It’s time for another bonus round for the Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes Club, which was chosen by Sherry of Sherry Starts Cooking: applesauce-spice cupcakes! I made 1/4 of the recipe, which yielded 4 full-size cupcakes plus some extra batter; I could have used the extra to make a few minis had I been motivated to dirty another pan. As their name implies, the cupcakes incorporate applesauce as well as some of my favorite spices – cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. The recipe also calls for pecans, but I omitted them. I found that the “cupcakes” were actually a lot more like muffins after I tasted them. While nice and moist, they were definitely more dense than a typical cupcake, with a tight crumb.
The cupcakes are topped with a brown sugar cream cheese frosting comprised of butter, cream cheese and brown sugar. I had high hopes for this frosting as I LOVE the regular cream cheese frosting from the book and brown sugar makes everything better in my world. This frosting was just as nice as the regular cream cheese frosting to pipe, but in a taste test, it couldn’t beat the regular cream cheese frosting. I will say that I thought this frosting worked nicely with these cupcakes and upped the sweetness factor significantly.
Thanks to Sherry for selecting this recipe! You can find the recipe in Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes book or here. If you’d like to see the other members’ cupcakes, you can visit our site.
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Beautiful cupcakes! After reading your post, I didnt realize there were suppose to be nuts in them! I totally bypassed that line. LOL!
Looks and sounds sooo good! I really need to take a frosting swirling lesson, yours look great and I really stink at it!
Thanks for the review. They look delicious. I agree that I prefer a lighter cupcake but applesauce usually makes a heavy consistency. Still I would eat more then one:)
Joyce
Thanks for baking with me! I too found them to be more like muffins than cupcakes. I decided to use pecans in mine, unfortunately it changed the cupcake somewhat drastically so maybe you dodged a bullet=). Oh well. Yours sure look tasty!
Your cupcakes look super yummy! Great job on the frosting. perfect swirls. These certainly were muffin like but still good.
Wow, your cupcakes are beautiful! I thought they were delish. Loved the frosting!
I am so bummed that the brown sugar frosting was a disappointment…I was going to figure out something to make to use it on if you loved it! These sound delicious on their own but with frosting I bet they felt like a decadent treat.
These are so pretty!
Tracey, that frosting is just calling my name! The piping is perfection – it all looks SO good! But I have to agree… nothing beats a good cream cheese frosting! Gorgeous cupcakes!
The line between “cupcake” and “muffin” is a pesky one, but frosting definitely puts it on the cupcake side of the fence. Love those spices in just about any baked good. Pretty cupcakes!!
Those look so perfect! I’ve tried a couple different applesauce cake recipes this year and think they’re yummy. I don’t blame you for not making the minis; mini muffin pans are kind of a pain to clean.
Thanks for the link! I still think these were a little too muffin-like for my taste – they would have been better with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, I think, than the frosting I made for them.
Your frosting looks lovely – too bad the flavor doesn’t live up to your piping skills!
Your cupcakes look gorgeous! Yum!! And you are seriously the best piper ever! I am jealous!
These cupcakes have every delicious autumn flavour in them – whats not to love? They look and sound utterly gorgeous
Looks sooo yummy. And thank you for your thoughtful description and critique of the flavors and crumb! – mary
You’re right about the frosting. I was not a BIG fan of it either; nothing beats good ‘ol cream cheese frosting!
Yours look divine!
Thanks for baking the bonus round with us. I can always count on you!
lovely cupcake! very seasonal!
ohh Apple spice cupcakes I am in love and the frosting looks just as good too!
beautiful – with lots of icing to boot – love ‘em
We loved these! We thought the frosting was a great accent to the flavors in the cupcake, and these will be happily received here again anytime I want to make them. Yours look so pretty with their swirl…almost like an ice cream cone swirl and who doesn’t love being presented with that????!
That frosting looks amazing. I just want to grab a spoon and dig in!