Apple and cinnamon cupcakes

As mentioned in the Red Velvet post, quite a few of my friends are September babies, so i've turned to cupcakes as the ideal present solution!

My friend is totally obsessed with cinnamon so i made her Apple and Cinnamon cupcakes with pretty purple icing, which went down a treat.

This recipe makes 12 standard size cupcakes:

Base:
125g soft light brown sugar
125g lightly salted butter
125g sifted self raising flour
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 bramley cooking apple
2 medium eggs

Topping:
350g fondant icing sugar
3-4 tbsp of boiling water
Aubergine food colouring
Purple sprinkles

Firstly pre-heat the oven to 190c

Its best to core, peel and grate the bramley cooking apple first before getting down to the business of baking, that way if your in a teensy kitchen like me, you wont get in a muddle later in the process!

Ok so, pop the light soft brown sugar and butter into a bowl and whip until creamy. Then seperate the eggs and add the yolks to the mixture. Next add the sifted self-raising flour and cinnamon to the mix together and mix until smooth. You can now add the grated bramley cooking apple and again mix in well. Finally, fold in your whipped egg whites.

Place the cupcakes in the oven for approximately 12-15 minutes, but please be aware that the mix will be slightly 'wetter' than normal because of the addition of bramley apple. But seriously, the delicious smells coming out of the oven are something else...almost worth baking as a type of room scent!!

Ordinarily, you could go for a muffin-vibe with these cakes but as these were for a birthday i decided to go with traditional glace icing to decorate.

Glace icing is just too easy for words, just add around 350g fondant icing sugar to boiling water and then chuck in the desired amount of food colouring. My new cupcake friend, fondant icing sugar gives an extra glossy shine, so buy, buy, buy!!!

As it was an extra special occassion i used my Momiji bake set and decorated the cupcakes with purple sprinkles and 'Happy Birthday' flags - brilliant!