Apple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
These mini cupcakes are flavoured with apple butter and cinnamon for a truly fall flavour, and topped with a thick cream cheese frosting that is pipeable and tastes like cheesecake
Servings: 54
Calories: 143kcal
Ingredients
Apple cupcake ingredients
- 170 grams unsalted butter
- 287 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 7.5 mL baking soda
- 7.5 mL ground cinnamon
- 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 250 mL apple butter
- 188 mL yogurt (2 % fat)
- 133 grams light brown sugar
- 2 large egg(s)
Frosting ingredients
- 250 grams unsalted butter room temperature
- 200 grams icing sugar divided
- 500 grams Philadelphia cream cheese (full fat, regular) cold
Optional for decorating
Instructions
To make the cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line a 24 mini cupcake pan with mini baking cups (find them on Amazon.
- Brown the butter in a small saucepan until the foam subsides, the milk solids brown, and the butter gives off a delightful nutty aroma. If you've never done this before, read about how to make brown butter.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the apple butter, yogurt, sugar, and eggs. Add this mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and gently whisk to incorporate. When you just have a few dry lumps of flour left, add the melted butter, and finish mixing (with a wooden spoon, if necessary).
- Fill the liners ¾ full with the batter. I recommend using a ¾-ounce scoop (specifically this purple handled scoop on Amazon) for this.
- Bake the cupcakes for about 12 to 14 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let cool a couple minutes in the pan before carefully transferring to a wire rack. Line the pan again, then scoop and bake again until you've finished all the cake batter.
To make the frosting
- When the cupcakes are cooled, make the frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the softened butter with half the icing sugar. The mixture will be crumbly. Continue beating until creamy.
- Add all the cream cheese at once and beat it in. Then add the remaining icing sugar to sweeten/loosen up the frosting.
To finish
- Frost the cooled spice cupcakes by piping a generous dollop on each (I used a big 20 mm round tip, but you can just cut the end of a piping bag to the desired diameter). If using, top with a sprinkling of graham cracker crumbs just before serving.
Notes
For this recipe, I used:
- apple butter, not apple sauce! Apple butter has much less water than apple sauce and so they are not interchangeable.
- brown sugar in the cupcakes (light or dark works) but you could use white sugar
- yogurt though sour cream will also work (full fat or low fat)
- Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using table salt, add half the amount or the cakes may be too salty.
- Philidelphia cream cheese sold in blocks. Each block weighs 250 grams (0.55 lb). Do not use whipped or spreadable cream cheese in the frosting.
Nutrition
Calories: 143kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 93mg | Potassium: 35mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 332IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 1mg
