Applesauce-Spice Cupcakes

There are some recipes that I am more excited about than others. This was not one of those recipes. Hence, this will probably not be a very exciting post.

I flew home from California on Friday, an hour late for my shift at the temple. On Sunday, my branch became a ward, at long last. A new bishopric was called, and I felt very fortunate that I was there for it. On Monday, I turned in my rewritten qualifying exam and immediately went to work on my dissertation proposal. On Tuesday, I got the urge to bake again.

I always think of apples in the fall. It seemed like, as a kid, there was at least one day in school where we did something with apples, just because it was fall. Some years, Melanee and I have made shrunken heads out of apples, which is a pretty good use for them, I think. Also, tons of people in New York grow apples, and, in the fall, as missionaries, we always got lots of cider and apple crisp.

So, now that the days are finally starting to cool down, it seems like a good time to make an apple recipe. There are no weird ingredients in this one, like Meyer lemons or crystallized ginger. It's a simple recipe that could have come from anywhere, and took very little prep time.

The best part of this recipe was the brown sugar cream cheese frosting. I used part brown sugar and part raw sugar, as I realized late that I was almost out of brown sugar. Also, the applesauce makes the cake very moist (I apologize to those of you reading who hate that word), and the spices are wonderful. It's a good recipe to make.

Applesauce-Spice Cupcakes

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (I did not grate my nutmeg, but I was still pleased with the results)

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. packed light-brown sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce

1 c. pecans (about 4 oz.) toasted and chopped

Preheat oven to 350 (someday I'll learn how to make the degree symbol on blogger. In the meantime, call me lazy). Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. These spices alone make me think of fall and homemade applesauce.

With an electric mixer on high speed, cream butter and both sugars until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. Add applesauce and then flour mixture, beating until just combined after each. Stir in pecans by hand.

Divide batter among cups. Bake about 20 minutes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature or frozen for up to 2 months in airtight containers. Makes 24.

When cool, frost with brown-sugar cream-cheese frosting.

Brown-Sugar Cream-Cheese Frosting

1/2 c. (one stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 c. packed light brown sugar

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in butter and brown sugar until smooth and well-combined. Use immediately or refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Because nothing exciting happened during the baking of these cupcakes, I thought I would finish off this post with a little bit about what I do with all of these cupcakes.

Typically, I try to time my cupcake baking around a food assignment at church, such as our monthly Mix-and-Munch, or Linger Longer or Snack and Mack or whatever you want to call staying after church to eat and talk. When I teach Relief Society, I usually bring cupcakes. I tend to have some sort of treat when I meet with my child clients for the last time. Also, I bring them to work, to school, and, if there are any leftover, to institute. This time around, I brought some to work, and tried to pass them off as a birthday treat for my boss. When he asked if I really brought them for his birthday, I came clean and told him I forgot, and it was just a lucky coincidence. I kind of wished I'd lied.

Sometimes, I have visions of handing them out to random people on the streets, or generating a new friendship with them, or just finally connecting with the girls I visit teach by bringing them the perfect treat. I do occasionally find myself passing them out to security personnel and patients on the way to work, but, more often than not, they end up going to the people I see all the time--the people in my ward, people I work with, fellow students, etc. They are the people who are most important to me here in Lubbock, so I feel okay about that.

And I got very positive reviews from the other MFT students for these particular cupcakes. Make them if you are feeling like it's fall.