Pumpkin Spiced Apple Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Caramel

These are the most delicious pumpkin spiced apple cupcakes. They are topped with melt-in-your-mouth sweet Swiss meringue buttercream and drizzled with caramel frosting. A simple and easy recipe that gets done in no time at all. Have them on their own with or without any frosting. And, the sweetness of apples and warmth of pumpkin spice will have you craving for these over and over again.

Pumpkin Spiced Apple Cupcakes, Apple cupcake recipe, Fall-inspired cupcake recipe

Today I have some really awesome fall-inspired cupcakes to share with you. Actually, 10 fall-inspired cupcakes to share with you!! No, they are not all my recipes but rather recipes from my talented food blogger friends.

Yes, this is a little collaboration we did to bring you something different and something new to our blog fans. We are 10 food bloggers from around the world who got together to each create a cupcake inspired by the flavors of fall.

I made these pumpkin spice apple cupcakes. They are so perfect for this weather. What could be more comforting than a cupcake that warms you up from the inside with wonderful warm spices? It gets you all cozy for the fall weather. Right? And of course, who doesn’t love apples? They are also in season!!

Pumpkin Spiced Apple Cupcakes, Apple cupcake recipe, Fall-inspired cupcake recipe

Pumpkin Spiced Apple Cupcakes, Apple cupcake recipe, Fall-inspired cupcake recipe

Recipe – Pumpkin Spiced Apple Cupcakes with SMBC and Caramel (Save/Pin)

Useful Tips and Tools

• If you bake often, it would be a good idea to invest in a cake mixer. Because often we try to mix by hand and then we are too tired to give it enough creaming or mixing. So, if you are making this buttercream go head and remove that K-Mix or Kitchen Aid from your kitchen cabinet. And, you don’t have to buy an expensive stand mixer, a simple hand mixer works great too.
• Having said that, a simple Bowl, whisk and Spatula with a little extra elbow grease will do too.
• Personally, I believe in weighing ingredients by weight, which makes my kitchen scaleone of the most valuable items when baking. The same goes for mymeasuring cups and measuring spoons. It’s always a good idea to have these handy and use them when baking rather than trying to guess measurements.
• Also, it is important to buy cupcake linersfrom a trustworthy source to prevent peeling. There is nothing worse than to bake good cupcakes or muffins and then have all the liners peel off.
• Additionally, you can use a measuring cup to ensure you divide the batter evenly among all the cupcakes or muffins. That way all your cupcakes will be a similar size. Personally, I love using my cupcake scooper for that purpose.  
• A good baking tray is always important. Try using a light colored baking trayBaking tray. Another option is to line the baking tray with Parchment Paper for easy clean up just in case of spillage.
• Every oven works differently. So the baking times are just guidelines. In case of muffins and cupcakes, it’s often a good idea to rotate the baking tray mid-way the baking so they cook and rise evenly.

Pumpkin Spiced Apple Cupcakes, Apple cupcake recipe, Fall-inspired cupcake recipe

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• Brown sugar – 150 grams (3/4 cup)
• Canola oil – 2/3 cup
• Sour cream – 120 ml or 1/2 cup
• Eggs – 2 large
• Apple – 1 large (chopped)
• Lemon juice – 1 tsp
• All-purpose flour – 170 grams (1 1/2 cup)
• Pumpkin spice – 1 tsp (+ a little for sprinkling)
• Baking powder – 3/4 tsp
• Baking soda – 1/4 tsp
• Salt – 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla – 1 tsp

For the frosting and drizzle

• Swiss meringue buttercream – you will need half this batch – recipe and video.
• Caramel sauce – you will nee done batch – here is the recipe and video.

Method

For the cupcakes

• Preheat oven to 160 C / 320 F.
• Place baking cups or cupcake liners in a muffin tray.
• Chop the apple and add 1 tbsp lemon juice to prevent oxidizing.
• Add 2 tsp flour to the apples and set aside.
• Sift the flour with baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Whisk together the eggs and brown sugar – until sugar is almost melted.
• Add in the oil followed by the sour cream.
• Next goes in the flour – mix well.
• Followed by the apples – fold them in.
• Finally, add the vanilla.
• Scoop the batter equally into 12 cupcake liners or 8 to 10 baking cups.
• Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
• Cool completely before you decorate.

Prepare frostings

• Make Swiss Meringue Buttercream –  recipe and video here.
• Prepare Caramel Sauce and shown in this recipe and video here.

