Cinnamon Apple Pie Cupcakes

Our next door neighbors yard has a TON of fruit trees in it. We just had new neighbors move in and in between them moving in and our old neighbors moving out there was some time with no one living in the house... because of that their fruit trees are just overflowing with yummy fresh fruit and luckily for us they keep bringing us bags full! :) This last batch had a ton of apples, more than we could eat before they would go bad so I just had to come up with some way to use them!

I know it's not fall time and apple pie in the end of July just doesn't make sense-- but I just had to try! I've never made these before and I was very happy with how they turned out! I love making homemade  pie during the "normal" times- Thanksgiving and Christmas- so I decided to try and turn pie into a cupcake! I made the filling the same way I would for a pie, I just diced up the apples much smaller! 

I started with a box mix again as my base but didn't want an overwhelming vanilla flavor for the cake so I decided to make it a cinnamon cupcake. I started by adding very little cinnamon since it is so overpowering and worked up to 2 tsp. which I thought was a perfect amount; you could add more or less depending on how strong you want the cinnamon flavor. 

Once I divided the batter amount the cups I then used a tablespoon to spoon in the filling. I didn't attempt to push it down, but think next time I might. Once the cupcakes were baked the apple filling wasn't as in the center as I would have liked but they sure are yummy! 

Once they were out of the oven and cooled they weren't exactly that pretty cupcake look that I like; but of course, frosting could cover any imperfection! When I think of apple pie, I think of it being topped with ice cream and thus- creamy, vanilla buttercream! 

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Cinnamon Apple Pie Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

Box Mix

½ cup melted butter- cooled

1 cup milk

3 eggs

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. brown sugar

2 tbsp. white sugar

Filling:

4 tbsp. butter

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. white sugar

2- 3 cups chopped apples

Juice of 1 small lemon

Frosting:

1 can buttercream

2 tsp. vanilla

¼ cup heavy cream

4-6 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Filling:

1.     Peel and chop up apples into dime size squares

2.     Add lemon juice to bowl of apples and stir to coat

3.     Add butter, cinnamon, brown sugar and white sugar to a sauce pan and heat on medium-low, stirring occasionally

4.     Once everything is melted together stir in apples, turn to low heat

5.     Heat until apples are just tender, set aside to cool

Cupcakes:

1.     Preheat oven to 350º, line cupcake pan with paper liners

2.     In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix on low the cake mix, cinnamon, brown sugar, and white sugar

3.     Melt butter and set aside to cool

4.     Add milk and butter to dry ingredients and mix on medium

5.     Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition

6.     Mix on medium about 60-90 seconds until well mixed

7.     Divide batter between cupcake pans, filling about ½ full

8.     Scoop about a tbsp. of apple pie filling into each cup

9.     Place cupcake pans in oven and immediately turn oven down to 325º

10.  Bake for 20-23 minutes

Frosting:

1.     Add buttercream, vanilla, and heavy cream to the bowl of your stand mixer

2.     Beat on low until well mixed

3.     Add powdered sugar and mix on low, add more or less powdered sugar based on desired consistency

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I saw these super cute mini breakable cookies at the grocery store and I had to have them... and then I decided, what would be better than a cookie dough cupcake?! In order to keep the cookie dough from being cookies its crucial that the dough be frozen, I let mine freeze for about 2 hours on a cookie sheet prior to baking them. This allowed them to still be cookie dough and for the cupcakes to still look like cupcakes! 

Once the cookie dough was frozen I started working on the cupcakes. We went to WinCo the other day, they just opened one about 20 miles from us, to check it out and reminisce our college days! Nothing beat 10 boxes of Hot Pockets for $10 when we were poor college students! Thats 20 meals at $.50 a meal! Anyways, when we were there cake mixes were on sale so I grabbed a few. Starting with a cake mix definitely makes the process much easier and good results can still be had! 

After I divided the batter between the cups it was time to pull the cookie dough out of the freezer and add it to the batter. I pushed the cookies into the batter to ensure the batter would bake up and around them.  

When I pulled the cupcakes out of the oven I was pleasantly surprised to find majority of them cooked perfectly and only 1 or 2 over flowing the cup! The cookie dough did poke through on most of the cupcakes but since you can't have a cupcake without frosting, it didn't really matter! 

