These addictive and decadent Golden Apple Strudel cupcakes are perfect to satisfy an autumnal sweet tooth. They are crumbly, soft cakes with brown sugar, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice baked in, filled with chunky homemade apple sauce, swirled with apple buttercream and topped with a gold dusted fondant apple; wonderfully simple and tempting, we’re sure you’ll agree!

Strudel Cupcakes Recipe (makes approx. 12 cupcakes)

226g self raising flour
226g butter
226g brown sugar
4 eggs
2 handfuls of raisins or sultanas (for some boozy decadence leave these to soak in a teacup of whiskey overnight before adding into your batter - remember to drain the whiskey first before adding to avoid sloppy, overly moist batter)
2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoon allspice

Pre-heat your over to Gas Mark 3 / 160C / 325F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake cases. Cream your butter and sugar first. When pale and creamy add your eggs, spices and raisins. When combined add the flour. Mix well and then pour your silky batter into your cases. Bake for around 20 minutes to 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean when tested.

Apple, Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Filling

5 large cooking apples
3 teapsoon cinnamon
140g brown sugar
14 tablespoons water

Peel and chop up your apples in chunks around 1cm in size. In a saucepan add the chopped apples, cinnamon, brown sugar and water on high heat. Bring to boil and then lower the heat to medium and let simmer until the apple pieces have softened and the water has reduced a little. Take off the heat and mash before pouring into a jar. Leave to cool. Once cooled down you can core your cupcakes with a good cupcake corer and spoon your delicious apple mixture inside.

Apple Buttercream Recipe

250g butter
250-300g icing sugar (keep testing when adding to make sure it is the consistency and sweetness YOU’D like)
6-12 drops of natural apple essence

Add half of the of butter diced into pieces. Cream the butter in a mixer. Then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes) until you get a smooth, creamy texture. Add the flavour to taste.

For more hints and tips see our tutorial on how to make buttercream here.

How to Make the Golden Apples

To make your golden apple cupcake toppers you will need…

Golden coloured sugarpaste / fondant (we coloured ours with Caramel / Ivory gel paste food colour)
Small leaf plunger cutter
Edible glue
2 paintbrushes (one for the glue and a dry one for applying lustre dust - remember to use brushes that have ONLY been used on/for food items)
Gold lustre dust
Taped modelling tool
Fondant rolling pin
Icing sugar

To make classic red apples instead you will need…

Red sugarpaste / fondant (use Christmas Red gel paste) for the apples
Brown sugarpaste / fondant (use Dark Brown gel paste) for the stalk
Green sugarpaste / fondant (use Juniper Green gel paste food colouring) for the leaf
Small leaf plunger cutter
Edible glue
1 paintbrush (remember to use brushes that have ONLY been used on/for food items)
Taped modelling tool
Fondant rolling pin
Icing sugar

Step one: Shape some sugarpaste / fondant into the body of your apple. Begin with a ball and smooth your fingers over it to create a slightly tapered base and rounded top.

Step two: For the leaf simply roll out some sugarpaste / fondant onto an icing sugar dusted surface and use the plunger cutter to cut out a small leaf. Leave on a curved surface (e.g. a teaspoon) to dry into a more natural shape. OR you could shape a small piece of sugarpaste into a leaf shape and indent the centre with a line using a veining tool.

Step three: To create the stalk shape a small amount of sugarpaste / fondant into a apostrophe-like shape with a flat top.

Step four: Attach the stalk and leaf by pushing the tapered modelling tool into the top of the apple, add a dab of edible glue into the indent for the leaf, insert the stalk into the top of the apple and lightly press the leaf next to the stalk where you’ve applied some edible glue.

Step five: If you’re creating golden apples leave your apples to dry fully. Once dry dust generously with gold lustre dust. Leave to sit for a few minutes before dusting again until you get a gorgeous glimmering gold!

Now you have your own Golden Apple Strudel cupcakes; perfect for any seasonal party!