes: 

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt

Liquid Ingredients:
½ cup whole milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Creaming Ingredients:
2 Eggs
3/4 Cup + 2 T Sugar
4 T Unsalted Butter

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Crust Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Melted Butter
2 Cups of Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal, Finely Blended

Recipe for Cinnamon Toast Crunch Mini Apple Crisp Pies:


4 Baking Apples (sliced into tiny tiny tiny thin slices or squares so they fit inside of the mini pie crusts)

Pillsbury Pie Crust

1/4 C of All Purpose Flour

5 Tablespoons of Sugar

1/4 Tsp of Cinnamon (you can add more or less depending on how much cinnamon you like)

1/2 Cup of Finely Grounded Apple Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Apple Crisp Mix-I find this in the produce section by the apples. (This is the fastest way since everything else you are making with this recipe is from scratch! But feel free to make your own apple crisp if you have a great recipe).

2 - 3 Tablespoons of Melted Butter


DIRECTIONS (How cake & pie & cereal unite, step by step):

First, Prepare your Mini Pies:

Preheat the oven to 375.

1. Roll out your pie crust, and use your mini pastry tins as "cutters" for the pie crust that will fit nicely into your mini pie tin. You can set all the finished pie tins on a cookie sheet so they are oven ready.

2. Prepare the pie filling: Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice.

3. Toss your mini apple slices into the pie filling mixture.

4. Prepare your apple crisp mix. Pour the Apple Crisp mix into a bowl, and add the finely blended Cinnamon Toast Crunch with butter to the mixture. Blend together with clean hands , a whisk, or a knife until your apple crisp is crumbly and cinnamon-y.

5. Combine the Apple Pie filling & The Apple Crisp Mix together.

6. Use a small spoon or a mini cookie dough scoop to fill the pie crust in the pastry tins with the apple crisp blend.

7. Bake the pies on a cookie sheet in the oven at 375 for approximately 20 minutes-or until pie crusts are golden brown.

8. After the pies are done baking they will need to cool for 20 minutes before baking them inside of the cupcakes.


While your pies are baking, you can prepare your cupcake batter:

1. Sift your flour and whisk all of your dry ingredients together in one medium sized bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, combine your liquid ingredients and set aside.
3. In your Kitchen Aid Mixer, cream your butter and sugar together until fluffy.
4. Add eggs to your creamed mixture one by one.
5. Alternate the addition of the dry ingredients and the liquid ingredients until well blended.
6. Now that your batter is mixed, you can prepare your Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cupcake Crust.
7. Combine the Cinnamon Toast Crunch & Melted Butter in a small bowl.

Once your pies have cooled and your cake batter is mixed, you are ready to create a Pie & Cupcake Smorgasbord!

1. Line your Cupcake Pan with 12 Liners.
2. Sprinkle a small amount of Cinnamon Toast Crunch Crust Mixture on the bottom of your Cupcake Liner.
3. Scoop a small amount of batter-just enough to cover the bottom of the liner into your cupcake liner.
4. Place your apple crisp pie on top of the batter.Make sure the pie doesn't touch the bottom of the cupcake liner.
5. Scoop a small amount of batter and cover the apple crisp pie so it is hiding inside of the cupcake.
6. Repeat this with all 12 Cupcakes.
7. Bake at 350 for approximately 20-25 minutes depending on your oven.
8. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.


Frosting Recipe:

Simple & Quick Salted Caramel Frosting

Ingredients Needed:

1 Pound of Butter (cut up into squares)
4 Cups of Powdered Sugar
3/4 Cup of Ready Made Caramel (You can find it in the ice cream section at the grocery store).
1 Tablespoon of Sea Salt
1 Tablespoon of Vanilla

Instructions:

1. Blend Butter Squares in your mixer until creamy and light like butter should be.

2. Pour the caramel into the butter, and enjoy this moment. (It looks really pretty when you do, swirls of light caramel in the butter! Yum!)

3. Blend your Butter & Caramel together until the mixture is a very light brown. Sadly, the swirls will disappear. But they have gone to a wonderful place.

