Apple spiced cupcakes with a maple cream cheese frosting and candied walnuts

I finally got round to making these incredible cupcakes, I’d been wanting to make them ever since spotting them on Pinterest a few months back but hadn’t got round to it.  However, I decided to make a batch (a very large batch it turned out) to send to my guinea pigs at Tim’s work as part of my new Treats for Geeks adventure. The feedback was pretty good, one guy ate 3 cakes and awarded me a lovely 10/10 and Tim even exclaimed ‘that’s probably the best cupcake I’ve ever eaten’.  Get in.

The original recipe is here which is a gluten-free one, but I refuse to use a shop bought cake mix so used a yellow-cake recipe from a little cake book that my sister bought me a couple of years ago.  The frosting made a little more than was needed but I popped that in the freezer to use at a later date.  I’m not sure why my frosting was a bit runny, maybe I didn’t use enough sugar, it still tasted good but just didn’t let me practice my icing skills.

This recipe called for muffin cases but I used cupcake cases in a muffin tin which worked fine, I had to cook it in two batches, yielding 24 cakes in total.  Here is the recipe I used…

Ingredients 

For the batter:
160g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking power
1/4 teaspoon bicarb of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
200g caster sugar
120ml vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 large apple, peeled and chopped
For the icing:
6 oz cream cheese
3 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
110g butter
260g icing sugar
For the candied walnuts:
70g granulated sugar
120g walnut halves or pieces

Directions

Preheat your oven to 180 (or around 160 if fan oven)

Making the batter…

1. Use a whisk (electric or manual) to beat the eggs and sugar until thickened and lightened to a cream colour
2. Mix in the oil and vanilla until blended
3. Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain
4. Sieve in the spices, flour, baking soda and powder and mix together until combined
5. Add the apple and mix in gently
6. Divide the mixture between your cases and bake for around 18 – 25 mins depending on your oven
7. Remove and let them cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then place them onto a wire rack to cool completely

Making the icing…

In a large bowl, beat the butter, cream cheese and maple syrup until fluffy then add the icing sugar and beat until smooth.  Once the cakes have cooled, put the icing into an icing bag and pipe onto the cakes.

Making the candied walnuts…

Put the walnuts and sugar into a saucepan on a medium heat, stir until the sugar has melted and covered all of the walnuts.  Do not go off to make the bed or hang up washing like I did, your walnuts will burn! Once cooled, break them up and sprinkle onto the iced cakes.