Meet Kalyn!

I'm pretty sure we don't get a lot of new traffic to our little website, but in case you don't know who Kalyn is, she's my best girlfriend from California, and my first mommy friend. She and her mom have a running joke about the apple not falling far from the tree, and now that Paisley is growing up to be so much like Kalyn, it's continuing to the third generation. So cute! So of course Kalyn had to have apple cupcakes and since she and I have this THING with perfection (her more than me), we couldn't just google any old recipe and throw it together.

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I've been making apple cupcakes for a week now, and finally hit upon the perfect mash-up of recipes and ingredients for this fresh apple cupcake with fluffy old-school maple brown sugar buttercream icing. Topped with pecans...yum and yum. Seriously, these are the best yet.

My awesome graphic designer is going to be back with me by tomorrow with some revisions. He's such a genius, y'all. At first I told him two words (TWO!) and he came up with an entire logo and then begged me to send him some photos...which I did...now I feel like a kid (or, myself...) at Christmas just waiting to see what he's come up with next! I'm SO EXCITED!!!! Of course a dozen of these lovely delicious cuppycakes will be delivered to my friend Jayme at ballet class tonight.

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Several people have asked for the recipe, and since I'm doing the McLinky with Kelly's Corner (yes, I know there are two Ks but I just can't write it that way, please forgive me) for the first time and I think recipes are part of the rules...here it is!

Fresh Apple Cupcakes

2 1/4 cup cake flour and a.p. flour mixed

2 tsp soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups grated apple*

1) Wash, core and grate the apples. Peeling is optional, I didn't do it.

2) Preheat oven to 350, line cupcake pan, this recipe makes 24 regular-size cupcakes.

3) Cream butter, then cream butter and sugars together until smooth and fluffy.

4) While butter and sugars are working, sift together dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

5) Add eggs on at a time to butter/sugar, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl. Add vanilla and shredded apples.

6) Add flour mixture, stirring until combined.

7) Bake at 350 from 18-20 minutes or until tops spring back when touched lightly. The top of the cupcakes may be extra moist, but there will still be a bounce.

*It was my experience that organic apples had the most flavor. I tried Granny Smiths and MacIntosh both times and when we used the organic ones, the apple flavor was strongest. You will probably have good luck using local apples, too. (No, this isn't organic food propaganda! Stop rolling your eyes - you know who you are.)

Unflippinbelievable Icing

4 egg whites*

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp pure maple flavor

1/4 tsp salt

3 (yep you read that right) sticks butter, room temperature, cut up

1) Place a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.

2) Stir together egg whites, sugar and salt until sugar dissolves and mixture feels warm to the touch.

3) In a very clean bowl of a stand mixer, beat egg white mixture on medium for 15 minutes until it is cool and medium peaks have formed.

4) Add maple flavor and beat on high until stiff peaks form.

5) Switch to medium-low and add butter 2-3 tbsp at a time.

*I used Egg Beaters egg whites because they are pasteurized. I was a little freaked out by the idea of icing cupcakes with raw eggs!