leaves | EASYBAKED

Fall Apple Cupcakes

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Ruthanne

Celebrate fall with these cute little apple cupcakes! Filled with a chocolate chip “seed” core, these are sure to make everyone smile!

Well. Fall is here. I just began to notice the changing leaves this week, and of course every morning it’s a little bit darker on my drive to work.

Every fall, our family makes a special trip to a local orchard to sample apples, doughnuts and cider. As the temperatures drop I find myself looking forward to pumpkins and rustling leaves and all the fun flavors that come with this new season! These little cupcakes don’t taste like apples, but they sure do look like them! I even added a fun seeded core to these, using my trusty cake pop maker.

How fun is that? Surprise chocolate chips are always a plus in my book! You can skip the “core” if you want- just make solid-colored cupcakes instead of using my added steps in the recipe. Either way, these are a lot of fun and easy to make!

Here’s the recipe: (printable recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

1 boxed white cake mix (plus oil, water and eggs to make according to package)
Food coloring gels in desired colors.
1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips (if making core)
2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, softened
2 sticks (1 cups) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of vanilla
Colored sugar sprinkles (in desired colors)
Fondant for stems and leaves (or use pretzel sticks for the stems and spearmint gummy leaves instead!)

DIRECTIONS:

Make cake mix according to package
Remove one cup of batter and place in a separate bowl.
Mix in mini chocolate chips.
Bake in cakepop maker (or use a small mini-muffin tin), making 24 cake pops (or mini-muffins)
Divide remaining batter into separate bowls and color using color gels. I did green, red and yellow apples, but you can do just one of those colors if you want.
Place cupcake liners into tins and spoon just a small amount of batter into each liner.
Use a cake pop to spread batter evenly into bottom of liner and then leave the cake pop in the center.
Spoon remaining batter evenly over the cake pops, covering each pop completely.

Bake at 350F degrees for 15-18 minutes.
Cool completely.
Make frosting by placing butters, powdered sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beating on high for 3-4 minutes until very light and fluffy.
Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop frosting on each cupcake, and then turn cupcake upside down into a bowl of decorating sugar, pressing until all of frosting is covered in sugar.
Decorate with fondant leaves and stems, or use pretzels and spearmint leaves.
To use fondant, you can buy it already made in white and color it with gel in green and brown, or you can make it from scratch and color it the same way.
Use a leaf fondant cutter to make leaves and just roll and cut the stems.
If you are new to fondant, we did a tutorial on it here. It is MUCH easier than it seems like it would be, and you can make such cute decorations with it!

My thoughts: These are such a happy fall treat! You can go all- out and make little chocolate chip cores, or just make plain cupcakes in various colors. Either way, they are a yummy, easy, fall treat that look beautiful on a fall-themed table. Hope you get a chance to try these! Enjoy!! ~Ruthanne

Other fun fall recipes here on easybaked:

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Posted in Cupcakes and tagged apples, best, buttercream frosting, cupcakes, fall, filled cupcakes, fondant, fun, Halloween, leaves, October, party, recipe, school, teachers, unique, vanilla. Bookmark the permalink.

Honey Cookies (Medovniky) in fun fall colors!

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Ruthanne

It’s almost too late for these cookies. Around here the leaves are turning brown and falling fast! The good news is that these incredibly flavorful cookies can be cut into any shape for any season!

These are a traditional Slovak cookie, generally made around Christmas. When I traveled to Slovakia I fell in love with a traditional cake called Medovnik (if you want to see my attempt at it, click here). When I came across this recipe on the Slovak Cooking blog, I knew I had to try them.

They are wonderful. A little like honey graham crackers, a little like gingerbread cookies, a little like spice cake… an incredibly unique cookie that is SO easy to roll and cut out (I can’t stand sticky, messy cut-out cookie dough!) They filled my house with wonderful fall scents when I baked them and I will definitely be making them again. Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

4 ¼ cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 ¼ sticks (5 oz.) of unsalted butter
3 ½ tablespoons of honey
½ cup of water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ tablespoons cinnamon
½ tablespoon ginger
½ tablespoon cloves

DIRECTIONS:

Heat the sugar, water and honey in a sauce pan until the sugar dissolves, stirring constantly.
Stir in the butter, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves.
Once the butter has melted, let the mixture cool.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda.
Pour the sugar-spice mixture over it and mix well.
Knead lightly to form a smooth dough.
Wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour. (the recipe called for refrigeration, but my dough was just perfect to roll out immediately.)
Preheat oven to 400F degrees.
Roll dough out on a board dusted with flour.
Cut cookies in whatever shapes you want and place on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 5-8 minutes (they bake fast, so keep an eye on them).
Cool and frost with your favorite glaze or frosting (I used Royal Icing, click here for the recipe and for directions on how to use it)

My thoughts: I really do love these cookies. The recipe was so different than any other cookie recipe I’ve made before. I have a love/hate relationship with royal icing. I hate the 12 years it takes to frost my cookies, but then I LOVE the finished result. However you ice them, these cookies are a unique addition to your cookie recipe collection. Enjoy! ~r