Recipe of the Week - Apple Cupcakes

I have been using one specific cookbook for all of my recipes. I thought by using a cook book it would be easier to mark them off and to go in order. So far it has been going pretty well. I have made Chocolate Chip Cupcakes, Carrot Cupcakes, Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes and most recently Coconut Cupcakes and Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting. (Oh and I made some banana "Pup Cakes" for my puppies!)

Through this process of baking all the different types of cupcakes, I have been learning what different combinations of ingredients create the best cupcake. To me, a cupcake should be light and moist, never dense. I think a goal in the end (after I go through the whole cook book) is to create my own recipe. I think that would be a great achievement in my baking and learning!

Photo Credit: Chotda on Flickr

To not spoil any surprises of what cupcake comes next that I will be baking, I have decided to feature some other cupcake recipes that have been found elsewhere.

The following recipe is great if you want something unique but without enough time to create something from scratch! This recipe uses a boxed mix with some additional surprises.

Cupcakes:

1 box (18.25 oz) white cake mix
1 cup apple juice from frozen concentrate (save 1 1/2 Tbsp of the concentrate, undiluted, for icing)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored and coarsely grated
1 large egg
2 large egg whites

Icing:
1 brick (8 oz) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel), softened
1 1/2 Tbsp frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed
1 box (16 oz) confectioner’s sugar

Preparation:
1. Heat oven to 350ºF. You'll need 24 muffin cups lined with paper or foil cups.
2. Cupcakes: Combine cupcake ingredients in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer on low speed until ingredients are moistened. Increase speed to medium and beat 2 minutes, until batter is smooth.
3. Fill muffin cups with 1/4 cup batter. Bake 22 minutes or until a pick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack.
4. Icing: Beat cream cheese and apple juice concentrate with a mixer just until smooth. Beat in confectioners' sugar on low speed to mix; increase speed to medium and beat until well blended, about 1 minute more (icing will be soft).

You can also decorate the cupcakes with marzipan. See the picture below for some ideas.

Recipe from WomansDay

HAPPY FALL!