Toffee Apple Cupcakes

I might have mentioned that my eldest niece started school this year. So our Party of 11 have become involved in the comings and goings of primary schools for the first time since my sisters and I went to school. Quite a few (ok, many) years ago. Things like sports carnivals, merit awards, music bus, pupil free days and parent teacher interviews are all coming back to me for the first time in ages.

But recently something came up that really took me back. It's the school fete.

 

Now, if you're not from around here or if your school was just too cool for, well... school, the fete is like a fair or a carnival. In my day, parents were asked to donate stuff for sale at different stalls, and any money received would raise funds for the school. So basically, you would be expected to donate all your old junk and then go along and buy someone else's!

I'm kidding, of course. There was rides and shows and other cool stuff too. And you got to see your teachers outside of school. Remember how weird that was when you were a kid?

The fete was the social event of the year for 5 to 12 year olds!

Anyway, it seems that my sister and brother in law have volunteered to run the cake stall at my niece's school fete this year and they have politely requested my help and promised to become indebted to me forever for this assistance. And if you believe that you mustn't have any siblings!

This did however get me thinking about the old cake stalls at our school's fete and the one thing that I really remember was toffees and toffee apples, probably because this was the only time of the year that you would ever see these evil things.

Again, if you were too cool for school, the cake stall, year after year, would sell homemade toffees in fairy cake cases with sprinkles on top, and toffee apples stuck on paddle pop sticks. Year after year, we'd ask for them, be warned by my Dad that we wouldn't like them and they'd break our teeth, we'd get them anyway, get sick of them half way through and chuck them in the bin. My poor Dad - what bloody awful kids he had!




The school fete toffee. Love how this recipe from Taste suggests you give them to your Dad. Mine would not be amused!

Whatever your thoughts on toffee and dental health, you can't blame anyone for wanting a toffee apple. They're delicious! So, I set about trying a Toffee Apple Cupcake this week. The recipe is below and includes a simple apple and cinnamon cupcake with toffee apple flavoured buttercream icing. Sound good?

I used a toffee apple syrup from The Other Chef  that I found on a recent trip to the Hunter Valley in the icing (yep, that's exactly how I roll!). But it would work just as well by making a simple buttercream icing and adding some toffee sauce and maybe some grated apple if you wanted an extra appley hit. 

Now, I'm pretty sure we would have had no difficulty persuading my Dad to buy us these at our old school fete!

Toffee Apple Cupcakes

Ingredients (Makes 6)

Apple and Cinnamon Cupcake

90g butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup self-raising flour
2 tablespoons milk
1 large peeled green apple

Toffee Apple Buttercream Icing

100g butter
2 cups icing sugar
2 teaspoons toffee apple syrup
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon finely grated green apple

Instructions

1. Line cupcake pan with paper cases and pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.
2. With an electric mixer, combine butter, vanilla extract, sugar, eggs, flour and milk until pale and creamy.
3. Peel and chop apple into about 1/2 cm pieces and stir through the cake mixture.
4. Divide mixture evenly between cases and bake for 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, combine ingredients for the icing in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
6. When cakes are cooled, spread cakes with icing and decorate to your liking.