Apple Cider Cupcakes

It's apple season and Fall would not be complete without a trip to the apple orchard.  Every October, we head up to the mountains of North Georgia in search of the best apples in the state.  Our first stop this year was B.J. Reese Apple House in Ellijay where we headed into the field with empty bags and came out with our bags filled with the most delicious, juiciest and sweetest apples we could find. 

This year, we had some company at the orchard.  Ben's parents and our niece and nephew helped up out with the apple picking.  Ben always lends a hand at getting those unreachable apples at the very top of the trees too.  

It's not just about apples at the apple orchard anymore.  Now there's cow milking, petting farms, wagon rides, pig races, jumping pillows and zip lining!   Yes, zip lining.  

Since we bring a couple of bags of apples home with us each year, it becomes apple cooking season for several weeks after our trip.  I make apple pies for the winter, apple breads to store in the freezer and apple cider cupcakes for the cafe. 

​These apple cider cupcakes are really good and when you top an apple cider cupcakes with salted caramel buttercream - you've achieved apple perfection. 

Apple Cider Cupcakes

• 2 eggs
• 1 2/3 c. flour
  
• 1 c. apple cider
  
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. butter, softened
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla

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Combine dry ingredients.

Cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

Beat egg and vanilla into sugar mixture.

Add cider to batter, alternating with dry ingredients.

Scoop batter into prepared cupcake pans.

Bake 22 minutes at 350.

For caramel buttercream, melt 12 Kraft caramels in microwave.

Fold melted caramel into a batch of vanilla buttercream.

Pipe caramel buttercream onto cooled cupcakes and drizzle with additional caramel. 

It was such a beautiful day to be in the mountains that we decided to take a hike before we headed home with our apples.  These are some of the pictures from our hike through the woods.  

The trees were absolutely beautiful in the mountains yesterday.  I don't feel like I did a very good job of capturing the extraordinary colors in my pictures but --- its a learning process.  We'll certainly be back again next year. 

Ciao!

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