Applesauce Spice Cupcakes: Happy Flocking Birthday!

In our family pink flamingos have taken on a life of their own.  What started as a youth group fundraiser many years ago, in which the youth would load up some poor victim's lawn with pink flamingos in the middle of the night, has developed into a tradition among my sisters and her friends when ever there is a celebration.  So what better way to celebrate my sister-in-laws birthday than to leave a flock of flamingo cupcakes on her doorstop, ring the bell, and run away.

Not to mention, it gives me another opportunity to try a new cupcake from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book.  Since I got a later start in the Martha Stewart cupcake club, I need to catch up on the ones I've missed right?

For the first time, I really got to play around with decorating.  This was my first attempt to play with gum paste.  I made the flamingo toppers, used royal frosting for the wings with some edible glitter, and then made the flowers which I painted with luster dust.

And now for the good part!  The baking!  I used the recipe for Apple Spice Cupcakes.  This recipe used unsweetened applesauce for flavor and especially for a nice moist cake.  However, I had a secret up my sleeve!  I found this unsweetened cider sauce from a local orchard.  North Star Orchard makes this applesauce by actually cooking the apples in cider.  It's this amazing blend of both worlds!  I used half regular applesauce and half of my special stuff (I only had one jar and didn't want to use it all up).  If you are an applesauce person, you must get this stuff if you can!

These smelled so good in the oven, I could barely wait!

They came out perfect, and I could not stop sniffing them!  All the spices in the air were just amazing.

I made a brown sugar cream cheese frosting...then tinted it a pretty green.

It was a bit warm in the kitchen, and I was having some problems getting them to ice nicely, but once they were iced and decorated, I had a cute little flock in my kitchen.

I had so much fun making these.  And the best part is that they tasted delicious.  Little mini spice cakes, perfect for a birthday flocking.


Martha Stewart’s Applesauce Spice Cupcakes

Makes 18 cupcakes

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups unsweetened apple sauce

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line muffin tins with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. On a low speed, add applesauce and then the flour mixture, beating until just combined.

Fill each cup 3/4 full with batter. Bake 20 minutes. Frost with Brown Sugar, Cream Cheese Frosting (see below).

Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar

In the clean bowl of electric mixer, mix cream cheese with 1 stick butter and 1 cup light brown sugar on medium speed until smooth. Spread cream-cheese frosting on cupcakes. Cupcakes can be refrigerated in airtight containers up to 2 days.

Happy Baking!