Apple Crumble Cupcakes

 One of the first things I learnt to make in food tech in middle school (aside from how to put milk and milkshake powder together - although I'm not really sure how that's 'cooking'?) was an apple crumble and this was something I would make for my parents and grandparents. This was also a dessert that wasn't chocolate that I actually enjoyed!
 That being said I haven't made a crumble in years, but when I saw a recipe for apple crumble cupcakes I just knew I had to try them, especially as we are fully into autumn. I'll be honest, these do take quite a while to make as there's lots of bits to it that you need to do, and to make this recipe quicker I'd actually leave out the crumble bit and have them as apple cupcakes - for me the autumnal taste comes from the mix of cinnamon and apple together and the crumble is an added extra.

 

Cupcakes
2 eggs
230g self raising flour
155g sugar
125g butter
1tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
Apples (this depends on how many you want but I used two)

Crumble
75g golden caster sugar
100g butter
140g self raising flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Icing
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
75 g soft brown sugar
150g butter
300g icing sugar
2 tbsp milk

<<To make>>

Peel, core and chop apples into small cubes.
Place in a saucepan and cover with hot water, simmer for 5 - 7 minutes until soft and leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180-200C (the recipe said 170 but I baked them on gas mark 6 as I knew they wouldn't cook quickly any lower and apparently this is equivalent to 200C - go with what you know your oven works best on)
For the cupcakes, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy; then add the eggs and vanilla and mix together.
Add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and gently mix together until combined.
Fold in the apple mix and spoon into cupcake cases.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until the mixture springs back (in my oven they actually took about 25)

Whilst the cupcakes are baking, you can make the crumble mix and then put this in the oven with the cupcakes.
Rub together the butter, flour, cinnamon, vanilla to a breadcrumb consistency, and then stir in the sugar.
Bake on a lined baking tray for 5 - 10 minutes until golden.

Leave the cupcakes and crumble mixture to cool.

Once they have both cooled, it's time to make the icing. The recipe I followed put some icing on the cupcakes, then a crumble layer and then they piped on some more icing but I am not gifted in the piped icing skill and so another time I would make less icing and miss out the top icing layer.

Beat together the butter, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla.
Add in the icing sugar a bit at a time and add some milk if necessary.

Put a small amount of icing on top of each cupcake, and then add some crumble to the top. I found it was easiest to do this by putting the crumble mix in a bowl, and dunking the cupcake in to make them stick to the icing. You can then add an extra swirl of icing (if you have the skill to) and sprinkle a few more crumble bits on and they're ready to eat!

Jess x