Apple Butter Buttercream Cupcakes are one of the best apple recipes to make for a fall dessert! A simple cinnamon cupcake with apple butter creamed into the buttercream for a classic fall flavor!
Apple Butter Buttercream Cupcakes
I have a simple recipe for you today, but this was possibly my favorite of our apple butter recipes that we tried.
I am a sucker for buttercream. If you’ve been following us for any amount of time, it’s really no secret. Maddie is picky about her buttercream, but I love buttercream of any kind.
I knew I had to try adding our homemade apple butter into my favorite buttercream recipe, and I’m so glad I did.
I’ve always enjoyed baking and following recipes, but we are new to developing recipes of our own, so I’m always a little nervous to try something new. I don’t like wasting things, so I really like a recipe to turn out perfectly the first time. Which doesn’t always happen.
I was pretty certain these Apple Butter Buttercream Cupcakes would be perfect the first time, though, and I was right.
I love the tangy taste of apples that combines with the sweet buttercream.
And the pile of buttercream that sits upon the simple cinnamon cupcake is perfect.
Remember that our cinnamon cupcakes start with a boxed cake mix, so they are super easy and with the added pudding mix? They come out unbelievably moist.
Secret to Delicious Buttercream Frosting
One of our secrets to making amazing buttercream is to whip the butter by itself for several minutes until it becomes almost white. Then you’ll add in your other ingredients and whip them together until they become a fluffy, light frosting.
This apple butter buttercream will melt in your mouth. And this is a fall recipe that even the pickiest eaters will like, since it is so simple and basic.
Apple Butter Buttercream Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 package yellow cake mix 18 1/4 ounces
- 3.4 ounces vanilla instant pudding mix 4-serving size
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Apple Butter Buttercream:
- 1 cup butter , softened
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup apple butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease or line 24 muffin cups with paper baking cups. Set aside. Beat cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil, eggs, cinnamon and vanilla in bowl of electric mixer on low
- speed just to moisten, scraping sides as needed. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full. We like to use an ice cream scoop!
- Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely.
- Beat 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened, in large bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until light, fluffy, and almost white in appearance. Add the apple butter and mix well. Then add in the 2 cups powdered sugar. Beat until well blended. Add more powdered sugar to stiffen the buttercream, or a bit of milk to make the buttercream more spreadable.
- Frost the cupcakes using a knife, or decorate with an icing bag and tip (Wilton tip 1M) to make a pretty swirl.
Arabella Cruz says
The cake part was simple enough although it did not have enough cinnamon so I included more, The actual frosting though was a problem, apple butter does not have a strong enough apple flavor for the buttercream making it taste to much like the actual butter. This can be fixed by using an apple extract or like what I did which was spicing it up with cinnamon cloves and a bit of lime juice for acidity. It also helps to make an apple pie filling for the inside which gives it more apple flavor which the cupcakes would not have otherwise. It’s a good recipe it just needs some adjusting.