December 6, 2012

Vegan Apple Pie Cupcakes


These might be some of the most time consuming cupcakes I’ve made, but trust me they're worth it.  They make for a pretty heavy cake and will most likely require a fork to eat. There are four different things you’re going to need to whip up when making these cupcakes. A simple vanilla cupcake, apple pie filling, caramel frosting and a crumbly topping.

Vanilla Cupcakes

 

Ingredients

-1/2 cup margarine
-3/4 cup sugar
-4 tbs arrow root
(Arrow root is used as an egg replacement. In most egg recipes 2 tbs of arrow root can be used to substitute 1 egg. You can find arrow root in most health food stores.)
-2 cups flour
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-1 cup almond milk
(As usual feel free to use any type of milk you’d like)
-1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream together margarine and sugar, add in arrow root.
 3. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl, flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
4. Alternate adding in dry ingredients and milk to the margarine and sugar mixture, then add vanilla. 5. Bake for 20 minutes.


Apple Pie Filling 

 

Ingredients  

-1/2 cup margarine
-3 tbs flour
-1/4 cup water
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-8 medium apples

Instructions

1.The first thing I did was core, peel and chop the apples. I did this the night before because it can take a while.

I chopped the apples into much smaller pieces than you would for a normal apple pie, remember these pieces need to be small enough to fit inside of the cupcake.

2. Once your apples are prepared, melt your margarine in a sauce pan and stir in the flour. Lesson learned, be sure to start this off on low heating to avoid burning your butter.
3. Once melted add your water, sugar and brown sugar and bring to a light boil. Reduce the heat once boiling and let simmer for a few minutes. Stir the mixture through out this process a few times to avoid it sticking to the bottom of the pan.
4. Pour mixture over chopped apples in a glass bowl.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes. I took mine out after 45 minutes because I wanted the apples to not be completely soft, if you prefer them to be softer feel free to cook the filling longer.

Caramel Frosting 

 

Ingredients   

-1/2 cup margarine
-1 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup almond milk
-1 tsp vanilla
-1/2 cup shortening
-5 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Mix margarine and brown sugar together in a sauce pan on medium heat. Stirring constantly let the mixture boil for about a minute.
2. After boiling remove the mixture from the heat and stir in your milk and vanilla extract.
3. In a separate bowl beat together shortening and 1 cup of powered sugar.
4. Once blended alternate adding in the margarine mixture and the rest of the powered sugar.


Crumbs

 

   Ingredients  

-1 cup flour
-1 cup brown sugar
-6 tbs margarine

Instructions

1. Stir together all ingredients until crumbly texture starts to form.
2. Spread out on a lined baking sheet and cook for 20 minutes on 350 degrees.
3. You want to take these out of the oven after 20 minutes even if they don’t seem done, they will harden after taking them out. If your crumbs become flat while cooking scramble them around with a spatula while their still warm.

Cupcake Assembly

 

1. Wait for your cupcake to cool down before assembly. Once cool use a butter knife to cut a decent size cone shaped hole in your cupcakes. I have tried many different methods and tools to pit cupcakes and have found just using a knife is the easiest.


2. Use a spoon to fill your empty cupcakes with the apple pie filling.



3. Frost the outer rims of the cupcakes. Once the frosting has sat in the bowl for a few minutes its texture becomes somewhat doughy. Instead of spreading the frosting with a knife, I used my fingers to mold it on.



4. Place a layer of crumbs on top of the frosted edges and fill the middle opening with more apple pie filling. If your feeling daring, or bored, I found a caramel sauce recipe on vegweb that I think would be great drizzled on top.