Apple Pie Cupcakes
These adorable apple pie cupcakes have a moist spice cake, whipped vanilla buttercream, tender spiced apples, and a pie crust garnish. They’re so flavorful and MIGHT just be even better than apple pie itself!
Apple Pie Cupcakes – The Components
These cupcakes have to contain all the delicious flavors of apple pie – tender apples, warm spices, buttery crust, and vanilla ice cream (if you’re eating pie the right way).
So to recreate these layers, these cupcakes are made up of:
- Spice Cake – The cupcake base is an incredibly moist spice cake that’s so easy to make. It mimics the warm and cozy spices found in apple pie.
- Whipped Vanilla Buttercream – Between the moist cupcakes and tender apples, this light buttercream helps bring in that buttery crust flavor but with a little added sweetness.
- Tender Apples – A pool of tender apples sit on top of these cupcakes. Made with fresh apples, butter, lemon juice, sugar, and cinnamon, they’re so delicious and very easy to make.
- Pie Crust – This is an optional garnish, but a bit of real pie crust helps bring in the theme. It’s made with store bought pie dough to make this step very quick.
Spice Cake Cupcake Baking Tips
This spice cake cupcake batter is VERY easy to make, but here are a few things to keep in mind to ensure they turn out just right:
- Flour – I always suggest weighing the flour for accuracy. Otherwise, spoon the flour into a measuring cup and level it off for light and fluffy cups. This ensures the right amount of flour so that the cupcakes don’t turn out tough or dry.
- Dry Ingredients – The batter starts out by mixing together all of the dry ingredients, including the sugar. It’s important to thoroughly whisk everything together to ensure even distribution and to also break up any brown sugar lumps.
- Whisking – Once the wet ingredients are poured in, whisk just enough to combine the batter. Over whisking can lead to tough or sunken cupcakes.
- Baking – To test for doneness, refrain from pulling the cupcakes out of the oven. Instead, stick in a toothpick with the cupcakes still on the oven rack. Pulling the cupcakes from the oven can cause the cupcakes to sink the center.
Apple Pie Filling for Apple Cupcakes
To mimic apple pie filling, a pile of tender apples are scooped on top of these cupcakes. They’re soft and dripping in a cinnamon syrup that makes these cupcakes irresistible. Here’s how it’s made:
- Butter – A bit of butter is melted in a saucepan.
- Apples – Chopped apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice are added. Use an apple that’s firm but sweet, like Honey Crisp, and dice into fine bits.
- Cornstarch – Once the apples start to become tender, a mixture of cornstarch and water is added to help tighten everything up.
- Heating – After a few minutes, the mixture should thicken into a syrupy consistency. It will thicken even further as it cools.
How To Make Whipped Vanilla Buttercream
Using an American buttercream base, whipped vanilla buttercream just requires one extra step.
First, room temperature butter and vanilla are mixed together until they’re smooth and creamy.
Then goes in the powdered sugar and some milk. The milk is there to help thin out the frosting a bit because once the whipping cream is added, it create a lot of structure.
When the butter, vanilla, sugar, and milk are well combined, heavy cream is added and the mixer is cranked up the high speed. The buttercream whips for about 1-2 minutes or until fluffy.
It’s easy to over whip the frosting, so keep a close eye on it. It should look fluffy but still smooth. If you took it too far, scoop out about a cup of frosting and microwave it for 15-30 seconds or until softened and warm.
Mix the warm frosting into the bowl and it will smooth everything out.
Apple Pie Cupcakes FAQs
Sure! Substitute the all-purpose flour with a cup for cup all purpose gluten free baking flour. Also omit the pie crust garnish.
Yes, make sure it’s full fat. For future use, sour cream and Greek yogurt can almost always be substituted for one another.
Keep the cupcakes in an air tight container and store them in the refrigerator. They will keep for about 5 days.
These cupcakes are best the day-of. They can be served right away but they will also be fine if left at room temperature for a couple hours.
