Caramel apple cupcakes are the perfect way to celebrate the fall! Moist cinnamon cupcakes filled with cinnamon apple filling, swirled with salted caramel buttercream frosting, and drizzled with homemade salted caramel sauce.
Ingredients for Caramel Apple Cupcakes
Cinnamon Cupcakes
- All-purpose flour – Be sure the fluff the flour and level the measuring cups to measure the flour correctly.
- Granulated sugar – For sweetness.
- Baking powder – Leavening agent to help the cupcakes rise.
- Salt – To enhance flavor and contrast sweetness.
- Cinnamon – A warm spice that adds amazing flavor to the cupcakes.
- Milk – Room temperature.
- Vegetable oil – You can also use canola oil or another neutral baking oil.
- Egg – Large egg, room temperature.
- Sour cream – Room temperature. You can also substitute with plain Greek yogurt.
- Vanilla extract – Pure vanilla extract adds amazing flavor to the cupcakes.
Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
- Unsalted butter – Room temperature butter for easy creaming.
- Powdered sugar – Also known as confectioners’ sugar or icing sugar. No need to sift the sugar, unless it is very lumpy.
- Vanilla extract – Vanilla extract adds amazing vanilla flavor to the buttercream.
- Salt – A hefty pinch of salt provides contrast to the sweetness of the frosting and enhances the caramel flavor.
- Salted caramel sauce – Check out the recipe for my salted caramel sauce! The recipe only contains 5 ingredients and takes only 10 minutes to make! You could use a store-bought caramel sauce if you prefer, but I personally think the homemade caramel has better flavor.
Cinnamon Apple Filling
- Apples – Peeled and diced. For baking, I love using granny smith apples, honeycrisp apples, and pink lady apples.
- Granulated sugar – To add a bit of sweetness.
- Water – Water helps dissolve the sugar and create a sauce.
- Lemon juice – Lemon juice brightens the flavor of the apple filling.
- Cinnamon – Cinnamon adds a wonderful warm flavor to the apples.
- Cornstarch – Cornstarch and water create a slurry to thicken the apple filling.
You will also need additional salted caramel sauce to drizzle over the top of the cupcakes!
Tools & Supplies to Make Caramel Apple Cupcakes
How to Make Cinnamon Cupcakes
The cinnamon cupcakes are made with my vanilla cupcake recipe with the addition of cinnamon. All you need to make the batter is a mixing bowl and a whisk. Super simple recipe!
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F & line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
- Add in milk, egg, vegetable oil, sour cream, and vanilla extract to the flour mixture.
- Whisk the dry and wet ingredients together until combined and smooth. Do not overmix.
- Portion the cupcake batter into cupcake liners using a large cookie scoop, 3/4 full.
- Bake for approximately 20 minutes until the cupcakes bounce back when gently touched or an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
How to Make the Other Components of the Recipe
Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
The frosting in this recipe is my salted caramel buttercream. The buttercream is made with homemade salted caramel sauce for amazing caramel flavor. Check out the full blog post to learn more about how to make the recipe and tips for making perfect buttercream.
Salted Caramel Sauce
To make the caramel frosting you will obviously need salted caramel sauce. My homemade caramel sauce only requires 5 ingredients and takes about 10 minutes to make! No candy thermometer is required – I promise, the recipe is easy to make. You will need the caramel sauce for the salted caramel buttercream frosting and to drizzle over the cupcakes.
If you want to skip a step, you can certainly use storebought salted caramel sauce, but the homemade version is seriously delicious. For this cupcake recipe, you will need about half of a recipe, but I recommend making the full recipe and keeping the leftovers in the refrigerator for your own personal use! Check out the full blog post to learn how to make the salted caramel sauce!
Cinnamon Apple Filling
To make the cinnamon apple filling, you will need a stove and a saucepan. Combine peeled and diced apples, granulated sugar, water, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Cook the apples over medium-low heat for approximately ten minutes until the apples soften. Then, make a cornstarch slurry from water and cornstarch and add to the apples to thicken the filling. Transfer to a heatproof bowl to cool before using.
Caramel Apple Cupcakes Recipe Tips
Bake perfect cupcakes
Check out my baking tips blog post on 10 Tips for Baking Perfect Cupcakes to learn easy tips and tricks to bake the best cupcakes! I also have a post highlighting my favorite supplies for baking and decorating cupcakes!
Filling the cupcakes
To fill the cinnamon cupcakes with the cinnamon apple filling, I recommend using an apple corer to core the center of the cupcakes to create space for the filling. If you do not have an apple corer, you could use a paring knife or a teaspoon to remove the center of the cupcake. When you plunge the corer into the cupcake, you will want to go down only about 2/3 of the way.
