Apple Cider Pancakes/ Waffles

Oh man, you're gonna love these! You can do them as pancakes or you can pour the batter onto a waffle iron and make them waffles! It works, I tried it :)

They smell so good when they are cooking.

Apple Cider Pancakes

1cp flour
1/2cp old fashioned oats
2tsp baking powder
3TBS brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp nutmeg
1 egg
1cp apple cider
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg).
Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until just combined.
Heat frying pan or griddle and melt some butter or no stick spray.
Pour 1/4cp (more or less) of batter on pan and fry until bubbles appear.
Flip and cook a minute more.

I had some left over cider frosting from a cake I made last week so I put a slab of that on top when serving- good stuff!

For the frosting, I followed the recipe here: http://www.ahintofhoney.com/2009/10/caramel-apple-layer-cake-with-apple.html
Of course, if you're just wanting some for the pancakes, reduce the recipe by A LOT!

Apple Pie Cupcakes

Here it is, the post you've been waiting for: The Perfect Fall Post (in cupcake form). Pictures to come- I left my camera at work, OOps!

These were so awesome! I saw a recipe online for a similar cupcake but I didn't like the cupcake recipe (HOW MANY sticks of butter?!?!?!) So I came up with my own version with less butter and more fluffiness..

Here's what you need:
Apple Topping: 2TBS butter, 1/4 cp sugar, 2 apples peeled, cored, sliced thin.

Cupcake:
1&1/4 cp flour
1&1/2 tsp baking powder
1tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cp sugar
6TBS (3/4 stick) butter
1 egg + 1 egg white
1tsp lemon extract or lemon juice
1tsp vanilla
1/2 cp milk

Frosting:
1/2 can of store bought cream cheese frosting
cinnamon to taste

Melt the butter in a frying pan over low-medium heat and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Add the apple slices and fry until the apples are lightly carmelized and soft (7-8 min) Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 F

Whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a medium bowl.

Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Add eggs, lemon, and vanilla and beat until well blended.

Add the flour mixture and milk. Beat on med/high speed just until all the flour is mixed in. Do not over mix.

Put cupcake liners in  cupcake pan and fill each one 3/4 of the way with batter. Top with apple slices. Bake 18-20 min. or until golden brown and the cake bounces back when touched.

Cool in pan 5 min. and then on wire rack. *Cupcakes must be completely cooled before frosting or the frosting will melt- you don't want that!

I totally cheated on the frosting and bought a can of cream cheese frosting that I stirred cinnamon into before frosting the cupcakes.

Enjoy with a nice warm mug of cider next to a warm fire.

Candy Corn Cupcakes for Halloween!!

So here it is...the long awaited Halloween goodies I promised you all. Candy corn cupcakes!!

Ingredients: 1 box white cake mix
1cp. sour cream
1/2 cp vegetable oil
3eggs
1tsp almond extract
1/2tsp each of yellow and orange food coloring
white frosting-homemade or store bought(I have a link for frosting recipes below)

Put everything except the food coloring and frosting in aa medium bowl and stir until combined.

Put 1/2 of the batter into another bowl. Mix yellow food color into one bowl and orange into the other bowl.

Put cupcake liners in the cupcake pan and fill 1/3 of each cup with yellow batter. Try to smooth out the top so the layers will be nice and even.

Put some of the orange batter on top of the yellow. These cupcakes rose nicely. I filled the cups about 2/3 of the way.

Bake them for about 20 minutes at 350F . A toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean if you are not sure. Let them cool before attempting to frost.

I'm fussy about frosting so I mixed up a nice, light vanilla frosting but here's a link to several different frosting recipes you can try:
http://www.cupcakeproject.com/p/my-ten-favorite-frostings.html
She has 10 delicious looking varieties there! YUMMO!

OMG! They are soooo Boo-tiful! I could even put a little candy corn on top for extra flair!