Taste of Fall Boozy Cupcakes

On Monday afternoon my friend Jenn and I decided to try our hand at baking some apple ale cupcakes with caramel frosting. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a great baker but Jenn is excellent so these were bound to turn out well!

For the cupcakes, you will need:

1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 tsp of vanilla
1/4 cup of chopped apples, grated or pureed
2/3 cup of Redd's Apple Ale

For the frosting:

1 1/2 cup of butter, divided
12 unwrapped caramels (we used Kraft, found in the candy aisle)
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 tbsp of milk

For the caramel drizzle:

12 unwrapped caramels
1/2 cup of heavy cream

To start, preheat your oven to 350 and line a cupcake pan with liners. Be sure to spray a little bit of cooking spray into the bottom of the liners so your cupcakes come out smoothly. We didn't do this and they stuck to the bottom a little bit.

In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix together with a whisk.

In another larger bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. You can use a stand mixer or a hand mixer. This is where it's important to make sure that your butter is room temperature. Ours was a little cold and was clumpier than desired but still worked.

Add your vanilla, apples, and egg to the mixture and mix well. Add half of the apple ale and half of the flour to the sugar mixture, mixing until just incorporated, then repeat.

Fill cupcake liners with batter about 3/4 of the way full. Our batter sat low in the cups, I would advise possibly doubling the recipe or making two batches.

Bake for 23-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before frosting.

To make the frosting, in a small saucepan melt 1/2 stick of butter and caramels, stirring constantly. Once melted remove from burner and let cool.

Cream remaining butter and pour in melted caramel. Beat on medium high speed until completely incorporated.

Add powdered sugar one cup at a time until thoroughly mixed. If the frosting is too thick you can add in the tablespoon of milk. Then frost away!

For the caramel drizzle, melt the remaining caramels in the heavy cream, stirring constantly. Once melted remove from heat and let cool, then drizzle over your frosted cupcakes and add whatever sprinkles or decorations you like!

Here's the finished product:

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes, which the two of us split down the middle to share with family. They didn't last long! The cake has a great spice flavor and you get texture from the apples, and the caramel in the frosting really came through. Not to mention that to die for caramel drizzle! This successful attempt at baking makes me want to try my hand at more baked goods!