Tried It & Loved It: Apple Harvest Cupcakes

I apologize for the lateness in this post.  Unfortunately, this is how I am rolling this week!

With my in-laws visiting this week and my mother-in-law's birthday being early next week, we decided to celebrate her birthday a few days early.  Remembering that she is a lover of all things apple, and with the fall season upon us and apples being in great abundance in our neck of the woods--it just made sense to make an apple-y "cake" for her birthday.  I found this recipe last week in my blog hopping and knew it was perfect to try out.  Of course, I changed it up a little to suit what I use for pantry ingredients and have on hand, but all in all, these were a great little cupcake.

The only liners I had were pink, and not very harvesty, so they were removed for photographic purposes.  

Apple Harvest Cupcakes ~ slightly adapted from Cats and Casseroles  

for the cupcakes:
scant 1 c sugar (mine was sucanat)
3 eggs
3 cup finely chopped apples (I used Galas)
1 cup melted coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts pecans (I don't particularly care for walnuts)

for the icing:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 lb powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract 

for the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin pan with non stick spray or line with liners and set aside.

In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream together sugar and eggs.  Add in chopped apples and mix in coconut oil and vanilla until fully mixed.  In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt and add dry mixture to wet mixture one cup at a time until each is fully mixed.  Add in chopped nuts and mix on low speed for about 90 seconds.  Fill muffin cups about two thirds full. 

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Abby says to bake for about 30 minutes, however that was not the case for me.  I checked on these after 25 minutes and they were well past done--too done.  :(  My oven actually tends to "burn" on the cool side, and most recipes I follow take a little longer than suggested.  Cupcake recipes normally say to bake cupcakes for around 20 minutes and I don't know why this didn't register when I made these--so that was my only complaint suggestion.

Cool cupcakes completely prior to frosting.   

for the frosting:
Mix together butter and cream cheese.  Add in sifted powdered sugar and vanilla and mix thoroughly.  Frost cooled cupcakes or pipe frosting as desired.