The frosting was very easy to make also! Along with the cake mixes, frosting was also on sale! I started with a can of buttercream as my base and added brown sugar to make that chocolate chip cookie flavor! Adding powdered sugar and heavy cream allows for you to be able to control the consistency of the frosting. This is probably the best piping frosting I've made yet! It is so thick and creamy, holds its shape, and doesn't need to be kept in the fridge to prevent melting! 

 I love the way the cupcakes turned out and I love that when you bite into them you can really see the cookie dough! 

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Yield: About 30

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

1 box vanilla cake mix

3-4 tbsp. packed brown sugar

1 cup milk

½ melted butter- cooled

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

30 breakable chocolate chip cookie dough, separated and frozen (about 2 hours in the freezer)

Frosting:

1 can store bought buttercream

4-5 tbsp. brown sugar

4-6 cups powdered sugar

3-4 tbsp. heavy cream

Directions

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350º, line cupcake pan with paper liners
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix on low the cake mix and brown sugar
3. Melt butter and set aside to cool
4. Stir vanilla into milk
5. Add milk and butter to dry ingredients and mix on medium
6. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition
7. Mix on medium about 60-90 seconds until well mixed
8. Divide batter between cupcake pans, filling about ½ full
9. Push frozen cookie dough into each cupcake
10. Place cupcake pans in oven and immediately turn oven down to 325º
11. Bake for 20-23 minutes 

Frosting:

1. Add buttercream to the bowl of your stand mixer.
2. Add brown sugar, mix on low.
3. With mixer on low, add powdered sugar and heavy cream until desired consistency.

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo

Kiwi Strawberry Cupcakes

We only go to Costco once in awhile, usually about once a month, and mainly to buy paper goods, water, and meat--the price is worth it! When we do go though we will sometimes buy fruit and veggies depending on what they have at the time. This time we got kiwi, and in Costco fashion- they only sale them in bulk! So, what to do with so much kiwi before it goes bad?!?! Bake with it of course! 

I've never baked with kiwi before so I wasn't sure how they would come out, but, they are delicious! I love kiwis and strawberries together so I decided to mix in some strawberries too. 

I pureed the kiwi but only chopped up the strawberries- next time I might try switching it up and see how that changes the flavor. I use a food processor attachment for my Cuisinart stand mixer to make my purees and it's awesome! I am seriously in love with my Cuisinart mixer! It is by far the best gift I have ever received!! (Thanks Mom!!)

I didn't strain the seeds and beat in the puree and then folded in the strawberries. The batter wasn't as green as I thought it would be- but maybe that's a good thing!! 

 The cupcakes baked up great and I love how you can see the strawberries and the kiwi seeds in the finished product! They also smelled delicious! Yumm! 

The cupcakes had a very mild kiwi flavor and a stronger strawberry flavor so I decided to make a kiwi only frosting. I made my frosting as I normally would have and then folded in chopped kiwi. I love that the frosting kept its white color but that I could see the kiwi chunks in it. 

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Kiwi Strawberry Cupcakes

Yield: about 18

Ingredients 

Cupcakes:

1½ cups flour- sifted

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

¼ cup milk

2 tsp. vanilla

½ cup unsalted butter

1¼ cups sugar

1 egg

2 egg whites

2/3 cup Kiwi Puree

1 cup chopped strawberries

Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese

½ cup butter

3 tbsp. heavy cream

3-6 cups of powdered sugar- sifted

7 oz marshmallow fluff

5-6 tbsp. chopped kiwi

Directions:

Cupcakes:

1.    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with paper liners


2.    In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

3.    In a separate bowl stir milk, vanilla, and kiwi puree.

4.    In the bowl of your stand mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

5.    Add eggs, one at a time, and mix well after each addition.

6.    Add ½ flour mixture and mix well.

7.    Add liquid mixture, mix well.

8.    Add remaining flour mixture, mix until incorporated.

9.    Fold in strawberry chunks.

10. Divide batter between cups, about ⅔ full.

11. Place pans in oven and immediately turn oven down to 325º. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning half way if your oven (like mine) doesn’t cook evenly.

Frosting:

1.    In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth.

2.    Beat in heavy cream.

3.    On low, add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

4.    Stir in marshmallow fluff until well incorporated.

5.    Fold in chopped kiwi.

6.    Garnish with kiwi slices. 

 Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo