From Bananas to Apples

December 20th: Today I went back to the Baking cookbook to give it another try. This time I used the recipe for Toffee Apple Cupcakes because they looked so amazing in the picture in the book. And because, hey, who doesn't like toffee apples and cupcakes? Mixing them together had to be great. (More on that later . . .) To the recipe!

Makes: 12 cupcakes

Cupcakes:
2 apples
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
heaping 1/4 cup light brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter, plus extra for greasing
scant 1/2 cup milk
scant 1/2 cup apple juice
1 egg, beaten

Toffee Topping:
2 tablespoons light cream
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat the over ton 400 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan (preferably non-stick).

2. Core and coarsely grate one of the apples. Slice the remaining apple into 1/4-inch thick wedges and toss in the lemon juice. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon, then stire in the sugar and grated apple.

3. Melt the butter and mix with the milk, apple juice, and egg. Stir the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, mixing lightly until just combined.

4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan. Put two apple slices on top of each cake.

5. Bake in the prepared oven for 20-25 minutes, or until risen, firm, and golden brown. Run a knife around the edge of each cake to loosen, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

6. For the toffee topping, place all the ingredients in a small pan and heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and boil rapidly for 2 minutes, or until slightly thickened and syrupy. Cool slightly, then drizzle over the cakes and let set.

Do all that, and this is what you get:

Looks awesome, right? Now you see why I wanted to make these. But, remember how I said I'd get back to that whole toffee apple + cupcake  =  winner thing? Here's the incredibly sad part: They weren't winners. They were semi-dry and pretty tasteless. The only apple flavor I got, basically, was from the ones on top. So much for putting an apple AND apple juice in the cake batter. Now, I suppose it's possible that these would turn out better with different apples. Or with more apple juice added. Or maybe with some applesauce added. But as it stands, this is one of my most disappointed baking experiences of the whole Advent journey.

I will say this, though, the toffee was pretty good, which I was kind of surprised about given my ineptitude with making caramel.

There is another possibility for why these cakes came out so bland: the light brown sugar component. I'm not sure if the ingredients list meant 1/4 cup loosely packed or firmly packed. Is a heaping 1/4 cup of loosely packed the same as 1/4 cup of firmly packed? Not really sure. I went with a heaping 1/4 cup of loosely packed since it didn't specifically say firmly packed, but maybe it should've been a heaping 1/4 cup of firmly packed. Maybe that would've added flavor of some kind. Who knows?

As a potentially educational side note, you toss the apple slices in lemon juice to keep the outsides from oxidized and turning brown. Handy trick, huh?