"An Apple a Day" Cupcakes

An Apple for the Teacher,

You are the Apple of My Eye,

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away,

How you Like Them Apples?,

Snow White ate a poison apple,

and then there was

The famous Twilight Apple from the Twilight Book

Apples, Apples Everywhere!

These Apples, however, are for Back to School!

 

 The design is from the "What's New, Cupcake?" book.

 But, before the design is created we must start with a cupcake! Liz from Hoosier Homemade made her back to school cupcakes this year from a recipe in the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Book. I thought that was an awesome idea! That is one of my personal favorite cupcake books, so I decided to do same. I just wanted to make enough cupcakes for the design, so I cut the recipe in half. Below you will find the recipe...halved.

Ingredients for 10 Applesauce-Spice Cupcakes

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/8 tsp salt (or 1/4 + 1/8 tsp...since I don't have a 3/8 spoon!)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/16 tsp cloves (just eyeballed it using the 1/8 spoon!)

1/4 cup butter (I used 1/4 cup margarine)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs- room temperature

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional- I skipped them)

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Mix first 6 ingredients (Flour, baking soda, salt and spices) in medium bowl and set aside. Cream together in mixing bowl, both regular sugar and brown sugar with margarine. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing in between each. Add in applesauce. Add in flour mixture just until mixed. Stir in nuts, if desired. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until tooth pick inserted comes out with very little crumb. 

Let cool.

   

 Supplies for Cupcake Decoration

canned vanilla frosting (I used Pillsbury Vanilla)

red food gel (I used Wilton)

mini doughnuts (I used Little Debbie)

tootsie rolls

mint leaves (or green pliable candy, fondant or green icing)

1 container of red sugar (I used Wilton 3.25 ounce)

black candy coated sunflower seeds (I used purple!)

  

While cupcakes are cooling, reserve 1 teaspoon of vanilla icing for the bite in the apple and begin coloring your canned vanilla frosting red with gel paste. It doesn't have to be red red, the sugar covers up most of it.

Frost the cupcake and then top with a doughnut. I used the entire doughnut just scrapping the chocolate off the bottom to make sure in adhered. Depending on the size of mini doughnut you use you may have to cut a little more off. Once your cupcakes are frosted with a doughnut on top, put them in the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Put the container of red sugar in a bowl, I found a salsa type bowl worked perfect.

Working with one cupcake out of the freezer at a time, frost the doughnut topped cupcake filling in any spaces. Roll in red sugar. You will find after the cupcake is rolled in sugar, you can shape it a little better and then re-roll to cover any spots that frosting may be showing through. Top with a Tootsie Roll cut in half lengthwise and shape into stem. One Tootsie Roll makes 2 stems. Add fresh mint leaves by the stem, I pushed the in slightly with a toothpick. You could use green pliable candy, rolled gum drops, or fondant cut into a leaf shape, or pip on a leaf with green icing.

They remind me of a Snow White or Twilight Apple.

For the mouth bite, I used a small paring knife and cut out a circle shape and then filled the hole with the reserved white frosting. I dipped my finger in cornstarch to help push the icing into place. I just happened to find candy coated colored sunflower seed at the Dollar Tree store. They were only in rainbow colors. I tried to color one black with Wilton Food Writers, but that didn't work, so my apples have purple seeds! I just made one apple with the bite, if you would like to make more like this you will need to reserve about a tablespoon of white frosting.

I did save a cupcake for sampling without all the goodies on top. It is a little sticky (may be from something I did), but taste great even without frosting! This Applesauce-Spice Cupcake makes a great anytime cupcake. Once the cupcake is all decorated...it is quite messy, but super cute!

So that's it, the cupcakes that I made for back to school this year! It is also the beginning of the end, it is my son's senior year of highschool. It feels like I was just crying while dropping him off at preschool and here we are in his senior year, soon I will be crying again! That also means, another excuse to bake! I can't wait to start making graduation designed sweets this school year! I already have lots pinned on Pinterest!

  

Happy Back to School Everyone!

