Apple Pie Cupcakes With Caramel Buttercream
These apple pie cupcakes are the ultimate fall treat; they’re filled with apple pie filling and topped with a delicious caramel buttercream frosting.
They’re sweet, spiced, and ridiculously good. I’ve also included a some fun garnish ideas to dress them up for the season.
Whether you’re baking for a fall party or just want something festive, these cupcakes always hit the spot.
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How To Make Apple Pie Cupcakes
This recipe makes about ten cupcakes, but if you want more, you can always double the recipe.
First, Place paper liners into a cupcake pan and set them aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, extract, and eggs. Then, mix all your dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
Start mixing your dry ingredients with your wet ingredients until they are completely mixed together and the batter is smooth.
Pour your batter into the cupcake liners and cook at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Make sure your fork comes out completely clean.
If your fork doesn’t come out clean, cook them longer, but keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.
Place your cupcakes on a baking rack and let them cool completely. If you don’t have a baking rack, place the cupcakes on a plate.
This step is really important because you don’t want your cupcakes to keep cooking in the hot pan.
Now for the fun part, time to fill your cupcakes!
Core out the middle of the cupcake with a knife or a cupcake corer. Then, scoop apple pie filling into the core.
If you’re wondering what to do with the cupcake pieces you scooped out, I like to enjoy them later, dipped in leftover frosting or caramel sauce. So good!
And now for the caramel buttercream frosting! Use a piping bag to frost your cupcakes. If you don’t have a piping bag, a knife works too.
You can stop there and just have frosting on your cupcakes, which look really nice. But if you want to step it up a bit, you can add some decorations to your cupcakes.
Below you’ll find a few cute ways to garnish your apple caramel cupcakes. I wanted you guys to have multiple options!
4 Easy Ways To Decorate Apple Cupcakes
You can either opt to garnish your cupcakes just one way or do a mix of all of them. Feel free to use these as inspiration and really get creative with how you finish off these cupcakes!
Idea #1: Caramel sauce, apple pie filling, and apple slices
If you are going for an over-the-top loaded cupcake, this is the way to go.
Because if you can’t decide whether to decorate your cupcakes with caramel sauce, apple pie fillings or small apple slices, just use them all! Yum!
Idea #2: Apple pie filling and apple slices
If you want just a little bit of toppings but still want the frosting peeking through, you might want to opt for this option.
Idea #3: Just apple slices
For a classic and minimal decoration, just placing an apple slice on the cupcakes is perfect! You could even dip the apple slices in caramel so you have just a touch of another topping.
Idea #4: Naked cupcakes with caramel sauce and a small apple slice.
Another way to present these cupcakes is by ditching the cupcake liner and just adding a small caramel drizzle and an apple slice.
Let me know in the comments below how you ended up decorating your apple cupcakes!
Easy Caramel Apple Pie Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 cup butter
- 2 cups flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 5 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 can apple pie filling
Caramel Buttercream Frosting
- ½ cup salted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 5 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1 tbsp dulce de leche
Garnishes (Optional)
- 10 apple slices
- caramel sauce
- apple pie filling
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat your oven to 350° degrees. Place paper liners into a cupcake pan and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, extract, and eggs. Then, mix all your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder) in a separate bowl.
- Start mixing your dry ingredients into your bowl with wet ingredients until they are completely mixed together and the batter is smooth.
- Pour your batter into the cupcake liners and cook at 350° for 25 minutes. Make sure your fork comes out completely clean.If your fork doesn't come out clean, cook them longer but keep an eye on them so they don't burn.
- Let your cupcakes cool completely.
Filling Your Cupcakes
- Core out the middle of the cupcake with a knife or a cupcake corer. Then, scoop apple pie filling into the core.
- If you want to garnish your cupcakes with a little bit of apple pie filling on top, be sure to set aside a small amount of apple pie filling.
Caramel Buttercream Frosting
- Cream together salted butter, vanilla extract, heavy whipping cream and dulce de leche. Mix in powdered sugar to the mixture.
- Using a piping bag, pipe frosting on top of the cupcake and add garnishes.(There are a few different garnish options, take a look below this recipe card for topping ideas.)
Notes
- See below for different ways you can decorate your caramel apple cupcakes.
- If you’re wondering what to serve with your apple pie cupcakes, see the below section.
