Bake Week=Cupcake Week

Last week (well probably 2 weeks ago) was bake week, and as soon as I found out, I decided to finally crack open my new Magnolia Bakery cookbook. There were so many different recipes that I wanted to try out, but decided to have Jack pick out his recipe of choice since he would be going out of town and could maybe take them with him. After much deliberation, he chose Apple Cinnamon Walnut Cupcakes. Upon initial review of the recipe, it looked slightly time consuming, but most importantly, looked challenging as I had to make my very own caramel from scratch for the Caramel cream cheese frosting. 

The recipe was quite different because it started with a whole lot of oil instead of a whole lot of butter. Once everything was prepped and ready (walnuts chopped, apples diced, etc.), I started getting the cake batter ready- and it was a breeze. Everything went as planned. I filled the cupcake holders and baked the cupcakes. Then the timer went off after 20 minutes. The cupcakes weren't ready. I put them in for another 5 minutes. Still not done. I then tried another 10 minutes. Finally complete. Oddly enough though, the cupcakes looked more like muffins, which came in handy later.

Next up, Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting. There were only 3 ingredients involved. Sugar, Water, and Cream Cheese, how hard could it be? I needed to boil the sugar and water until the mixture turned dark amber, roughly 15 minutes. I did exactly as told, and then mixed with the cream cheese after cooling the boiling liquid. After the frosting was finished, Jack tasted it prior to putting on cupcakes. Thank goodness he did! It was awful! It tasted like burnt cream cheese mixed with a very bitter tasting caramel. Yuck!

Fortunately the cupcakes looked and tasted more like muffins- so the Apple Cinnamon Walnut Cupcakes became the Apple Cinnamon Walnut Muffins all in celebration of bake week!