Caramel Apple Cupcakes

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These Caramel Apple Cupcakes are made with a spiced apple cupcake and topped with caramel buttercream. They melt in your mouth and are such a delicious apple dessert idea!

This recipe uses my Easy Salted Caramel Sauce as an ingredient. It’s the best caramel ever!

So today’s recipe is actually an update of a recipe from back in 2015. The older version was based on my very first vanilla cupcake recipe I shared on this site. It was a much denser cupcake. Today’s update is based on my new Easy Homemade Vanilla Cupcakes, which are light and fluffy and have been a favorite for a while now. Given that I love the new vanilla cupcakes so much, it seemed appropriate to update this wonderful fall dessert with my BEST version!

Despite the update, the flavors and such are quite similar. It’s the execution that’s a bit different. These cupcakes are still full of cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, apples and caramel. But they now use the more traditional creaming method and ultimately come out quite differently in texture.

Cupcake Ingredients

While you don’t really need to hear all about every ingredient, I thought I’d highlight the more significant ones:

• Cinnamon and Nutmeg: For the perfect fall apple flavors.
• Butter and Oil: I like to use a combination of the two so that you have both the great flavor of butter and the added moisture of the oil.
• Brown Sugar: This recipe uses regular granulated sugar and brown sugar. The brown sugar adds extra flavor and warmth to these cupcakes.
• Sour Cream and Milk: The combination of sour cream and milk, as opposed to just milk, helps to thicken up the cupcake batter to keep the apples from sinking to the bottom while baking.
• Apples: You’ll want to peel your apples and then dice them so that you don’t have huge chunks in your cupcakes. I used Granny Smith apples, but other varieties such as Honeycrisp would work well too.

Caramel Buttercream Ingredients

Naturally, this buttercream has plenty of butter in it. Additionally, you’ll find:

• Powdered Sugar: I’m often asked about reducing powdered sugar amounts and it’s hard to answer that sometimes. For me, a thicker buttercream is preferred so I’d say don’t. But if you are ok with a thinner buttercream that doesn’t hold up as well to some piping, you can certainly reduce it. It’s kind of a preference thing, in addition to a consistency thing.
• Caramel Sauce: I mentioned before that I used a homemade caramel sauce and that’s definitely what I recommend here. Often store bought sauces are much thinner and will thin out your frosting more quickly without adding as much flavor. My homemade sauce is thick enough and has lots of flavor so that you’ll end up with a flavorful buttercream that still has a nice consistency to it.
• Cinnamon: Optional, but I do love my cinnamon.

How to make Caramel Apple Cupcakes

As mentioned before, these cupcakes use the creaming method. So to get started, you’ll combine your butter, oil and sugars and cream them together for about three minutes. Don’t skimp on that time! It adds air to the batter that helps the cupcakes rise. You’ll actually be able to see a noticeable difference in the color and texture of the mixture when it’s ready.

Next, you’ll add the vanilla and sour cream, then the eggs one at a time.

After that, you’ll alternate adding your dry ingredients and milk.

Finally, you’ll fold in your chopped apples. Pretty straightforward, right?!

When your cupcakes are baked and cooled, you’ll make your caramel buttercream. Beat your butter until smooth, then add about half of the powdered sugar.

Add some of the caramel sauce next, then add the remainder of the powdered sugar.

Now that you know just how thick your powdered sugar is, you can add more caramel sauce until you have both the consistency and flavor you want. If you’re adding the cinnamon, you can do that too.

Finally, pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and decorate them with a caramel drizzle and apple slice.

For an even more detailed look at how to make these cupcakes, check out the video below where I walk you through the whole process.

Watch How To Make Them

Read Transcript

You might also like these apple dessert recipes:

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Blondie Trifle
Easy Caramel Apple Cheesecake
Caramel Apple Pecan Layer Cake
Caramel Apple Trifles
Caramel Apple Blondie Cheesecake
Caramel Apple Cookie Cups
Caramel Apple Pie Bars

Recipe updated 8/18/2020. For the previous version of the recipe, download the PDF.

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Enjoy!