Apple Pie Cupcakes

Hey everyone! I'm Meg's sister, Katie, and I'll be the lucky guest baker for the moment. Anyway, we had a surplus of apples in the house and I decided that these cupcakes were the perfect solution to our "problem". This recipe is pretty easy and doesn't take too long... probably about an hour and a half with prep, cook time and cooling. I followed the original recipe to the nail, except to put a tad more butter into the apple glaze and to substitute Cool Whip for vanilla buttercream icing. I was too lazy to make my own icing and I figured the Cool Whip was light and would complement the cupcakes nicely (which it did).

Ingredients:

For the Cupcake:
3 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk

For the Apple Filling:
2 tbsp. butter (I used 3 tbsp. to make it easier to mix in with the apples.)
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 tbsp. sugar
3 apples (I used Honeycrisp.. the original suggested Granny Smith.) peeled, sliced and diced

For the Icing:
Cool Whip (the original suggested vanilla buttercream but I was lazy and thought it might be too sugary.)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F) so the oven will be ready to go when your batter is good to go. Take out your cupcake tins (you should be able to make 24 cupcakes) and line them with cupcake liners or use Pam to make sure the cupcakes don't stick.

Let's start with the cupcakes!

First combine your flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and mix with a fork or something of that sort. Then you'll want to get out another slightly bigger mixing bowl. In this bowl, combine the butter and sugar and mix on medium with an electric mixer. Mix these until they are somewhat light and fluffy; it should take a minute or two. Next, beat in the eggs one at a time and then add in the vanilla extract and mix. Now you'll want to add in your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) alternating it with the milk (start and end with the dry ingredients). Beat this all until it resembles cupcake batter!

After this is done, divide and pour the batter into the cupcake tins. Fill each of them about 2/3 of the way and put them in the oven. Let them bake for about 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Take them out when they're done and let them cool.

Now for the apple filling.

You'll want to use a medium skillet over medium-high heat on the stove to heat the butter. Once it is nice and melted, add your cinnamon and sugar and mix it. Soon it will start to bubble and you will want to turn down the heat to medium. Next you will add your diced apples and mix those in nicely with the glaze. Let this cook for about 10 minutes or until tender. Now remove from the stove and let them cool.

Once your cupcakes are somewhat cooled, use the cone method to make room for the filling. The cone method basically consists of taking a knife and cutting out a circular cone shape from the center of the  cupcake. This will allow a nice little ditch for your apple filling to occupy. After all of your cupcakes are done being coned, add your apple filling. Now just add a dollop of Cool Whip (or vanilla buttercream) to the top and enjoy!

Source: Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats