Caramel Fillling:
(adapted from a few recipes)
1 cup sugar
1/2 water
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp butter
Pour water into a saucepan then add sugar in a pile in the middle of the water. Turn the heat to medium-high heat and begin cooking without stirring (I ruined the first batch by constantly stirring). Allow sugar to dissolve and begin to boil. When the liquid sugar begins to lightly brown in spots (approx. 7 minutes), gently swirl the pan until all of the sugar is a deep golden brown (this will happen quite quickly). Rapidly remove from heat and carefully pour in heavy cream and vanilla. They will bubble up and create an intensely hot steam so be very careful! Whisk until smooth, adding the butter once the bubbles have settled and whisk until blended. I then poured the caramel into a Pyrex measuring cup and allowed it to cool before covering it and placing it in the fridge. This recipe yielded 1 1/2 cups.
Cupcake:
(adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/apple-strudel-muffins)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 medium granny smith apple (1 1/2 cups diced, I left the skin on and 1 to slice later for presentation)
1/2 cup Heath/Skor bits (save for topping)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin pan(s) w/ canola oil.
In a medium bowl cream together the butter and sugar w/mixer until smooth. Add egg and whites, vanilla and mix. Stir in the apples. Sift in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon and mix until well combined but do not over mix! Spoon the mixture into prepared pans and bake. This recipe yielded 12 regular size cupcakes and 6 minis; I baked them for 20 and 13 minutes respectively. Allow to cool.
Frosting:
1-8oz package of cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp milk
Cream together the cheese and butter. Add sugar and milk until well combined.
Once the cupcakes cooled I carved a round hole into the middle of each cake from the top, being careful not to go all the way through (about 1/2 way). I filled each of these small chasms with the caramel sauce (which was too runny and absorbed right into the cakes, slightly defeating the 'hole' purpose) allowing it to overflow slightly. I used a ziploc to pipe each cake with the frosting then sprinkled each with Heath/Skor bits. I finished each one off with a slice of granny smith apple ensuring to do so as near presentation time as possible to minimize browning.
Overall rave reviews this week! Comments touched on the fine balance of flavours and preferred consistency. Rave reviews were made about the presentation. Constructive comments included more apple, more skor and thicker caramel but definitely the favourite so far :)
Crazy Cakes: "Cosmic mixture of flavours."
Cocoa: "Probably the best cupcake I ever tasted."
Diana: "A cinnamon apple muffin infused and updated to a modern version with crunch and pizazz."
My comments:
I will definitely have to work on my caramel recipe for this cupcake. I tried heating the sauce and stirring in 1 1/2 tbsp corn starch but it was still too runny. Perhaps more butter would have done the trick...otherwise I was notably please with this weeks creation.