Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Recipe:

Spice Cake mix (yellow is also yummy)

Eggs, Water, and Vegetable Oil (Check the back of your mix box for the exact amounts)

1-2 Granny Smith apples, diced small

Chopped nuts (I like pecans)

Melted caramel (a good homemade recipe is 2 T butter, 2 T corn syrup, and 1/4 cup brown sugar. STir together over medium heat until just before boiling.) 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins or use muffin liners. 

Prepare cake batter according to the directions on the box. Fold in diced apples. Fill muffin liners appr. 2/3 full. Pour a spoonful of caramel on top of the batter. Sprinkle with nuts. Bake for 20 - 22 minutes. Allow to cool and enjoy!

Adventure:

I love it when my son decides that he wants to bake something. Especially when he starts jabbering and I know the jist of it is, "Mommy, I want to bake now. Not in a little bit. NOW!" We love to bake cookies, brownies and cakes. He especially loves it because there's so much that he can do. He may be just under two, but there are things that even the smallest child can help with. Abigail's job at the moment is to observe and smile when appropriate. She's very good at it. Gary's job is to force me into the kitchen and help add ingredients and stir.

After watching a movie together, Gary turned to me and said, "Cu-cakes?"

"We don't have any right now."

"Bake cu-cakes?"

I tried getting him interested in something else, but he persisted until finally dragging me by my pantleg into the kitchen and pointing to the box in the pantry. "Cu-cakes?"

"Alright, Gary, you win. Do you want apple cupcakes?"

"Yep." He walked to the fridge, pulled the door open and pointed to the crisper. "Appy?"

"I'll get the apples, Gary. Do you want to sit with Daddy or help Mommy?"

"Yep. County?" he asked, pointing to the countertop.

After having my husband get the camera and Abigail, I picked Gary up and set him down on the counter. I put the cake mix into the mixing bowl and then started cracking eggs to put into it. "Can you help me count, Gary?  Here's one." Crack. "Here's two."

"Free," Gary beamed. "One, two, free yay!" He clapped his hands as the last egg was put into the bowl. He watched me measure the water and put it in the bowl and then started reaching for the measuring cup.

"Do you want to put the oil in for Mommy?"

"Yep." 

He grabbed the cup as soon as the oil was measured and dumped it into the bowl. Mommy's job was to get the stirring started so that Gary's stirring would be easier. He made it clear when it was his turn to stir. "Poon? Poon?"

After getting everything stirred well (Mommy helped when Gary lost interest), it was time to put the apples into the batter. At first Gary only put in one apple at a time, but when I put a big handful in, he got the idea. Then he put the liners into the muffin tins.

 Once that was done, I started pouring the batter into the cups. Gary isn't quite ready to do that yet. Then I made the caramel sauce and spooned it onto the batter. After that was done, Gary and I started sprinkling nuts over them. When the last cupcake was caramel-ed and nutted, I put the tins in the oven to bake. 

Soon the whole apartment smelled of spicy cupcakes and baking apple. Mouths watered as we waited for the beeper to go off. It was a long twenty minutes. 

Finally the cupcakes finished and we were able to enjoy the delicious treats. Gary enjoyed his while listening to his daddy read him a story before naptime. As he fell asleep, perhaps he was dreaming of his very own bakery where caramel apple cupcakes would be the star.