This recipe was created as part of a brand ambassador partnership with Musselman’s Apple Butter.
Spiced Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting are the perfect Fall dessert! This easy recipe is great for holiday parties and meals. A very special secret ingredients adds a blast of flavor!
I am so ready for the holiday season! I’m ready for hot mugs of cocoa, crisp weather and holiday baking . . . lots of baking!
Living in Northern California means that I only enjoy baking about 4 months out of the year. The other 8 months I basically live inside an oven!
It is a chilly 70 degrees here and I am a baking machine! Which means my “secret ingredient” is being added to many of my baked creations. Musselman’s Apple Butter adds a unique flavor to my holiday recipes that always gets a response from my taste testers. When I tell everybody what my {not-so} secret ingredient is they are surprised and delighted.
Check Out Musselman’s on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for more recipe ideas!
Musselman’s Apple Butter adds an unbelievable depth of flavor to these moist, dense cupcakes. They have the taste of a spiced cupcake with a little something extra.
And the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting is the perfect topping for these cupcakes!
A sprinkle of vanilla sugar brings the flavors together. These rustic Fall cupcakes will be a fantastic addition to your holiday feasts!
So turn your oven on, grab our favorite “secret ingredient” and bake the day away!
Spiced Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
cupcakes
- 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter - softened
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 1 Large Egg
- 1 Cup Musselman's Apple Butter
- 1/2 Cup Plain Greek Yogurt, or sour cream
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
frosting
- 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter - softened
- 8 ounces Cream Cheese - softened
- 1/8 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 3 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350Ā°F
- Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in egg, apple butter, yogurt and vanilla.
- Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and salt.
- Gradually mix in dry ingredients with wet.
- Divide batter between 18 standard muffin tins prepared with paper liners.
- Bake 25-27 minutes or until cooked through.
- Transfer to rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
frosting
- Using whisk attachment; whip butter and cream cheese for 2 minutes.
- Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, mix for 1 minute between each addition.
- Mix in cinnamon, vanilla and salt.
- Mix 1-2 more minutes or until light and fluffy.
- Refrigerate frosting 15-30 minutes before piping onto cupcakes.
Notes
Refrigerate cupcakes until serving.
Nutrition Information
Yield 18 Serving Size 1Amount Per ServingCalories 338 Total Fat 15g Saturated Fat 9g Trans Fat 0g Unsaturated Fat 5g Cholesterol 51mg Sodium 209mg Carbohydrates 48g Fiber 1g Sugar 35g Protein 3g
I am proud to be partnering with Musselman’s Apple Butter to create several delicious recipes with my favorite “secret ingredient”.
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Beverley Press says
November 3, 2015 atApple Butter sounds so divine and in cupcakes it must be so moist and delicious, thank you xoxo
Nicole Harris says
November 4, 2015 atIt does make these cupcakes super moist! Thanks, Beverley š
Erin @ Texanerin Baking says
November 3, 2015 atHaha. A chilly 70 degrees. š Sounds good to me! And these cupcakes look so delightful. I love Musselman’s and bet it must make the cupcakes even more delicious!
Nicole Harris says
November 4, 2015 atLOL, Thanks Erin!
Barbara @ Barbara Bakes says
November 4, 2015 atI’ve never baked with apple butter. Such a great idea.
Nicole Harris says
November 4, 2015 atWhat!?!? It makes baked goods taste so unique. Hmmm … apple butter cream puffs, maybe š
TidyMom says
November 4, 2015 atApple butter + Fall + Cupcakes = perfect!!! although I have to admit, I enjoy apple butter all year long, these cupcakes are calling my name
Nicole Harris says
November 4, 2015 atYES! This recipe screams Fall. And I am so happy to hear that you use apple butter year round … so do I!
tanya says
November 8, 2015 atLOL your chilly 70 degrees is my heat wave! We are on the fringe of cold weather here and thee cupcakes would fit in nicely! So pretty too!
Nicole Harris says
November 10, 2015 atThanks Tanya! It finally started raining here today. Yay!
Susan says
November 9, 2015 atYou can just tell from these photos how moist these cupcakes are from the apple butter and they look like fall! Total comfort right here.
Nicole Harris says
November 10, 2015 atYes! The apple butter adds so much moisture (and flavor) to these cupcakes.
Beth says
September 15, 2016 atI made these yesterday just as you wrote above and for the first time ever I had my cupcakes come out dense and didn’t rise. So upset as I was taking these to a work anniversary party. I make cupcakes weekly for parties etc and this is my first bad batch. They sounded so good and smelled devine but didn’t come out at all. Still not sure why.
