Toffee Apple Cupcakes

I've wanted to try out making toffee apple cupcakes for a while so I was really excited when I got my latest delivery of food flavourings hehe, I got apple, tropical punch & a re-stock of coconut since my levels were running low hehe, I really wish there was somewhere in the UK I could get all these flavourings :( it doesn't seem fair hehe. I decided to do a toffee flavour cake topped with apple buttercream, I then wanted to finish them with spun sugar...now this didn't turn out so well..ahem..imagine hot sugar on top of cool buttercream..yes my buttercream started to melt!! Oh dear, so two poor cuppycakes had to be rushed to the A&E of the fridge!! Luckily I only tried the spun sugar on two cupcakes and had to wrack my brain to think of how to decorate the rest, I wanted some crumble to put on top but I didn't really have the time to make any, I tried a slice of apple but it just looked odd and stodgy. Eventually I decided on drizzling some good old caramel sauce over them, yum! These cupcakes are really different to anything I've ever made before and the apple buttercream is so refreshing yummmyy!

Toffee Apple Cupcakes

Toffee Cupcakes
makes 16

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g light muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
210g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
60ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons golden syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk and golden syrup. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat!
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.

Apple Buttercream
175g butter, softened
250g icing sugar
2 teaspoons apple extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

1. Beat butter until light and fluffy, for about 5 minutes. Add icing sugar a bit at a time beating until incorporated, adding milk as required.
2. Beat in extracts and colouring until desired flavour and colour has been achieved.







Yumm!