Decorate the cupcakes

• Make sure the cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting or the frosting will melt.
• Place the frosting in a piping bag fitted with your desired piping nozzle – I’ve used Wilton round tip 12 (large round tip).
• Pipe a swirl on top of the cupcakes.
• Warm the caramel in the microwave for 10 seconds so it’s easy to drizzle.
• Use a spoon to drizzle the caramel over the cupcakes.

Pumpkin Spiced Apple Cupcakes, Apple cupcake recipe, Fall-inspired cupcake recipe

6 FALL INSPIRED CUPCAKES – A COLLABORATION BY 6 FOOD BLOGGERS (Save/Pin)

Coming back to the recipes by my six fellow bloggers – Here are the other fall-inspired cupcakes. Isn’t’ this the most delectable colors and flavors of fall?  I will share the name and links below my recipe so look for that.

So here are the 5 other cupcake recipe links from my food blogger friends

1. Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting (Rosemary Molly – An Italian in my kitchen)
2. Cranberry Orange Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream (Melissa Radcliffe – My wife can cook)
3. Apple Spice Cupcakes (Arlene Mobley – Flour on my Face)
4. Spicy Chai Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting (Gloria Duggan – Homemade & Yummy)
5. Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Pumpkin Frosting (Sarah Jane Parker – The Fit Cookie)
6. Pumpkin Spiced Apple Cupcakes with Caramel – that’s me..!

6 Fabulous Fall Inspired Cupcakes Recipes – Pumpkin Spiced Apple Cupcakes

Pumpkin Spice Apple Cupcakes with SMBC and Caramel

Author: Veena Azmanov

These are the most delicious pumpkin spiced apple cupcakes. They are topped with melt-in-your-mouth sweet Swiss meringue buttercream and drizzled with caramel frosting. A simple and easy recipe that gets done in no time at all. Have them on their own with or without any frosting. And, the sweetness of apples and warmth of pumpkin spice will have you craving for these over and over again.

5 from 12 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Apple, caramel, Cupcakes, easy, fall, Pumpkin

Adjust Servings Here: 12 cupcakes

Calories: 121kcal

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• 150 grams Brown sugar
• 150 ml Canola oil
• 120 ml Sour cream 
• 2 Eggs
• 1 cup Apple chopped
• 1 tsp Lemon juice
• 170 grams All-purpose flour
• 1 tsp Pumpkin spice
• 3/4 tsp Baking powder
• 1/4 tsp Baking soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

For the frosting and drizzle

• 4 cups Swiss meringue buttercream video/recipe here
• 1 Cup Caramel sauce video/recipe here

Metric - US customary

Instructions

For the cupcakes

• Preheat oven to 160 C / 320 F.
• Place baking cups or cupcake liners in a muffin tray.
• Chop the apple and add 1 tbsp lemon juice to prevent oxidizing.
• Add 2 tsp flour to the apples and set aside.
• Sift the flour with baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Whisk together the eggs and brown sugar - until sugar is almost melted.
• Add in the oil followed by the sour cream.
• Next goes in the flour - mix well.
• Followed by the apples - fold them in.
• Finally, add the vanilla.
• Scoop the batter equally into 12 cupcake liners or 8 to 10 baking cups.
• Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
• Cool completely before you decorate.

Prepare frostings

• Make Swiss Meringue Buttercream -  recipe and video here.
• Prepare Caramel Sauce and shown in this recipe and video here.

Decorate the cupcakes.

• Make sure the cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting or the frosting will melt.
• Place the frosting in a piping bag fitted with your desired piping nozzle - I've used Wilton round tip 12 (large round tip).
• Pipe a swirl on top of the cupcakes.
• Warm the caramel in the microwave for 10 seconds so it's easy to drizzle.
• Use a spoon to drizzle the caramel over the cupcakes.

About Videos - most recipes has two videos - a quick version in the post & longer detailed version on this recipe card above (YouTube embed) Subscribe to my YouTube Channel Veena Azmanov

Nutrition Information

Serving: 36g | Calories: 121kcal | Carbohydrates: 13.4g | Protein: 1.2g | Fat: 7.2g | Saturated Fat: 0.9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0g | Trans Fat: 0g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 69mg | Potassium: 0mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 7.1g | Vitamin A: 0% | Vitamin C: 0% | Calcium: 0% | Iron: 0%

The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you

Tried any of my recipes?Mention @veenaazmanov or tag #veenaazmanov!

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