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

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