Apple Pie Cupcakes
Super moist and tender spiced cupcakes topped with an apple pie filling and frosted with a cream cheese whipped cream and streusel topping.
Why You’ll Love These Apple Pie Cupcakes
- I used my favorite tried & true vanilla cupcake recipe except I used half light brown sugar instead and added cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Although these might take a little extra effort than your average cupcake, it’s totally worth it and easier than filling the cupcakes post baking.
- A moist cupcake topped with apple pie filling is an awesome twist on fall recipes that really goes well together, not to mention the cream cheese frosting that’s light as air!
- Perfect, easy to eat dessert for a small get together if you really want to impress your friends 🙂
If you like these, you’ll love my Apple Cider Cupcakes, they have an apple cider base, apple cider frosting and apple cider caramel sauce. I also have plenty (my fav) of other apple recipes like my Iced Apple Crisp Macchiato, Apple Cider Donuts OR try my new Apple Ice Cream and serve it on a Dutch Apple Pie.
If you’re looking to pair these babies with other “fall-ey” cupcakes try my Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes, S’mores Cupcakes, or Biscoff Cupcakes.
Ingredients:
- Butter: I like to use salted butter for my cupcakes, but you can also use unsalted butter, just add an extra ¼ tsp of salt to every cup of butter used.
- Oil: any neutral oil like vegetable oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, etc. will work.
- Sugar: I usually use just granulated sugar for my cupcakes, but for this recipe I used ½ granulated and ½ light brown sugar. I also used light brown sugar for the streusel and filling and powdered sugar for the cream.
- Vanilla: I use extract in this recipe but vanilla bean paste would work as well.
- Eggs: always use large, room temperature eggs. Place them in hot water for 5-10 minutes if they’re cold.
- Flour: I usually use all-purpose flour for cakes but cupcakes are a different story. I use cake flour for most cupcakes. Although I do use all-purpose for the streusel here.
- I also HIGHLY recommend using a digital scale, as flour is almost always over measured.
- If you don’t have cake flour, you can substitute the cake flour for equal parts all-purpose flour – 1 Tbsp and then add 1 Tbsp cornstarch. It’s not a perfect substitute but will get the job done. To learn more about this, check out my ebook about ingredients. Use code BAKER for 60% off.
- Baking Powder: I just used baking powder for this recipe.
- Salt: salt brings out the flavor in all baked goods.
- Sour Cream: I use sour cream in almost all my cake and cupcake recipes. It brings and holds a lot of moisture into the cake. Plain greek yogurt or unsweetened regular yogurt also works.
- Cream Cheese: I let it soften a bit and always use Philadelphia cream cheese.
- Milk: any fat percentage of milk works, even plant based milk works.
- Heavy Whipping Cream: This gets whipped into the cream cheese frosting – I recommend 36-40% fat.
- Apple: I used 3 medium apples cored, peeled, and diced. I like gala, fuji or honeycrisp but really any apple you like will work. Golden apples will get more soggy though.
- Lemon: Whenever I bake with apples I like to coat them in lemon juice. This prevents them from getting brown super quick and brings out their natural tartness.
- Spices: I use cinnamon and nutmeg in this recipe.
- Cornstarch: Used to thicken the juices from the apples so that it gets more saucy and not runny.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Apple Pie Filling
Step 1: Toss the apples with the lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and sugar.
Step 2: Melt butter in a saucepan and add the apple mixture. Cook for about 7 minutes, until the apples start to feel a little more tender.
Step 3: Remove about 2 Tbsp of the liquid into the bowl and mix it with the cornstarch then add it back to the pot cooking 1-2 mins until it thickens.
Spice Cupcakes
Step 1: Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, salt, spices and sugars.
Step 2: Add the oil and butter to the dry ingredients and continue mixing, just until it’s all crumbly.
Step 3: Add the egg and vanilla and continue mixing until it’s smooth.
Step 4: Add the sour cream and stream the milk in, scrape the edges while mixing until smooth.
Step 5: Fill each cupcake liner about ⅔ full and then top with the apple pie filling.
Step 6: Bake for 22-25 minutes, remove and let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes before fully removing to a cooling rack.
Streusel Topping
Step 1: Melt the butter and add the sugar, cinnamon and salt. Mix until it’s well combined.
Step 2: Add the flour, mix gently, then bake for 5 minutes on a cookie sheet.
Step 3: Remove pan, toss the streusel, then repeat 5 minute bake time. Do this 3-4 rounds until the streusel has browned and is crispy. Then set aside to cool.
Cream Cheese Whipped Cream
Step 1: Place the room temperature cream cheese in the bowl and beat at medium speed for a minute until it’s creamy.
Step 2: Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and salt and beat again until it’s smooth and combined.
Step 3: Stream in heavy whipping cream and beat until it’s thickened like fluffy whipped cream.
Step 4: Frost the cooled cupcakes and then roll the sides of the frosting in the cooled streusel or just sprinkle on top.
Expert Tips On Getting Perfect Cupcakes
There’s a few things that can make it or break it with these cupcakes.
- Don’t swap ingredients unless I mentioned them in the ingredient section above.
- Don’t reduce the sugar. I know a lot of people do that for some recipes but it alters the texture not just the flavor.
- Weigh your ingredients with a digital scale
- Weigh the batter for each cupcake with a digital scale. I just place the cupcake pan on the scale with the liners and measure out 45 grams for each cupcake and 20-25 grams of apple pie filling.
- Use a light colored stainless steel muffin tin for a more even bake.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can make a streusel out of leftover pie crust, crushing it and adding it on top. If you want to skip the streusel altogether you can drizzle on some caramel sauce over the frosting like I did for my Apple Cider Cupcakes or Pumpkin Cupcakes.
Or a graham cracker dusting like I did for my Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes.
You can use dairy free butter, dairy free milk, cream cheese and heavy cream to make these. I don’t have much experience with dairy free cream cheese so whatever one you like the taste of will probably be best for you. If the cream is too runny, reduce the amount of heavy cream or increase the amount of powdered sugar.
I have not tested my cupcake recipes, but all my cake and cookie recipes work well with a 1:1 gluten-free flour like Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur Flour.
It’s kind of difficult to tell with these cupcakes so I just stuck a toothpick into one of the side areas where that wasn’t covered in apple pie.
How To Store Apple Pie Cupcakes
Serve the cupcakes fresh or refrigerate them for a few days.
To refrigerate, make sure to cover the cupcakes with a cake dome or store them in an airtight container for up to a week.
To freeze it, place them in an airtight container and then place the container in an airtight bag. Thaw at room temperature before serving.
Thanks so much for reading today’s post, if you have any questions just comment down below.
If you make these apple pie cupcakes, I would love it if you left a star rating for it in the recipe card.
As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!
Love, B
Can I make these ahead of time?
You can but I would make the whipped cream frosting fresh before serving. If not, you can replace the whipped cream frosting with cream cheese frosting if you want to frost them ahead of time.
I would use this recipe for cream cheese frosting if you want to try that.
https://baranbakery.com/red-velvet-cupcakes/
Can I use light Sour cream instead of original?
It should be ok. The texture might be a little more wet since it’s more watery but the cupcake should still be good 🙂
These were ridiculously good!
Ah yay so glad you liked them! Thank you for sharing ?