Cupcakes Anyone?

When I saw these in the recent issue of Woman's Day magazine I just thought they were the cutest! I am a sucker for pastries anyway and cupcakes are so yummy. When I went to their website they didn't have a photo nor could I find one as cute on the net so if you get a chance in the check out line or at a dr office take a peak on page 124. I had to settle for a pic I found by googling. Still you get the idea. Here is the link for the above cupcake if you want to try that version of the recipe. It has a cream cheese filling and sounds heavenly.

The recipe in Woman's Day is as follows:

makes 24

Active: 20 min Total: 1 hour

Cupcakes

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

Glaze

1 pkg (14 oz) 50 caramel candies

2 tbsp heavy cream

Ice cream sticks

Garnish: Red sprinkles

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. you will need 24 muffin cups lined with paper liners.

2. Cupcakes: Combine flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl.

3. Beat applesauce, sugars, butter, sour cram and eggs in a bowl with mixer on low speed just to combine. Beat in flour mixture until well blended.

4. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake 30 minutes until a wooden pick inserted in cupcakes comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely.

5. Glaze: Heat caramels in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until melted. Add heavy cream and stir until combined. Cool 2 minutes. Working quickly, while mixture is still warm, spread top of each cupcake with 2 tsp of glaze. if glaze gets hard to spread, heat on low, stirring until more melted. Insert an ice cream stick into center and top with sprinkles. Place in freezer for 5 minutes to set.

Note: Cupcakes should be glazed and served the same day.

Per serving: 250 cal, 3 g pro, 44 g car, 1 g fiber, 8 g fat (4 g sat fat), 33 mg chol, 218 mg sod

These cupcakes were pictured in the mag and they were nice enough to have the image at their site so I could easily share it. Cute huh. In the mag though they didn't cut the top of the "trees" off. Still I think you get the idea. I just thought this was so clever for a fall cupcake. And while I was looking for that Carmel Apple cupcake I found this site. Lots of cute images for decorating cupcakes. Have fun.