4. Mix in Sea Salt.

5. Add The Vanilla Extract

6. Make sure your mixer is turned down low. (Unless you want snow showers of powdered sugar which could be fun in some kitchens..)

7. Gradually add the powdered sugar until the frosting looks light, airy, and dreamy.

8. Optional: You can add 1 Tablespoon of Milk or Heavy Whipping Cream if you want a more "spreadable" frosting.

My Second TV Appearance

I had a blast at Fox 11 Good Day Wisconsin yesterday on my second TV Appearance.
I was a bit nervous, but I just remembered that I needed to be true to Amanda Cupcake!
And I was.  I demonstrated how to make pies inside of a cake. And how to make Spice / Vanilla Cupcakes with Apple Butter on the inside.

Angela loved my salted caramel frosting. That was probably my favorite part!
I posted the recipes on Fox 11's website.

No more words needed...the video will say it all! ♥
Click here to watch it.

Some pictures my friend took while watching it.
I got a kick out of these:

This one makes me smile.
His cheeks are full because he is eating my pie cake!
After he ate it he exclaimed, "Amanda Cupcake makes me happy!"

and...this is what we ate *after* the taping:

Cherry Apple Blueberry Pie Cake!

Vanilla Cupcake with Apple Butter Baked Inside & Salted Caramel Frosting!

Apple Pie Cake-Spice Cake-Apple Pie Cake! 

A Fall Romance

The truth is out.
I am in love......

                                                    With Fall.


Trips to the apple orchard.
Cuddling by a fire.
Little Twinkly Orange Lights.
Crispy Air.
Jumping in the leaves.
Little bags of candy pumpkins
That tingly feeling in the air that is cold..and warm at the same time.
The excuse to wear a costume and be your own superhero.

The treasured beauty that will soon be covered by a blanket of snow and ice.

Because I am in love.. I would like  to re-invent the "feel of fall" in every delicious delight I bake.

Like my chocolate cherry red velvet leaf cupcakes ♥

Last Saturday, fall romance was definitely in the air. My Orange Dreamsicle Cake Pops Sparkled at Mollie & Sean's Wedding. ♥

Don't they remind you of orange twinkly lights on the porch on an October evening?

                                                         ♥

Last Thursday it was Donna and Bill's Fall Anniversary.
So I invited them to join me at an apple orchard party .. complete with handmade banners on top of a cake.

See the original blog about it here.
The inside of the cake looked like this!

Cake & Apple Pie. Spice Cake. Repeat. Cake & Apple Pie!

And after popular demand..I decided to turn this wonderful blog into a tutorial about how I made such an edible delight.

First of all..

I tend to make a mess when I bake.

Look at how much frosting (or is it cake batter?) I got in my hair.

This happens every time.
But in my kitchen, when the frosting or batter goes flying, it just means I am completely inspired and having a great time!

This photo was the perfect inspiration for the flavor of the cake.

Caramel, Apples.

                
The cake itself was vanilla, spice, and apple pie.
With a salted caramel frosting.
There's a recipe for quick & easy salted caramel frosting that you can make at home below. ♥

I needed about 6 cups of apples per pie.

So the first thing I did..was peel a lot of apples.

12 cups of apples to be exact.

I had to make two pies for this special cake.

Here are the famous apple pies I baked.

They didn't have to be beautiful on the outside.

Just YUMMY on the inside.

After all, they are supposed to hide inside of the cake!

I used two of these deep 10" pans to combine my cake & pie.

It is a beautiful pie & cake disaster if you don't remember to flour & butter them before pouring in the batter.

First I coated the bottom of the pan with white cake batter.

(You can add vanilla bean to your favorite white cake recipe-or even a white cake mix to give it an organic rustic apple orchard feel)!

Next I carefully placed my 9" pie on top of the batter.

Started to pour the batter over the top of the pie..

I completely covered the pie with batter!

It seems like magic, doesn't it?

A pie hiding inside of a cake.

Oh my.

I baked both cakes at 350 for about 40 minutes each.

I even baked a third spice cake and sandwiched it in between the layers.

