Iron Cupcake Milwaukee: Breakfast

Last night was the cupcake challenge. It was a blast meeting new people, and seeing all the great looking cupcakes. I managed to taste four out of the ten or so available. It seemed like there were a lot more than ten entries, but I think one or two people entered two or had a pretty little setup.

Out of all of the stiff competition, I managed to place third. Not bad for a first timer, 'eh?

Pop on over to No One Puts Cupcake In A Corner, Home of the Milwaukee Cupcake Queen, and host to Iron Cupcake Milwaukee. You can see pictures of most of the entries, as well as a lot of the people who were there. And oh yeah, there was a person from TMJ4 there taking video footage for a segment that will air Friday around 10:00 pm.

And wouldn't it figure, I managed to forget my camera. Thankfully, Sandy was there with hers and put a lot of pictures up on her blog. Go check it out!

So, here are my third place Apple Pancake Cupcakes, with Maple Glazed Walnuts.

Apple Pancake Cupcakes

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon maple extract (this can be adjusted to your tastes, I just sort of kept adding)
1 cup buttermilk
1 apple, finely diced


Preheat oven to 300⁰F. Place liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until it looks creamy. Beat in the egg and the extracts until the mixture is smooth.

Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and stir until almost combined. Add the buttermilk and stir, again, until almost combined. Add the rest of the flour and the apples and stir until all the ingredients are mixed in.

Using a cookie scoop, fill the cupcake liners just under 2/3 full. You will probably have some leftover batter, and you can either fill more liners in another muffin tin to be cooked at the same time, or save it for the next batch. (**I am going to work on some of the ratios for this recipe and hopefully finish perfecting it. I will post changes then.)

Place the muffin tin into the oven and raise the temperature to 325⁰F. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, checking frequently during the last 5 to 10 minutes. Just take a quick peek, as they are a tad difficult to judge when they're done. They are very moist.

Let the cupcakes cool for 10 minutes, and then remove from the muffin pan. Cool completely before frosting.



Vanilla Icing


2 cups sifted powdered sugar
4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
2 to 4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine the ingredients with enough milk to the desired consistency.

To frost the cupcakes, place the frosting in a zip top bag, cut the tip off, and place a nice sized blob on top of the cupcake. It will spread out a bit over the next few minutes.



Maple Glazed Walnuts

2 cups walnut halves
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat a dry skillet over medium high heat. Add all ingredients and cook, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes or until the walnuts are toasted and the syrup is caramelized. Spread out on waxed paper and allow to cool.

For garnishing the cupcakes, place one or two on top of the cupcakes in the center. Alternatively, you could also add some thinly sliced apples, and then top with walnuts.