Autumnal Fresh Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Another sweet recipe!
Have you ever found yourself tasting a new recipe and realizing to your disappointment that it didn't live up to what you expected it to taste like? It wasn't necessarily BAD, but it wasn't anything to jump over either. Well last year I found a recipe for Fresh Apple Cinnamon Muffins and got SUPER EXCITED because they literally looked like what I hoped autumn would TASTE like, but to my dismay they tasted rather bland.

However, I played with the recipe a bunch, and am proud to present my redefined recipe for Fresh Apple Cinnamon Muffins that I actually DO really love eating.

These babies make your house smell AMAZING and they taste like fall food to me, and I absolutely adore making them. I made a batch for my boyfriend last week as a surprise breakfast and he loved them!

I included the original ingredient below just to show you the changes I made.

The ORIGINAL RECIPE CALLED FOR:

(I underlined everything I changed)

1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 apple, peeled, cored, and finely chopped

4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) melted butter

1/3 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

As you can see from my underlining everywhere I changed the original recipe quite a bit, and I even added some vanilla for some extra flavor. 

Alright so for MY recipe you're going to need:

• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup white sugar (you could also try brown sugar. I haven't tried that yet but I've been considering it. Let me know how it turns out)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup half and half or whole milk (I used half and half)
• 1 and 1/2 medium to large apples (the recipe tastes weird if you don't have enough apple), chopped into small CHUNKS (the previous recipe called for finely chopped)
• 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) melted butter
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans (this measurement is rough. Kinda like when you measure out chocolate chips for cookie dough. You're going to want a fair amount of nuts stirred into your batter, and then you're going to need about 1/4 cup extra to go on top of the muffins in the end, so just have a bag of nuts on hand to experiment with until you find what you like)
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

Makes: roughly 17 (used to make 12 but when I changed ingredients it screwed up the yield)

Cook time: 15-20 min (for me it only takes 15-16 minutes to bake these because I use a convection oven)

• Preheat oven to 375
• Line 1 and 1/2 cupcake/muffin tins with paper liners
• Peel and chop apples (this time I used 1 large apple and 1 small apple instead of 1/5 large)
• In a small bowl combine brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 cup chopped pecans. Adjust pecan amount to desire
• In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, salt, and APPROXIMATELY 1/2 cup pecans
• Whisk with a fork and add more pecans if necessary
• In a medium bowl, beat together the egg and half and half (or whole milk. I like to whip this until it's frothy but not thick
• Stir in chopped apple, and melted butter
• Add dry ingredients all at once (the original recipe calls for you to add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients but that took too much work and didn't taste any different)
• Stir until just mixed
• Scoop into muffin tins filling each cup about 2/3 full, and use a spoon to top off each muffin with a sprinkle of the cinnamon-brown-sugar-pecan topping
• Bake and enjoy :)

Let me know in the comments if you tried and enjoyed this recipe! Happy autumn to you all :)

Whipped Vanilla Cream Cake Frosting

This is a recipe that's been in my family for generations and generations. It's not in the least healthy, and it's also not an easy recipe to make so to all you baking wizards- this one's for you.

I decided to post it on my blog because Saturday was my mom's birthday and as a treat I made her cupcakes with this frosting, just like her mom used to make for her. I had to go dig out the recipe from her box on the top shelf of the pantry (we RARELY use paper-copy recipes anymore) and wowza was the handwriting tough to read.

It's unbelievably inconvenient to have such an important recipe exist on paper, in one person's house, in one recipe book. It's easy to lose, and the handwriting is a lot tougher to read than digital print. So better now than never- I bring you the family famous whipped vanilla cream cake frosting.

It doesn't actually have a name, but I don't know how else to describe it to you. It's soft and buttery and creamy and SO UNBELIEVABLY LIGHT. I've made it for friends before and asked them to describe it and they couldn't. Some people said it tasted creamy like milk, but had a hint of vanilla. Others just didn't have an answer. It's like whipped cream, except not at all. I don't know. You have to try it.

For my family this frosting ALWAYS goes on red velvet cake, but you can put it wherever you want. I know that the trend these days is to use cream cheese frosting on red velvet and if you try something else you're crazy, but I can honestly say that I like this frosting BETTER.

Awhile ago they did a cream cheese vs whipped vanilla frosting on red velvet cake bake-off on Food Network. That's how close a call these two recipes come.

What you're going to need:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup white flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup crisco
• 1 stick margarine (the recipe WILL NOT taste right if you don't use Blue Bonnet margarine. I don't know why, but my entire family swears by it for this recipe and this recipe only.)
• 2 tbsp vanilla (but be prepared to add more)

This is what the original recipe looks like, but the instructions weren't as explicit as I would have liked so I played around a bit with the recipe, and found my interpretation of it. Hopefully my instructions are much easier to interpret.

Makes: enough to frost one round cake or approximately 24 cupcakes

Cook time: Approximately 60 minutes (varies depending on how fast the frosting sauce cools)

• In a saucepan, combine the flour, milk, pinch of salt, and a tablespoon of the margarine listed in the ingredients. 
• Starting on low heat, stir sauce constantly (I used a whisk) as ingredients combine and melt together, and gradually increase heat to a maximum of medium (my max heat ended up being level 4). Stir heated sauce until thickened. It will be obvious when the sauce gets thick
• Turn off the stove and stick the saucepan containing the thickened white sauce in the fridge to cool. You need room temperature sauce for the next step. The sauce should take approximately 30 minutes to cool, and you should stir it approximately every 5-10 minutes to speed up the process.
• While the sauce is cooling, cream the crisco, the remaining margarine, sugar, and the vanilla in a mixer.
• When sauce is room temperature pour it into the creamed sugar mixture, and beat on high until fluffy. This will take longer than you expect. (It will take no time at all to turn into a fluffy-ish mixture but don't be fooled. If you end the process there your frosting will turn limp and runny when you go to frost the cake. I don't know for SURE but I don't think it's even POSSIBLE to over beat this frosting. Just whip it for like 3-5 minutes minimum).
• As you whip the frosting, be sure to pause every now and then to check the mixture to see if it's reached desired consistency. When you do this, also taste test it to see if it has enough vanilla flavoring. Liberally add more vanilla when needed. I've ended up doubling the vanilla before, but I didn't make that official in the recipe because it's all about the individual batch.
• When the frosting reaches the desired fluffiness you may spread it onto your cake/cupcakes or scoop it into a bag to pipe it onto your cake/cupcakes.
• Enjoy!

The frosting is usually fluffiest the day you make it. Each day following it loses its special lightness just a bit more. 

My family uses this recipe for EVERYTHING. Red velvet cake and this frosting are our birthday cakes, and our annual Christmas cake. If you ever muster up the courage to tackle this frosting project let me know how it tastes! It's literally my favorite. It will never get old.

When I make cupcakes with this recipe I put frosting on top AND in the middle as a creamy filling.