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It’s official… autumn is here! Hooray! I love summer, I really do. But, since becoming a mom, autumn has slowly stolen my heart. The colors, the traditions, the holiday season kicking off, and the foods. Oh, the foods. So many fabulous flavors come with the autumn season. One of my favorites is apple and my sweet tooth has a soft spot for caramel. How perfect is the caramel apple combination? Perfect enough for some cupcakes! Caramel Apple Cupcakes have some of autumn’s best flavors all in a delicious little cake just bursting with flavor.
I’ve got a killer recipe for you today that will make you taste buds scream “AUTUMN IS HERE!” They are super easy to make – from a box! Wanna make baking even easier? Enter the #bakeinthefun sweepstakes by voting for your favorite submission. You could win a KitchenAid! Get the details! Let’s get to baking those amazing autumn Caramel Apple Cupcakes, shall we?
CARAMEL APPLE CUPCAKES
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Serves: 24 cupcakes
- 15.25 oz Pillsbury™ Moist Supreme® Caramel Cake Mix
- ¼ cup Mott's® Apple Sauce Original
- ¼ cup oil
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup Snapple® Apple
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Place cupcake liners in a muffin tin. Spray lightly with cooking spray, if desired to help the cupcakes release more easily after baking.
- Combine the cake mix, apple sauce, oil, eggs, water and Snapple® Apple in a large bowl.
- Mix until well combined.
- Fill each cupcake liner ¾ full.
- Bake 22- 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.
- Cool 10-15 minutes before removing cakes from the pan.
- Cool completely before frosting.
You’ve got the cupcakes, now comes my favorite part of making cupcakes: the decorating! When I think of caramel apples, I think bright green and that beautiful brown caramel color. I wanted to put those on display on these cupcakes. While I was at Walmart the other day, I saw these new M&M’s® I couldn’t pass up – M&M’s® Pecan Pie! They were perfect with their fall colors to use as a garnish.
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Serves: 24 cupcakes or 48 mini cupcakes
- 2 sixteen oz cans Pillsbury™ Supreme Creamy® Cream Cheese Seasonal Frosting
- 2-3 Tbsp caramel sauce (I used a store-bought ice cream topping, but you could make your own)
- Lime green gel food coloring
- M&M's® Pecan Pie flavored for garnish
- M&M's® Milk Chocolate Harvest for garnish
- Prepare a pastry bag with a large round icing tip. The larger, the better.
- Place the empty pastry bag inside a tall glass and fold the top of the bag over the rim of the glass.
- If you want to create a marbled effect in the frosting, draw lines or dots inside the bag with the gel food coloring.
- Fill the bag with the Pillsbury™ Supreme Creamy® Cream Cheese Seasonal Frosting. Add a small squeeze of food coloring into the glass as you put each scoop of the frosting into the pastry bag. When the bag is full or the frosting is all in the bag, remove it from the glass.
- Squeeze the frosting around a bit to help mix up the food coloring. You just want it streaked, not completely mixed; don't squeeze and mix it too much.
- Pipe the frosting onto a cupcake, starting at the outer edge and moving inward in a circular pattern, ending with a point in the middle.
- Put the caramel sauce inside a zip top bag. Snip off just the very point of one corner of the bag.
- Drizzle the caramel sauce on the cupcake. I put it between the lines of frosting, which helped hold it where it needed to be and kept it from dripping all over. If you frost the cupcakes with a knife, you can drizzle little zigzags of caramel sauce on the tops of the cupcakes.
- Garnish the tops of the cupcakes with M&M's®.
- Place the cupcakes in the fridge until ready to serve.
I really love the way these cupcakes turned out. The apple is just tart enough and the caramel just sweet enough… it’s a perfect combination. It’s autumn in a little cake. I can’t think of a better way to start out the season! Grab everything you need at Walmart to make these delicious treats and check out these other delicious recipes! And don’t forget to enter the #bakeinthefun sweepstakes!
MARS Bake In The Fun Sweepstakes
Grab your ingredients for these deliciously Harvest-inspired cupcakes on your next trip to Walmart. All ingredients can be found in the grocery section of the store.