 

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These Cupcakes are shared at:

Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday

Rook No.17: A Little Birdie Told Me

The Kurtz Corner: Tuesday Tutorials
Crazy for Crust: Crazy Sweet Tuesday
Chef in Training: Tuesday Talent Show
Lady Behind the Curtain: Cast Party Wednesday
This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked
Daily Organized Chaos: Foodie Wednesday
Pinch of This, That, and the Other: Whisking Wednesdays

All Around My Family Table: Turning the Table Thursday
Dollars and Cents: Sweet Temptations
Something Swanky: Sweet Treats Thursday
Miz Helen's Country Cottage: Full Plate Thursday
Coupon Cookin': Tasty Traditions
Bizzy Bakes: Bake with Bizzy
Happy Hour Projects: Freestyle Friday
Bacon Time: Party Mindie Style
Tidy Mom: I'm Lovin' It
Mangoes and Chutney: Fat Camp Friday
Sweet as Sugar Cookies: Sweets for a Saturday
Crumbs and Chaos: Seasonal Inspiration
A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Everyday Sisters: Sharing Sundays (Apple Recipes)
One Artsy Mama: Falling for Crafts Challenge #2
Moms Crazy Cooking: This Weeks Cravings (Apples)
It's a Blog Party: Fall Fest 2011- Week 3 Apples
 
These Cupcakes were featured at:
The Kurtz Corner
Rook No. 17
Bacon Time



Quick & Easy Easter Cupcakes

Short on time? Need to bring some cupcakes to work or for school? These cupcakes are for you!

No huge tutorial here, you don't need it! I used a Betty Crocker Spring Party Chip Cake mix made with unsweetened applesauce instead of oil in the same amount, just drop the water down to 1 cup. Bake for 17 minutes and cool, they cool pretty quick, within 15 minutes they were ready to decorate. The frosting is store bought, Pillsbury Spring Funfetti frosting, 2 containers of it to decorate the 24 cupcakes. Put the frosting in your piping bag with the Wilton 1M tip. Sprinkle the tops with the sprinkles that come with the Pillsbury Spring Funfetti frosting and top with a Wilton Bunny Icing Candy and wallah, your done! 

Super quick, super easy, super fun, in under an hour!

This Cupcake is linked to Cupcake Tuesday- where you can find new cupcake ideas every Tuesday!

Hello Kitty- Apples and Bananas Cupcakes

These cupcakes taste great without icing, they are low calorie and low fat, and really could be eaten for breakfast or a lunchbox snack! However, I have leftover icing from my Wilton Decorating class this week and Hello Kitty liners and Candies that are begging to be used!

I started by finding a Banana Cupcake Recipe that I liked from Disney Family Fun and then changed it up a bit to suit my tastes. This recipe makes 23 standard sized cupcakes.

Ingredients

2 Cups All Purpose Flour

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Cup Applesauce*

1-1/3 Cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1 Teaspoon Wilton Clear Almond Flavoring*

3/4 Cup Milk (I used 1%)

3 Mashed Bananas (about 1-1/4 Cup)*

(*These are the ingredients that I changed from the original recipe)

Preheat oven to 375. Mix together the applesauce and sugar, then beat in the eggs, added baking soda and salt and alternately add in the flour and milk, finally add in the bananas, mixing on low until combined. I filled 23 liners about 3/4 full and baked for 19 minutes. Take the cupcakes out of pans and cool on wire rack until fully cooled. I like to put a papertowel on top of the wire rack so that the cupcake doesn't get grooves in the bottom. I find by cooling them this way the wrapper stays nicer and peels of easier.

I calculate these cupcakes (with no icing) to be only about 110 calories each with only about 1 gram of fat. I came to this calculation by adding the calories of all of my ingredients and dividing by 23 for the 23 cupcakes that I made and then doing the same with the fat. I am no nutritionist or mathematician...so I can't promise this is 100% accurate, but it should be in the ballpark!

I love cupcakes and eat lots of them, so I do try and make substitutions whenever possible to lower the calories and fat in my cupcakes and family and friends actually preferred the taste of the lower calorie/fat cupcakes. I have learned a lot of the substitutions from the Hungry Girl books, email newsletters, and website. You can have a low calorie/lowfat cupcake without sacrificing taste!

Try one of these before you decorate them, my daughter and I love them as-is!

I had Almond flavored buttercream icing leftover from my Wilton Class this week, so I am using that to decorate my cupcakes. I first made a ring around the cupcake with the bright pink with a size 12 tip. Then I put a 1M swirl on top of that, sprinkled with pink sanding sugar and added the Wilton Hello Kitty candy piece to the top!

Here's the class picture!