Festively Fall Pumpkin-Spice Mini Cupcakes

Let me tell you my apple story. Every Fall we go to northeastern Tennessee for vacation. Usually we do some hiking and camping but one of our favorite things about this season is the food, of course. Fall festivals abound around the country during this time of year, especially in a little nook of Tennessee known as Apple Country. If you're ever in the Erwin, TN area around the first of October make sure to check out their AppleFest. The little town has an excellent, several block display of everything Autumn, including the famous Blue Ridge Pottery. Local farmer's markets and hometown festivals are the best places to breathe in the warm, wafting, mingled fragrance of kettle corn, funnel cakes, caramel everything, sausages, earthy pumpkins and fresh, crisp apples.

My grandmother was an excellent cook in her heyday and one of her specialties was fried apple pies. Shortly before our trip last year I was visiting my Daddy and we were reminiscing about those pies. Off-handedly he said if we happened to see any dried apples to pick some up and he would take them to my grandmother. Let me translate for you: You better not come back from Apple Country without some dried apples. So, we did happen to see some, lots, at the Apple Barn in Sevierville. A cell call later and we had 10 lbs, that's right - 10 lbs, of dried apples in our trunk. A couple weeks and about 450 miles later I showed up on my Daddy's doorstep with the requested apples. What?! You don't want them?! You all of a sudden don't think she can't cook anymore?!....but...I did call you and ask how much you wanted right?...but, it's 10 lbs of dried apples. Keep them, right, what am I going to do with 10 lbs of dried apples? To put this in prospective: There are roughly 3 fresh apples to a lb, 4 lbs of fresh apples makes 1 lb dried apples. 10 lbs dried apples = 120 fresh apples.

Luckily, dried apples keep very nearly forever. A year later, I still have over half of them. Which leads us to the cupcakes that I made last night. These little jewels scream Fall. An earthy, spiced cake with flecks of crystalline ginger and apples topped with lightly spiced, fruity cream cheese frosting. These would be great topped with buttercream frosting too. I can almost hear the festival vendors hawking their goods.

I was bound and determined to make these as minis, despite the fact that I don't have a mini cupcake pan. I just took a couple of my glass 13x9 baking dishes, lined up the little liners edge to edge and plopped the batter down into each using my mini cookie scoop. If you go this route, make sure not to touch the batter at all once it hits the liner because it has a tendency to collapse the cup. Don't worry, the batter ball will ooze down and settle as it bakes. I was pleasantly pleased with my results. The edges of tiny cakes were slightly warped and wavy, which somehow made them look fancier.

**A quick note about nutmeg. I am not usually the kind of cook that has to have this or that particular form of spice or salt. Freshly ground pepper, pure vanilla extract and freshly ground nutmeg are my exceptions. Freshly ground nutmeg has a totally different flavor, well not totally, but definitely different flavor notes than store bought ground. Pre-ground seems to be sharper without the fruity backnotes of the freshly ground. If you haven't tried grating it yourself you should, at least once. You could get one of those snazzy microplane graters, but why waste the money? I just lightly rub the whole nutmeg against the smallest holes on my box grater.

*** Remember, if you frost with cream cheese then you'll need to store the cupcakes in the fridge.

Makes ~5 dozen mini cupcakes (probably ~24 regular cupcakes)

1 box spice cake mix
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 tbsp finely chopped crystallized ginger
¼ c. dried apples, finely chopped
1 c. canned pumpkin puree
½ c. butter, softened
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven 350°.
2. Set up liners in a 13x9 baking dish (mine holds 24) or a mini cupcake pan.
3. Combine the cake mix, spices, ginger and apples. Stir well to incorporate the spices.
4. Add the pumpkin puree and butter. Stir until smooth.
5. Add the eggs and vanilla.
6. Beat until the batter is fluffy and smooth.
7. Fill each mini cupcake liner with about 2 tsp of batter. (Alternately, fill regular cupcake liners ½ - ¾ full)
8. Bake 24 minis 15 min or until a toothpick comes out clean. (I had to bake in shifts because my oven is relatively small.)
9. Remove to wire rack and cool completely.
10. Frost using my Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting, Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting or as desired.