Apple Streusel Caramel Cupcakes!

I am very excited to be swapping blogs with K from Claiming Our Space today! She is sharing a fabulous looking recipe for apple streusel caramel cupcakes, and I am over at her blog sharing a simple Quiche Lorraine recipe. After you finish reading K’s recipe, go check out mine on her blog!

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Hi! I am K of Claiming Our Space and I am so excited to be blog post swapping with Jessi here at Practically Functional. Isn’t her blog great? She is one of my favorite new bloggers.

D, my husband, and I are a couple of 40-somethings who are trying to turn an outdated and slightly bland 70s ranch into our forever home with paint (lots of paint), flooring (lots of flooring), thrift store finds and DIY projects so it shows our personalities.

We also are experimenting in the kitchen, getting our hands dirty in the gardening and the yard all the while trying not to fall over laughing at our silly dog, Willow.

Today I am sharing what has become my new favorite dessert of the Fall – Apple Streusel Caramel Cupcakes.

We have a monthly family dinner at our house the first Sunday of every month. I love this because it not only gives my parents, D’s mom, my brother, my great-aunt and a close friend, who is like family, a chance to get together and catch up in the midst of our busy lives – it also gives me an excuse to bake something new at least once a month. Sunday, I decided to try a recipe I found on Oh My Sugar High.

Of course, I can’t leave any recipe well enough alone and had to change it up a bit. I swapped some of the ingredients up – added brown sugar, more apples and used a goat’s milk caramel sauce. I think the results of these  small changes were delicious! The apple flavor was not overwhelmed by the cinnamon and the sweetness of the caramel was the perfect combination with the cupcake (which isn’t the moistest I have ever had but the vanilla ice cream takes care of that).

Everyone loved it and even my mom, who originally wanted to split a cupcake with someone else, ate the whole thing!

A couple of tips – make sure to watch how the cupcakes are baking. I didn’t watch and the bottoms of some of mine got a bit burnt. Wipe up any struesel that spills on the flat part of the cupcake pan. The sugar in it will burn and make the oven smokey.

I hope you enjoy this dessert as much as we did!

Apple Struesel Caramel Cupcakes

Source: Oh My Sugar High

Cupcake Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup of low-fat milk
• 4 small apples, diced – 2 for batter and 2 for topping
• ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Cinnamon

Streusel Topping Ingredients

• ⅓ cup white sugar
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• ¾ tsp powdered cinnamon
• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• ¼ cup of cold unsalted butter, diced into cubes
• ¼ cup rolled oats
• Caramel topping (we used some Beekman 1802 Cajeta – a delicious goat milk caramel.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Add eggs and beat for a minute or so after each egg
4. Add vanilla
5. In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients
6. Alternate dry ingredients with milk into mixer, starting with the dry and ending with the dry.
7. Lightly fold 2 diced apples into batter.
8. Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray
9. Scoop into into muffin tins (about ¾ full)
10. Sprinkle remaining diced apple on top of cupcakes
11. In the same bowl that previously held the dry ingredients, mix all struesel ingredients by hand until you have a texture that is coarse and crumbly
12. Top apple-sprinkled cupcakes with streusel topping
13. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick test comes out clean
14. Let cupcakes cool on wire rack for 15-20 minutes.
15. Just before serving, heat caramel sauce and take the ice cream out of the fridge to soften slightly
16. Place cupcake on plate with a scoop or two of ice cream.
17. Drizzle with caramel sauce.
18. Enjoy!

Jessi, thanks so much for letting me share my new favorite fall dessert with all your readers!

Make sure to stop by Claiming Our Space to check out Jessi’s take on Quiche Lorraine. While you are there, I would love it if you would stay a while and maybe even become a follower!

Finally don’t forget to enter Claiming Our Space’s giveaway for a $25 Visa gift card or to link up to the Fall Fun and Howling Halloween Linky Party that runs through the 18th. I would love it if you would link up Fall or Halloween related projects, recipes or posts.

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Yum! This might have to be my new favorite fall dessert as well! Can’t wait to try them 🙂

Thanks so much for guest posting today K, and for letting me take over your blog for a day as well!

What about you guys; what are your favorite fall desserts? JM and I made caramel apples last fall and they were great! We’re going to make another batch this weekend, cuz yum!