Fill a piping bag with the cinnamon apple filling and cut a small hole in the bottom that will fit in the cored cupcake but also allow the filling to easily be piped. Fill the cupcakes with the cinnamon apple filling. I like to overfill them for extra apple flavor.
Frosting the cupcakes
To frost the cupcakes as shown in the pictures, you will need a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M piping tip. For these cupcakes, I created a simple “ice cream swirl” style. Check out this video on how to pipe a basic buttercream swirl. After the cupcakes are frosted, use a piping bag or a spoon to drizzle additional salted caramel sauce over the top of the cupcakes.
Storing and serving
Caramel apple cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days. To serve, bring the cupcakes to room temperature by removing them from the refrigerator approximately one hour before serving.
Click here to see a quick video on how to make caramel apple cupcakes! Follow Cake Me Home Tonight on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for more recipe videos and baking tutorials!
Caramel Apple Cupcakes
Equipment
- Stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or electric hand mixer
Ingredients
Cinnamon Cupcakes
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ cup milk room temperature
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp sour cream room temperature
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ cup salted caramel sauce salted caramel sauce recipe
Cinnamon Apple Filling
- 2 ½ cups apples peeled and diced
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp water
Salted Caramel Drizzle
- ¼ cup salted caramel sauce salted caramel sauce recipe
Instructions
Cinnamon Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
- Add in milk, vegetable oil, sour cream, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk until well combined with the dry ingredients. Do not overmix.
- Portion the cupcake batter into the cupcake liners using a large cookie scoop, about ¾ full.
- Bake for 20 minutes until the tops of the cupcakes bounce back slightly when touched.
- Remove the cupcake pan from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
- Before making the salted caramel buttercream frosting, you will need to make salted caramel sauce. Check out the blog post and make one recipe! The caramel sauce should be at room temperature before adding to the buttercream frosting.
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip room temperature unsalted butter for 5 minutes on medium-high speed, scraping down the sides occasionally. The butter will become light, fluffy, and pale in color.
- Add in the powdered sugar in two batches, mixing on low speed in between each addition until well combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure everything is well mixed.
- Add vanilla extract and salt and continue to mix on low speed.
- Drizzle in the salted caramel sauce and continue to mix on low speed.
- Turn the speed on the mixer to medium speed and whip for 3 minutes until the buttercream is light and fluffy.
Cinnamon Apple Filling
- Combine peeled and diced apples, granulated sugar, 2 tbsp water, lemon juice and cinnamon in a medium saucepan. Mix to combine.
- Place over medium-low heat and cook for approximately 10 minutes stirring occasionally until the apples are softened.
- In a separate small bowl, combine 1 tbsp water and cornstarch to create a slurry.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the cornstarch slurry to the apples and immediately mix well to combine. The mixture will thicken.
- Transfer to a heatproof container to cool to room temperature before using.
Assembling the Caramel Apple Cupcakes
- Use an apple corer, paring knife, or teaspoon to core the center of the cupcakes, about ⅔ of the way down.
- Fill a piping bag with the cinnamon apple filling and pipe into the center of the cupcakes. I like to overfill the cupcakes for extra apple flavor.
- Use a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M tip to create an ice cream swirl of salted caramel buttercream frosting. Use a piping bag or spoon to drizzle additional salted caramel sauce over the top of the cupcakes.
Notes
Made This Recipe?
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Comments & Reviews
They were good, but the cupcake and the frosting was too sweet for my liking. The apple filling was good though!
Hi Sylvia! Since this cupcake has caramel buttercream and a caramel drizzle, they do tend to be sweet. If you should ever choose to make the recipe in the future, you might want to consider using a tangy cream cheese frosting which should taste a bit less sweet than the caramel buttercream. I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the apple filling. 🙂
Can you use a non dairy milk? Which do you recommend?
Hi there! I haven’t tested this recipe with a non-dairy milk, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for the cupcakes. I’m not sure how it would work for the caramel sauce. You may want to look for a dairy free caramel that is specifically formulated to be non dairy. 🙂
I made these as cake jars and they were really good. I did puree the apple filling though so I don’t love chunks of fruit.
Love the cake jar idea! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe and modified it to your taste! 🙂
Can the filling be made ahead of time?
Yes! Absolutely! You can make it a day or two ahead of time!
I have to admit, I ate the leftover apple slices with this delicious buttercream icing and a drizzle of caramel 😋 They took some time to make but we’re SO worth it! Yummmmm
That sounds delicious! I will have to try that! Thank you so much for trying out the recipe! I am so glad you enjoyed! And thank you for the positive review and comment! 🙂