Memoirs of an Amateur Cook

I am a big big fan of cinnamon and flavours that I associate with autumn such as apples, toffee sauce etc.  They all conjure up memories of bonfire night and eating toffee apples in the dark whilst watching fireworks.  Strange then that I should devise this recipe and try it for the first time in the Spring – maybe it is because our weather has been so grotty that it is reminding me of those crisp Autumn nights!

Memoirs of an Amateur Cook’s Toffee Apple Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and prepare a cupcake tin.
2. Beat together the sugar, margarine, flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add the eggs and the milk to the bowl and mix thoroughly until all the ingredients have combined and the batter is lump free.
4. Prepare the apples by peeling and coring them.  Chop them into small chunks and stir into the cake batter.
5. Fill the cupcake papers with the batter until three-quarters full.  Bake for 20 minutes until springy to the touch and golden.  Cool in the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
6. While the cupcakes cool, make the icing.  In a small milk pan, melt the butter before stirring in the milk and dark brown soft sugar.  Boil for one minute.
7. Remove the pan from the heat before beating in half the icing sugar.  Cool for a few minutes then mix in the vanilla and remaining icing sugar.  Add more milk if the mixture is too rigid.
8. Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, ice.

As you can see from the above photo, I also tried a cream cheese and cinnamon icing.  Although this tasted delicious it was rather thin and didn’t work out quite as well as planned!  This is most likely because I used extra light soft cheese….I am coming to learn that in baking, low-fat just doesn’t cut it in the majority of recipes which is rather unfortunate.

The sponge in this recipe is so moist due to the apples and so very tasty. The apples are not over moist and offer lovely bursts of flavour in the cinnamon sponge.  The icing has a strong flavour in comparison but the different textures work really well together.

Enjoy!