Terry & Isa call these the “quintessential fall” cupcakes, ’cause they’ve got the apple cider of the title along with apple butter in the batter. And nothing says Christmas like “quintessential fall.” That’s Charlotte being sarcastic. Did you catch it? I made these for a friend’s nondenominational holiday party a couple weeks ago, partly because there was lots of apple cider hanging out in our fridge, and partly because I didn’t want to break my hot-beverage-turned-cupcake streak. Like the title suggests, you heat the cider up first with aromatic spices: cloves, cinnamon and allspice. It’ll make your kitchen smell like Santa’s workshop. Or the Professor’s lab from Powerpuff Girls. One of the two. Either way, it’s good. The recipe calls for the whole version of these spices, but Isa & Terry include the substitutions for ground spices if you, like me, don’t have whole cinnamon sticks hanging around.
My cakes turned out with a very mild flavor, for all the spices that went into them. The apple butter gives them a nice springy consistency, but doesn’t pack much of a punch in the flavor department. Which may be a good thing if you’re baking for sensitive palettes – kids would gobble these up, I bet. The party guests certainly did, which was nice, since I arrived LATE, and many folks were on their way home and/or stuffed to the gills by then.
I topped these with Super Natural Agave Frosting (149). Admittedly, I’m inclined to be sanguine about the results of any recipe from VCTOTW, but this frosting went above and beyond my expectations. You know how you can bite into a regularly-frosted cupcake and feel your gums begin to bleed and your teeth begin to rot out of your skull at that very moment but you don’t care because it tastes so frickin’ amazing? Yeah, I agree: it’s awesome. Nothing’s more likely to get me taking another bite. But sometimes, it pays to lay off the sugar. No worry with this frosting – it’s ADA approved and diabetic friendly. Sweetened with agave nectar and thickened with coconut oil and soy milk powder rather than margarine/shortening and confectioner’s sugar, this is the recipe to break out in the middle of holiday cookie season when folks are on permanent sugar high and can’t possibly stomach any more sweets. I had mild concerns that the coconut oil would give it an overall coconut flavor-which would be super with pineapple cupcakes, but not pineless-apple cupcakes. Those concerns were unfounded. You can only taste coconut if you know it’s there and you really try to; mostly you just taste vanilla. It’s strong vanilla, I might add, so perhaps best paired with cakes that have an equally assertive flavor like Gingerbread (53) or the Chai Latte (109) we met last week. The consistency is also more like pudding and less like whipped buttercream, but you’ll make do. I have every confidence in you.
