Semester 2 and Apple Cupcakes

A fantastic title, yes, I know.

Hello 2019, and hello part two of junior year! Being an RA first semester was so awesome, and I loved all of the learning I did along the way. I loved learning about my residents, and having moments where I could help out. I know as a first-year, it's easy to think that you're out in the world and you can handle it all, but I hope that they know somebody is looking out for them if they stumble. I stumble all the time - we just need helping hands sometimes. 

Anyway, last fall, the Fuji apple tree we have in our backyard gave us sooooo many apples, and they were pretty sweet! We don't put anything in the dirt or on the fruit so they were small, but they were crunchy and delicious. (Side note: "Red Delicious" apples are all red and no delicious, don't even @ me.) 

But, in hoping they'd get redder and sweeter if we just left them on the tree until as late as possible, we waited a little too long - and the first frost hit. The many, many apples still on the tree all became mushy, but we couldn't just throw them away - that is NOT how we roll....and God forbid I ever think about wasting lol.

So what better way to use them up than dump them in some ~baked goods~ ? No better way, that's what. 

I sifted through a whole bunch of apple recipes, cobblers, bakes, crumbles, muffins, cupcakes, and decided on the cupcakes. There are so many out there but I wanted a pretty simple one that would make use of all the apples I wanted to use up, without anything crazy or fancy but like, most cupcake recipes aren't that crazy or fancy to begin with ^^" My point is, I was only home for a school weekend and it was at least 11pm already and I wanted to go to bed but I also wanted cupcakes. 

This recipe by Sally's Baking Addiction was simple and perfect, and I simply adjusted the amount of sugar and apples. We had like at least 20 little apples and I wanted more of the natural apple flavor, so used the 2/3c brown sugar and omitted the white sugar. I also slightly upped the cinnamon and nutmeg because why tf not. 

I say 20 little apples but I ended up with around 2.75c chopped apples; we had to cut away a lot of the mushy parts that had been impacted by the frost :( 

I DIDN'T TAKE PICTURES because to be completely honest lol I totally forgot I started this blog until now, but trust me when I say these cupcakes were absolute heaven and made the house smell just like a fall candle. They came out hot and fluffy and held their shape but when I broke it open it just crumbled beautifully (of course, I should have waited until they were slightly cooled but I wasn't about to wait that long). 

So I promptly ate five and went to bed happy, the end! :) 

Here's Sally's recipe with some adjustments I made: 

1/2c (1 stick) unsalted melted butter

2/3c packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/3c milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2c + 1 tbsp cake flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

As many apples as you think are prudent, peeled and finely chopped (I ended up with nearly 3c)

Preheat to 350 degF. 

Whisk together the butter, sugar, eggs, and milk and vanilla; set aside. 

Whisk the dry ingredients in a separate bowl; then add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until incorporated. 

Add the apples and fold those babies in. 

Fill 'em up and bake for around 20 minutes...more or less, just keep a sharp eye on them ;)

They are absolutely best warm!

That's all for today, and it was quite fun to write about baking. I guess I see why I wanted to start writing about it in the first place. Hopefully I'll be back soon with another post...with pictures this time. :)