Apple Cupcakes and Taking It Down a Notch

With all the over-the-top end-of-summer pictures all over social media, paired with the oh-my-word how do you have time to create a fruit sculpture in your child's back-to-school bento box pictures...well...I've done some self-reflection on being over the top versus taking it down a notch.

Because nothing says over-the-top like recreating the cover of a magazine every month. Yikes.

The thing about me is that I simultaneously love to do a little over-the-top stuff in my kitchen every once in awhile, and I also love to wear sweatpants and hit up the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru. Occasionally I fall into the trap of feeling like I have to choose, or somehow define myself as a member of one "camp" or the other. But the thing is, I am neither. I am both. I am a person who loves to get lost in a half-day kitchen experiment, AND who loves to take it down a notch sometimes. One of the most useful things I picked up in grad school was the phrase, "It's not either/or. It's both/and." So simple. So true.

When I decided to write this blog, I worried that people would think I was being too-much. Running a marathon? Baking insane cakes? Going after who knows what will be on next month's issue of Southern Living? Too much.

I hope that what y'all know is that the intentionality behind it is honest. And in that spirit, I thought it would be fun to recreate this month's over-the-top cake with a toned-down version, more true to the type of thing I might actually make. Like, in my real life. Boxed cake mix, apple pie filling out of a can...I'm talking about straight-up not Southern Living cover material. But (spoiler alert...you can scroll down for the pics) it was still awesome.

In general, here's the deal on how to make boxed cake mixes taste more homemade:
1) Substitute basically anything more tasty than water in place of the amount of water called for on the box. In the case of this Duncan Hines box, it was 1 cup of water, so I used 1 cup of buttermilk. But depending on the flavor of cake, you could use whole milk, chocolate/vanilla soy milk, buttermilk, chocolate syrup, juice, coffee, liqueur, or any combination of these, totaling the amount of liquid called for on the box.

2) Add 1 box pudding mix plus 1 cup sour cream. For this cake, I used French Vanilla pudding mix, but instead of 1 cup of sour cream, I used 1 cup of apple butter.

3) Add an extra egg, above and beyond whatever was originally called for on the box.

4) Use softened butter instead of the cooking oil called for on the box.

5) Decrease cooking temp from 350 to 325, and bake a little longer than the box calls for.

6) Add 1 tsp. extract/flavoring (e.g., vanilla extract, almond, lemon, etc., depending on your cake flavor). For citrus cakes, you can also add lemon, lime, or orange zest.

7) Optional: Throw in some mix-ins like nuts, chocolate chips, etc.

8) Optional: Y'all are gonna freak out on this one, but it's true. Add 1/4 cup mayonnaise. When you think about it, it makes sense--mayo is basically oil and eggs, which you already throw into a cake anyway. You just have to mentally get past the fact that you are putting mayo in a cake. I actually didn't use mayo in this particular cake, mostly because I was planning on having BLTs for dinner later this week and didn't want to use up all of my mayo. But I've done it sometimes in the past, and it does make a moist cake. So, yeah, do what you want...

In summary, here's the recipe for Take-It-Down-A-Notch Apple Spice Cupcakes
1 boxed Spice Cake Mix
1 box French Vanilla Pudding Mix
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup apple butter
1/3 cup softened butter
1 tsp. vanilla


Mix all ingredients and fill 24 cupcake liners. Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool completely, then frost with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. Top with 1-2 apples for decoration (see below).

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
2 packages (8 oz each) Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla

32 oz powdered sugar

3 tsp. ground cinnamon

Dash of salt

Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until whipped. Slowly add powdered sugar and cinnamon. I like the balance of a dash or two of salt (to taste) added at the end, and I also use regular salted butter for this frosting (rather than unsalted butter, which most people say to use for baking). The frosting won't taste like a "salty-sweet" concoction, I promise...I just think the salt helps it to have more balance and cuts the sweetness intensity just a dab. 

Note: this recipe makes a double batch of icing, because I like to go a little heavy-handed on the icing, and all the "designer" cupcakes always have a ton of icing on top to look pretty. You could totally cut this recipe in half if you are more of a traditional/light-icing kind of person.

In terms of taking it down a notch, you also could totally substitute frosting out of a can, if you like it. I'm not the hugest fan of it, and mixing up a batch of icing is simple enough that I'm cool with going from-scratch just on this part of the recipe. But you should totally take it down a notch here too, if you'd like!

Apple Topping

And here's where we really take it down a notch. Open a can of apple pie filling. Stir in some cinnamon, to taste, if you'd like. Pick up a baked apple or two and place on top of the cupcake for decoration (and obviously for deliciousness too). Seriously. People will look at the cupcake and be all, like, "Oh my gosh, look at this thing!" And you'll be all like, "Yeah, I can operate a can opener like nobody's business."

 

Most delicious take-it-down-a-notch-dessert ever. And if you read my last blog post (where I actually recreated the Southern Living layer cake), you could totally substitute that version of the cake recipe and/or apple topping, instead of going fully down-a-notch like I did here.

Love y'all. Thanks for loving me, despite being both over-the-top AND taken-down-a-notch.

September: 12-Layer Apple Cake and Going For It.

Several friends have told me I should write a blog this year, with intensities ranging from a casual conversational suggestion to an urgent and detailed plan. “You should totally do it,” one friend-who-shall-remain-nameless implored. “You could write about being Southern and cooking and running and psychology and being a stay-at-home-mom for a year. I’d totally read that!”

Um, okay?

