Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes with Caramel Icing

These cupcakes are incredible. There's no other way to describe them. SO GOOD. The best apple flavored food you'll ever eat. I'm not even exaggerating. For reals. I made them the other day for a church dinner and they were a huge hit! I found them on Pinterest, but the recipe was on the picture and didn't connect to a blog so I'll just copy the recipe here.

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes with Caramel Icing

1 C Flour

1 t Baking Soda

1/2 t Salt

1 t Cinnamon

1/2 t Nutmeg

Pinch of Cloves

1 C Sugar

1 Egg

1/4 C Oil

2 C Peeled and Sliced Apples

Icing

1/2 Stick Butter

1/2 C Brown Sugar

1/4 C Heavy Cream

1 t Vanilla

Makes 12 cupcakes. Preheat oven to 350. Mix together all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl cream together sugar, egg, and oil. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Add the apples and mix thoroughly. The batter will be really thick, so you'll want to mix the apples so they let off some of their juice. Scoop into baking cups and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. While the cupcakes are baking prepare the icing. In a small saucepan melt the butter and heavy cream on medium heat. Add the brown sugar and bowl for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Let cool. Drizzle over cooled cupcakes and enjoy! 

P.S. This is my 150th post! Crazy, right??

Butterfly Chocolate Cupcakes

The other day I was in charge of making dessert for a dinner we were having at a friend's house. Of course I wanted to make something complicated. Here enters Pinterest :) I had been wanting to make these chocolate butterflies for a while now and this was the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, the instructions specifically said "use almond bark. Do NOT use chocolate chips, they will not hold the shape." Well the store didn't have almond bark and really how bad could chocolate chips be? Lesson learned: when it says don't use chocolate chips, don't use chocolate chips. They turned out fine, but not great. They still tasted fantastic though! Recipe at the bottom, as always.

Chocolate Cupcakes

1 2/3 C Flour

1 1/2 C Sugar

1/2 C Cocoa

1 1/2 t Baking Soda

1 t Salt

1/2 t Baking Powder

2 Eggs

1/2 C Shortening (I used butter)

1 1/2 C Buttermilk (or sour milk)

1 t Vanilla Extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the dry ingredients. Add the eggs, shortening, buttermilk, and vanilla and mix for 3 minutes. Fill the muffin cups 1/2 full. I actually filled mine a little more than that, about 2/3rds full, because I wanted a little poof top to the cupcakes. Bake 18-20 minutes or until the cupcake bounces back when you touch it. 

Mocha Frosting 

Warning: This is the best frosting I have ever had in my entire life. You will be addicted.

1 Stick Butter

1/2 C Cocoa

1/3 C Milk

1 t Vanilla

1 T Instant Coffee

2 2/3 C Powdered Sugar

Butterfly Toppers:

Melt your almond bark in a double boiler. You can put the melted chocolate in a cake decorating bag or a ziplock bag, just make sure the tip you are piping out of is big enough to create a thick piping line. Pipe the chocolate flat onto wax paper using a pattern. If you trace the pattern onto the paper instead of just placing it behind the paper make sure to flip the wax paper over. You don't want to eat sharpie! ;) After you pipe the butterfly put the wax paper on an open book and chill it in the fridge until firm. Enjoy!

Brownie Cupcakes

I actually made these quite a while ago and I just haven't had a chance to post them. That happens sometimes when all I do is load the pictures onto my computer. I forget about them and then a month later I remember that I haven't told y'all how to make deliciousness in a while, and then I remember these cupcakes! Anyway, they are dark chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. (side-note: my dad hates frosting. He won't eat it. He scrapes it off his cake and gives it to my mom. But he likes this icing! That's got to tell you it's good, right?) Back to the cupcakes. They taste a little like brownies spread with creamy peanut butter. Bottom line, they're delicious.

I got the recipe here, but I'll type it out for you too, so you don't have to go to two links. I don't know about you, but I find that annoying, so I try not to do it.

For the Cupcakes:

1 Stick Butter

2 oz Chocolate Chips

1/2 C Cocoa Powder

3/4 C Flour

1/2 t Baking Soda

3/4 t Baking Powder

2 Eggs

3/4 C Sugar

1 t Vanilla Extract

1/2 t Salt

1/2 C Sour Cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat butter, chocolate chips, and cocoa on medium heat until melted and combined. Stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix together eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add chocolate mixture. Add flour mixture and sour cream alternately. Bake 18-20 minutes.

For the Peanut Butter Frosting:

1 C Powdered Sugar

1 C Peanut Butter

5 T Butter

3/4 t Vanilla Extract

1/4 t Salt

1/3 C Heavy Cream

Mix all ingredients except the cream on medium-low speed until creamy. Add the heavy cream and mix. If you want thicker icing you can add more powdered sugar. If you want thinner icing add more heavy cream. Enjoy!