*Caramel Apple Cup Cakes

Little Connor recently celebrated his second birthday. For the special occasion I of course had to make him cup cakes. Every year for every birthday I make a cup cake of some sort, although generally cup cakes are avoided. This cup cake obsession seems to be a girl thing, you'd think I was trying to feed them estrogen or something? Well anyway, I just happen to have a few apples laying around so I made these. I originally saw a caramel cup cake recipe somewhere or another I believe it was in my copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take over the world,  however... I can not find my copy to verify that. The amazing world of the terrible two's has led me to stash my cookbooks on top of my kitchen cupboards, I'm also stashing some in boxes so who knows? If I'm not crazy and imagining it please tell me but I'm convinced thats where I saw caramel-ly cup cakes first. 

So combining a few flavors and making a combo of my own I used my butter cake recipe that I use for traditional German kuchen as well as other things such as tea cakes etc. I used apple juice instead of milk and folded some diced apples into the batter and baked them to perfection. (next time I think I might try boiled cider or apple cider reduction for an extra kick) The end result was this perfectly moist and flavorful cake. For the topping I referenced this recipe on Piece of cake's blog page. I had some difficulty with the icing being kind of grainy but I think that only happened over time. The cakes I'd dipped quick as directed worked out quite well I made a bit of a mess and never have I enjoyed burning myself so much! Hot hot hot caramel sauce but boy is it delicious finger licking goodness. The combination of caramel and apple is so un-imaginably delicious. Its actually very very reminiscent of those little tastykake butterscotch lunch box cakes, yes another tastykake reference...with the addition of apples its a blissful autumn treat.  Seriously a glass of fresh cider and these could do serious damage before you know it you'll be elbow deep in caramel surrounded by empty cake wrappers...just wondering where they could have possibly come from? 

Put the dark brown sugar, butter and salt in a medium saucepan, melt them together over medium heat, stirring frequently. Bring the mixture to a boil and add the milk and vanilla. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Place the powdered sugar in all at once and stir together until the icing is thick and lump free. Quickly ice the cupcakes by holding each cake and dipping the tops into the hot icing, roll them to evenly coat, allow the excess to drip off and be sure to watch out for your fingers its hot! If your clumsy like me you might have some delicious burns. Flip them up right and allow to cool fully.