The people at the party were so happy with the cake that they asked me to sit down and eat it with them. This was my piece.

Stacking The Cakes:

1. Freeze your cakes for a few hours before even trying to stack them.
2. Once frozen, I "leveled" the top of my cakes using a cake leveler.
3. I frosted the top of each cake with my salted caramel buttercream.
4. The stickiness of the frosting in between each layer is ideal for stacking.
5. I used a giant cake spatula to frost the top & the outside of the cake.

I sprinkled cinnamon and gold glitter on the top!

I used pretzel sticks instead of lollypop sticks for a personalized cake topper. They look sort of "rustic" like sticks!

Salted Caramel Frosting:
There are many ways to make caramel. And frosting.
But this recipe is the quickest and easiest way to make salted caramel buttercream frosting at home.

Ingredients Needed:
♥1 Pound of Butter (cut up into squares)
♥4 Cups of Powdered Sugar
♥3/4 Cup of Ready Made Caramel (You can find it in the ice cream section at the grocery store).
♥1 Tablespoon of Sea Salt
♥1 Tablespoon of Vanilla

 Instructions:
1. Blend Butter Squares in your mixer until creamy and light like butter should be.
2. Pour the caramel into the butter, and enjoy this moment. (It looks really pretty when you do, swirls of light caramel in the butter! Yum!)
3. Blend your Butter & Caramel together until the mixture is a very light brown. Sadly, the swirls will disappear. But they have gone to a wonderful place.
4. Mix in Sea Salt.
5. Add The Vanilla Extract
6. Make sure your mixer is turned down low. (Unless you want snow showers of powdered sugar which could be fun in some kitchens..)
7. Gradually add the powdered sugar until the frosting looks light, airy, and dreamy.
8. Optional: You can add 1 Tablespoon of Milk or Heavy Whipping Cream if you want a more "spreadable" frosting. (I add milk all the time to the frostings I use to spread on cakes).

This is the texture that makes you want a spoon. ♥

Amanda-Pie

You know how I always say I am trying to create some kind of world peace by uniting cupcakes with pie? Well, crazy little me decided to take on the pie-cake-pie-cake combo this week.
I am going to call it the Amanda-pie.

I was talking to my new friend Bryon a few weeks ago when he ordered the cake for his parents Birthday/ Anniversary celebration.  He was thinking....Maybe something Fall-Esque. Maybe something with Apples in it.

I had my mind made up.

I had to merge cake and apple pie together the way that I do cupcakes.

(See my cupcake-pie combo here).

As risky as I knew this adventure was ..

it worked!

A three tier cake:  

Tier 1: Vanilla Bean Cake with an Apple Pie Baked on The Inside.

Tier 2:  A Thin Spice Cake

Tier 3: Repeate Tier 1.

I was inspired by the "Cherpumple" Cake♥

 

The lovely couple celebrating.

The theme of the cake definitely had to be..

 Warm.

Like a Fall Romance.

Like this mini Spice Cupcake that I baked separately & used as a cake topper...

disguising itself as a caramel apple!

  Complete with Donna and Bill's name in lights.

Or Pretty Sparkly Banners that catch the light at least.. ♥

A Fall Celebration on a cake!

Maybe like visiting an Apple Orchard, Partying, and Eating Cake in one room..with all the people that love you?

Since I am Amanda Cupcake I had to add cupcakes.

Spiced Cupcakes that look like caramel apples with romantic pretzel sticks as the "craft stick."

I even hid little cinnamon apple pieces inside the miniature cupcakes.

The banner says it all.

Happy Birthday.

Happy Anniversary.

Fall is In the Air. ♥

And yes..don't forget.

There are apple pies inside of this cake!

These are all the apple slices that I peeled.

And the pies that I baked from scratch.

(Ok, my pie beautifying skills aren't quite as lovely as my cake making skills. But I am determined to master it!) But for now..the pies were *delicious* and were going to blend right into the cake beautifully.

With some salted caramel buttercream frosting.

I actually received a round of applause when the cake was cut!

It must have been the apron.

Or perhaps it was the Amanda-pie. ♥