Tree Hugger Apple Cupcakes

I was asked by Foodies@Work (on Twitter @foodiesatwork)to write a guest blog for their site.  They wanted me to come up with a cupcake that reflected the Pacific Northwest.  At first, I instantly thought seafood!! But reconsidered because I'm certain that a lobster cupcake wouldn't be that tasty.  So I decided on apples. 
 I know that apples aren't native to the Pacific Northwest, but we have a lot of apple orchards on both sides of our state and thought it would be a perfect base for a cupcake! With a suggestion from my sister, I decided to buy locally the apples and eggs because we all know how much the "tree-hugging" people from Seattle and the Northwest love their locally grown, organic foods!  So from this, the "Tree Hugger Apple" cupcake was born!

The base of the cupcake was inspired by this Appledoodle Cupcake I found while browsing the Iron Cupcake Earth website.  I changed a few things and made it my own by adding sliced apple to the top of the batter before baking, then filling the cupcake with more apple and drizzling the buttercream on top with caramel.

(Above)These are the sliced apples I cooked in sugar, butter and cinnamon before adding to the cupcakes before baking.

(Below)Fresh out of the oven.

(Below)Diced apples cooking before filling the cupcakes.

After filling and frosting the cupcakes, I made a caramel sauce to drizzle over the cupcakes..... oh heaven.

Can you see the appley goodness on the inside of this cupcake?  Oh my goodness.... so good!

Here they are.... all done... topped with a tiny piece of apple!

All lined up and ready to go to Erica's for a dinner party! They were, of course, a huge hit!

Heather said she wouldn't talk to me for a month if I posted her picture eating this cupcake... so, I'll post Emily's instead!

Click on the image below for the recipe!