Egg Archives - Craving Cobbler

“That cupcake was better than any cupcake I’ve ever paid money for!”

That’s a quote from my sister Mandy, after trying one of my Caramel Applesauce Cupcakes. A glowing endorsement of course, but let me tell you a few things about Mandy. She doesn’t like: spice cake, apple cider, applesauce, or any kind of cooked apple. So I’m thinking if she loved these cupcakes that much (which have a spice cake base that’s made extra moist by using applesauce and apple cider, plus they’re topped with a homemade Apple Cider Buttercream) then anyone will!

I made these up the other week to donate for a neighborhood Fall Festival cake walk. I was really trying to think of a seasonal cupcake. Well once the idea for these occurred to me, that was it! I thought they’d be awesome, and as much as I try not to toot my own horn… I’m afraid I’m about to start some tootin’! They really are insanely good. There’s no other way to put it. I’ve made a few notes in the recipe, but the shortened version is: these are insanely moist cupcakes, so don’t bake them too many days before you’re serving them… they just get more and more juicy as time passes!

Please top them with my recipe for Apple Cider Buttercream! It’s the perfect topper for any fall flavored cake, but since these are apple-y already it’s just a match made in heaven.

Caramel Applesauce Cupcakes Recipe

Print recipe

Allergy	Egg
Meal type	Dessert
Misc	Child Friendly, Pre-preparable

Ingredients

1 box spice cake mix
1/3 cup applesauce
1/2 cup apple cider
1/2 cup water
3 eggs
caramel cubes
Apple Cider Buttercream (see link to recipe above)

Directions

Step 1
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees (or according to your cake mix's specific directions), and line a couple cupcake pans with 24 cupcake liners. Here's the line-up for these awesome little cakes.
Step 2
Every recipe I've ever looked at for replacing oil with applesauce in baking calls for all natural unsweetened applesauce. Well, all I had was strawberry flavored single serving Mott's... and boy was it perfect! I say use whatever kind of applesauce you like or have on hand. It was very convenient that my little single serving cup just happen to be 1/3 cup!
Step 3
Go by your box mix's instructions, and replace whatever amount of oil it calls for with applesauce. Next I measure out the apple cider and water in the same measuring cup.
Step 4
Now dump the cake mix, apple cider, water, applesauce, and eggs into your mixer.
Step 5
Blend together the length of time it calls for on the cake mix box, and watch a fragrant, creamy batter develop.
Step 6
Now set up your assembly line with the cupcake pans, your batter, a spoon, and the caramels.
Step 7
Divvy out the batter evenly amongst the cupcake liners. According to my box's instructions this should make 24 cupcakes.
Step 8
As you can see, I ended up with 22. Once they came out of the oven though I thought they looked perfect so I wouldn't have changed a thing. Gently press one caramel into the center of each cup of batter. I'm not sure if it will be for you... but this was extremely satisfying for me! I need to find a job somewhere smooshing caramels into cake batter.
Step 9
Bake in your preheated oven, and here's what they looked like 17 minutes later. It's like magic... where did the caramel go?
Step 10
Well a couple of notes on that: 1) Obviously they sank to the bottom. On the first and second day, we had about a 20% chance of the caramel sticking to the liner when the cupcake got unwrapped. None of us really minded, but I just wanted you to be aware to be careful unwrapping. Once we discovered that it could happen, we started peeling more carefully and had very few "sticks" after that.
Step 11
2) These are insanely moist cupcakes. Because of that, the caramel on the inside will be getting softer as the days go by. So, the cupcake I had the day I made them contained a still very chewy and firm candy on the inside. Whereas the cupcake I ate three days later had an almost liquified caramel sauce at the bottom. It was a bit more messy, but I kinda liked it even better! Anyway, keep that in mind and plan accordingly as to when you'd want to bake these for your event or party. I topped these with my Apple Cider Buttercream.
Step 12
It's the perfect match for the moist apple spice cake! I also topped each one with a quarter of a caramel to give people a sneak peek as to what they'd find inside.
Step 13
I also found these candy apple flavored candy corns, which I think would be a cute topping as well.
Step 14
However you end up topping them, just make sure you keep an eye on your husband and four year old... because they will begin to mysteriously disappear!

Candy Corn Cookies Recipe

Allergy

Egg

Meal type

Dessert

Misc

Child Friendly, Pre-preparable

Occasion

Halloween

Ingredients

1 box golden butter or yellow cake mix
2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
2 eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup candy corn (chopped)

Directions

Step 1
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Toss the two sticks of softened butter into your mixer bowl, and beat on high for at least a minute or so. You always want to get butter or shortening super fluffy at the beginning of almost any cookie dough.
Step 2
Dump in the whole bagful of cake mix, and mix in on medium speed. You'll be left with big buttery crumbs like these.
Step 3
Crack in the egg.
Step 4
Mix on medium speed again until blended into a smooth cookie dough paste.
Step 5
Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and toss in the cup of flour.
Step 6
Mix in until barely incorporated.
Step 7
For the candy corn I measured out a cup first...
Step 8
not that measuring is super important here. And then I chopped it all up slightly. I wanted to keep some nice sized pieces, but didn't want to deal with whole pieces while balling up the dough.
Step 9
Just so you know, chopping candy corn is easier said than done. But I still think it was worth it! Now make sure every single candy corn bit makes it into the mixer.
Step 10
Blend on a medium low setting for maybe 10 seconds or so. I'm basically trying to spare my hands the work of stirring the candy into the thick dough.
Step 11
Look at that... I mean that's some seriously thick cookie dough. Plunk the huge blob of dough back into the mixer bowl.
Step 12
Use a cookie scoop or spoon to make balls of dough that are about the same size. Set them a hefty 2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Step 13
Once my cookie dough is balled and lined up like little buttery solders, I like to break off a few more candy corn pieces for something special I do with cookies. I like to look for blank spots on the tops and strategically press in some extra bits here and there. See the difference?
Step 14
I do this with chocolate chips, or whatever item has ended up in our cookie dough that day. It usually makes for the loaded up cookies you just want to grab! Pop the pan into your preheated oven, and bake for 12 minutes. This dough makes enough for two full big pans of cookies. You can either make both now, or make one pan and save the rest of the dough. I get another fresh sheet of parchment, and scrape the other half of the dough right into the center.
Step 15
Shape the dough into a candy studded log.
Step 16
Then just roll it, rubber band it, and label it... and you'll have a whole new pan of cookies for another day!
Step 17
After 12 minutes, this is what I pulled from the oven.
Step 18
As you can see, these are really light colored cookies. Don't be tempted to keep baking them for more color, because you'll just burn the bottoms and melt the candy even further!
Step 19
These are so buttery and delicious!
Step 20
I hope you love them!