This was one of those recipes that was quick to throw together and made the house smell heavenly. All those apple pie-ish spices---m-m-m-mm.

Here's something I never thought I'd hear myself saying: these are sweet enough. I didn't even frost them! There, I said it. And I still can't believe that I had the opportunity to have appley-glaze on these puppies and I turned it down. Unthinkable!

But true. These guys don't need no stinkin' frosting. By all means, feel free to follow the recipe if you want. Without the frosting, it's much easier to justify eating them.
"They're really just like muffins--a breakfast food! I can have another; they're health food, what with the apples and all."

This is what the voices in my head say.

Caramel-Apple Mini Cakes

(taken from King Arthur Flour website)

Cake:

2 Cups Flour, traditional or whole wheat
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice or 1 tsp. apple pie spice
3/4 Cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 Cups brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp. boiled cider or frozen apple juice concentrate
1/2 Cup applesauce**
3 Cups peeled, chopped apples (about 3 med. apples)
cook's note***


Frosting:

5 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 Cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. corn syrup
3 Tbsp. milk
1 1/2 Cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon


Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the wells of 12 muffin cups*****

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices; set aside. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, stopping once or twice to scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl, then mix in the dry ingredients, vanilla, boiled cider (or juice) and applesauce, stirring until evenly moistened. Fold in the apples and walnuts, if using.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pans. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cakes for 15 minutes before turning out of the pan; cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

Melt the butter, stir in the salt, brown sugar, and corn syrup and cook, stirring, until the sugar melts. Add the milk, bring to a rolling boil, and pour into a mixing bowl to cool for 10 minutes. Stir in the sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Beat well; if the mixture appears too thin, add more confectioners' sugar. Spread on the cakes while the frosting is still warm.

Yield: 12 (or much more) servings


**for the applesauce, I measured out one of those individual servings in the little plastic cups and it was exactly right, so if you have some of those on hand, you wouldn't need to open a big jar of applesauce.

cook's note***If you insist on riddling your baked goods with them, you can add 3/4 cup chopped walnuts to the batter before pouring into pans. The original recipe does call for them but I usually do a Reader's Digest condensed version, omitting the vile things.

*****I got a full two dozen mini cakes out of this batter. I'm not sure why, but I always get more cupcakes, muffins, etc. than the recipes predict. So be prepared for just about any amount--if you try this recipe, let me know how many you get!