I would suggest baking the cupcakes themselves a day ahead and storing in the refrigerator. You can also make the apple filling and pie crust a day ahead, keeping the filling the fridge and the pie crust in a container at room temperature. It’s difficult to revive whipped buttercream, so I suggest making this the day of.
For more cupcake recipes, check out my:
- Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Gingerbread Cupcakes
- Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Butterbeer Cupcakes
- Apple Butter Spice Cake
- Spice Cake with Brown Butter Frosting
Make sure to tag me @butternutbakery on Instagram and comment below if you make these apple pie cupcakes. To pin this recipe and save it for later, you can use the button on the recipe card or on any of the photos above. Happy baking!
Watch how to make these apple pie cupcakes:
Apple Pie Cupcakes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 12 cupcakes
Description
These apple pie cupcakes have a moist spice cake base with whipped vanilla buttercream, tender cinnamon apples, and a baked pie crust garnish. It’s all the cozy flavors of a warm apple pie wrapped up in a delicious cupcake!
Ingredients
Apple Pie Cupcakes
- 1 1/3 cup (175g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (205g) light brown sugar, packed
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup (102g) vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup (123g) unsweetened applesauce
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 1/4 cup (60g) sour cream
Apple Pie Filling
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 1/2 cups finely diced Fuji or Honeycrisp apples (about 2 large apples)
- 1/4 cup (50g) light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 tsp cornstarch, mixed with 1 tbsp water
Pie Crust Garnish (optional)
- 1 sheet premade pie dough
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tbsp raw sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Whipped Vanilla Bean Frosting
- 1 1/2 cups (330g) unsalted butter, room temp
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 4 cups (400g) powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup (60g) milk
- 1/4 cup (60g) heavy cream
Instructions
Apple Pie Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a cupcake tin with 12 paper liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the oil, applesauce, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
- Divide the batter between the 12 liners, filling each about halfway.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Apple Pie Filling
- While the cupcakes bake, make the filling.
- In a saucepan, melt down the butter over medium heat.
- Once melted, add in the apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice.
- Stir and cook until the apples start to become tender and release their juices.
- Mix together the cornstarch and water and pour into the apple mixture.
- Continue to stir and heat the apples until thickened and syrupy (about 2 minutes).
- Remove from heat and cool.
Pie Crust Garnish (optional)
- Preheat the oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough and use pie crust punches to cut out any shape you like. If you don’t have punches, you can also cut little squares or circles.
- Transfer the shapes to the baking sheet and lightly brush with heavy cream.
- Sprinkle each piece with the cinnamon sugar and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
Whipped Vanilla Bean Buttercream
- Using a hand or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and vanilla bean paste until smooth.
- Sift in all of the powdered sugar and then pour in the milk.
- Mix on low speed to incorporate the sugar. Once there’s no longer any danger of sugar going all over your kitchen counter, bump up the medium speed and beat until smooth and creamy (about 2 minutes).
- Then pour in the heavy cream and mix on high speed for about 1 minute, or until light and fluffy.
Assemble
- Make sure the cupcakes have completely cooled before assemingly.
- Fit a piping bag with a large round tip and fill with the frosting. (You can also just snip off the end of the piping bag or a large ziplock bag).
- Holding the tip in the very center of the cupcake, pipe a mound of frosting.
- Using a spoon or small offset spatula, dip into the center of the frosting to create a well for the apple pie filling to sit.
- Once all the cupcakes are frosted, fill the center with about 1/2 tbsp of the cooled apple pie filling.
- Press in a cooled pie crust garnish and enjoy!
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cooling Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
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Meet Jenna
I’m the creator, baker, and photographer behind Butternut Bakery. Here I share desserts for every diet because I believe everyone should have a chance to indulge!
Another super-easy bake that received rave reviews. I followed the recipe without modification/substitutions and it was a winner. Thank you as always!