So I just packed up my family, moved to a new city, quit my job, and now I'm going to write about work, parenting, sports and leisure, food, and an entire region of the United States all within one cohesive and brief narrative. Check. Got it.

Did I mention that I'm not even a writer?

Clearly, her plan was dismissed. Immediately.

Except then my issue of Southern Living arrived. With twelve layers of apple cake goodness. 

 *Note: as will become apparent below, this cover photo was taken from the Southern Living website. I did not bake that.

 
There was just no other excuse for its creation. We have no friends here and there are not enough miles of trail to justify eating half of this thing. And if I make it, with no friends or colleagues to share it with, I will eat half of it. It’s just a mathematical fact.

But…If it were for the sake of the blog…

And so the idea was born. The rules are simple: Each month I will attempt to re-create the cover of Southern Living magazine and will post my reflections on the process. For issues featuring a food-based cover, this should easily address both the southern and the food portions of my friend’s vision for my blog. I'll try to figure out how to work in the running, psychology, and parenting stuff along the way. When interior or exterior design is featured, I will reserve the right to make a case-by-case decision about whether to recreate the cover or select another prominently-displayed recipe from inside the magazine. Basically, what I’m saying here is that I will make up my own rules as we go along. So deal with it.

For this month, I’ve decided to feature the Southern and food-related portions of my discussion in a section I have cleverly named, “The Southern Cooking Part.” Subsequently, I will offer some work and parenting-related insights in the section called “The Insightful Part,” but will offer forewarning that I tend to lack insight, so don’t sue for misrepresentation.

Seriously y’all, I have no idea how to write a blog. So here we go.

The Southern Cooking Part…

Okay, wow. So in hindsight, I picked a hard cover to start with. Or maybe all of the Southern Living covers will be this hard. We'll see. But for what it's worth, here are my thoughts on the actual cooking. If you want the recipe, here's the link to it on Southern Living.

Step 1: Gather all ingredients. And I cannot emphasize this point enough: Do not attempt to purchase your ingredients at Wal-Mart on the Sunday afternoon before schools start. Can you hashtag in blogs? Because if so, I'm just gonna say #poorlifechoices

Step 2: Make the apple filling/topping. Having a really good vegetable peeler and an apple corer gizmo thingie helped a ton here. It basically speeds the process up a ton and eliminates almost all waste from imperfect peeling and slicing. So given that, I have to call out Southern Living because their recipe called for 6 lbs of apples, and I definitely used every bit of 8 lbs or maybe even more.

 

Here's what the apples look like when they first go in the Dutch oven and also after they've been cooking for a bit. As a side note, the recipe didn't say to remove the seeds from the lemon slices before they go in the pot, but you should. Again with the hashtags... #hindsight #tinyseeds

Wish I had a photo to include of my husband, laughing to himself, saying in the Beavis and Butthead voice:
"Huh Huh. Dutch Oven."

Step 3: Bake the cakes. Y'all, this cake recipe is perfect. Apple butter in the batter? Yes, please. I even substituted whole wheat flour and they tasted great!

My expert tip? Use scissors to cut the edge of the disposable pie pans to remove your cakes easily!

Step 4: Make the Apple Cider Glaze also featured in this month's issue. No pictures of this, and frankly, it tasted great but did NOT look like the brown, gooey, caramel-y stuff in the cover photo. Mine was lighter in color and thinner in texture.

Did not care. Tasted great, regardless.

In hindsight, I followed the recipe exactly, but I probably didn't allow mine to boil/reduce long enough, because I had almost twice as much volume as what I needed for glazing the cakes and decorating after assembly.


Step 5: Assembly of 6 layers of cake plus alternating layers of apple, topped with extra glaze.

I have no idea how Southern Living got their cake to stand up so straight. Here are a few shots of my delicious leaning tower of Pisa.

 Step 6: Take up a big ol' slice and eat it! I garnished mine with some homemade cinnamon whipped cream and extra drizzles of the leftover glaze. It honestly plated much prettier than I thought it would, given the monstrosity on my platter.

Yes, I photographed this on my couch. There's terrible lighting in our new apartment kitchen. Plus, my kids eat on the couch all day long anyway, so what difference does it make?

At the end of the day, I'd say it was good but not great. I'll definitely make the cake again, but might skip the excessive layering and do something with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Still, I'm not complaining about eating this!

The Insightful Part…

And here's the thing: I almost didn't do this. Both the cake and the blog. Trust me, I'm sure these photos are not the most professional you've ever seen. Also, my cake leaned at a 30-degree angle. My glaze was not perfect. I've written nothing of importance or substance here.

But I kind of had fun today. 

Probably more often than I care to admit, I don't go for stuff if I think I'm not going to be good at it. Or if I do, I make certain to keep things on the D-L, because what if people find out and judge me? But seriously, who's judging me? I'm the one judging myself.

What if I quit my job and it's a huge mistake?
What if I'm not cut out for this stay-at-home-mom thing?
What if my work-friends think I don't fit in with them anymore because I'm selling out and turning into a Pinterest mom?
What if my stay-at-home-mom-friends think I don't fit in with them because I still want to work?
What if I try to train for this marathon and don't finish?
What if I do finish but I'm slow?
What if I write a blog and it's dumb?
What if I try to bake a 12-layer cake and it doesn't look like the cover shot staged by professional photographers and baked by professional chefs?

Here's to my year of just going for some stuff. Maybe even some big stuff. Like running a marathon and raising two kids and living in a brand new city and baking a 12-layer apple cake and who knows what else.

I’m already feeling nervous about the Thanksgiving special edition. Remind me in November that I decided to go for it.