The flavours of sticky toffee and tangy apple combine perfectly in this scrumptious cupcake recipe from Zoe Williams, winner of This Morning's Super Sweet competition.
Ingredients
For the cake mixture:
- 115 g4 oz unsalted butter
- 115 g4 oz caster sugar
- 115 g4 oz self raising flour
- 2 free-range eggs
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp milk
- ½ large cooking apple, peeled, chopped and diced into small chunks
- 70 g2½ oz of finely chopped soft chewy toffee
For toffee apple slices and decoration:
- ½ large cooking apple, peeled and sliced (coat in apple juice or brush with lemon to stop browning)
- 200 g7 oz caster sugar
- 100 ml3½ fl oz cold water
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 1 tsp malt vinegar
- A drop of red food colouring
For the buttercream:
- 225 g8 oz icing sugar
- 100 g3½ oz unsalted butter
- Icing sugar/cinnamon sugar for decoration
Method: How to make Toffee apple cupcakes
Preheat oven to 180C.
Mix the butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add flour, baking powder and cinnamon and fold into mixture. Add milk, apple chunks and toffee pieces and stir in.
Spoon mixture into cake cases and bake for 15-20 mins in oven until cooked and golden brown.
Meanwhile, to make the toffee apple slices, put apple slices on a tray covered in parchment paper. Mix the water and sugar in a small saucepan and stir over a low heat until the sugar has fully dissolved.
Once dissolved, add the golden syrup, vinegar and food colouring and bring to the boil without stirring on a gentle heat. Allow the mixture to boil for approx 12 minutes until the mixture turns thick and syrupy. If you have a sugar thermometer boil to 148 degrees (you can also test this by pouring a little mixture into a glass of cold water - if the mixture hardens as soon as it is poured into cold water then it is ready). When the mixture is ready pour over the apple slices.
Once cakes have cooled, slice the top of the cake off (to make the lid) and put in a dollop of buttercream (butter and icing sugar beaten together) and a couple of toffee apple slices.
Replace lid and dust with icing or cinnamon sugar. Finish decoration with a cinnamon stick.