Nicole Harris says
September 18, 2016 atOh no, I’m sorry to hear about your experience with this recipe. Typically a recipe fail can be tracked down to user error or ingredient issues but it seems that you are a cupcake pro. I recall making this recipe over and over before posting last year (I was up to my eyeballs in cupcakes!) But, mistakes do happen. I will plan on remaking this recipe to check for any errors. Thanks for your feedback š
Nicole Harris says
October 27, 2016 atHi Beth, I had a chance to remake these cupcakes exactly by the recipe. I wanted to test and make sure there wasn’t a typo or error of some kind. As you can see by the photo my cupcakes turned out so I am at a loss as to what could’ve caused the issue. Sorry it is not of more help.
https://wonkywonderful.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Unknown.jpg
Cori says
September 20, 2016 atHi! Most amazing recipe ever. Do you think this is ok to bake as a cake? I don’t want to lose any moistness. Thanks!
Nicole Harris says
September 21, 2016 atThanks Cori!I have not made this as a cake before so I can’t say for sure. I imagine it would do well as a sheet cake. Let me know if you give it a go š
Samantha says
October 2, 2016 atI just took these cupcakes out of the oven and had the exact same issue as Beth wrote above. They didn’t rise at all! I have checked and re-checked the ingredients and can’t figure out what went wrong! I am pretty disappointed as I wad bringing these to a bridal shower this afternoon.
Nicole Harris says
October 12, 2016 atSorry for my delayed response, Samantha. I hate to hear that you had issue with this recipe. I will be remaking it this week to check for any errors in the recipe as it has been a while since I last made them. I will get back to you with the results. Thanks for your feedback.
Nicole Harris says
October 27, 2016 atHi Samantha, I had a chance to remake these cupcakes exactly by the recipe. I wanted to test and make sure there wasn’t a typo or error of some kind. As you can see by the photo my cupcakes turned out so I am at a loss as to what could’ve caused the issue. Sorry it is not of more help.
https://wonkywonderful.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Unknown.jpg
Rachel B. says
November 9, 2016 atDoes anyone know how much baking time I’d need to decrease for mini cupcakes?
Nicole Harris says
November 10, 2016 atSorry Rachel, I have never made these as mini cupcakes so I can’t say for sure. You may just want to check on them every 5 minutes until they look done. š
Shannon says
January 28, 2017 atHi, I noticed the recipe doesn’t have baking soda in it. Is this possibly why others are having issues? I haven’t tried it yet but want to so just thought I would clarify first. Thanks!
Nicole Harris says
January 30, 2017 atI don’t always use baking soda in my cupcakes and never have an issue. In fact, I just recently made these again without a problem. Of course, a little baking soda certainly wouldn’t hurt. Let me know if you give it a try. Thanks š
Tina says
September 7, 2017 atHi Nicole:
I loved that you used apple butter. I like to put it in my favorite barbecue sauce. It really adds to the flavor without adding too much spice or too much sweetness.. I can’t wait to try these cupcakes!
Nicole Harris says
September 11, 2017 atYes, exactly! I hope you enjoy š
Beth says
October 20, 2017 atHello Nicole,
I was wondering if these cupcakes need anything added to them if we don’t have access to apple butter?
Nicole Harris says
October 24, 2017 atI have only used apple butter and that is what gives it the deep flavor. Apple sauce would add extra liquid and not a lot of flavor. You could always make homemade apple butter if you really wanted to go with it.
Terry Aiton says
October 21, 2017 atI’ve never heard of apple butter and it doesn’t seem to be available here in Australia. Can you suggest a substitute, or should I just make the cupcakes without it? Thanks
Nicole Harris says
October 24, 2017 atI have only used apple butter and that is what gives it the deep flavor. Apple sauce would add extra liquid and not a lot of flavor. You could always make homemade apple butter if you really wanted to go with it.
Ashley says
October 30, 2017 atDo these cupcakes need any water added to them? It is the most thick cupcake batter I have ever made. I have not baked them yet, but we will see how they turn out!
Nicole Harris says
October 31, 2017 atThis is a very thick batter. The greek yogurt and apple butter make the batter thick and the baked cupcakes moist. š
Alexis says
February 9, 2018 atI made these for thanksgiving 2017 and they were super dense. Followed the recipe to a T. They were still delicious just very heavy. These cinnamon cream cheese recipe is my favorite though!
Nicole Harris says
February 13, 2018 atYes, these cupcakes are more on the dense, moist side. I am glad you loved the frosting though. I’ve been know to just eat the frosting off of cupcakes, myself š
Leyni Illa-Petersen says
June 1, 2018 atIs that cinnamon sprinkled on top in the pictures? Or…cinnamon/sugar? Or…something else? I don’t see anything about it in the description. š I just made them…to take to work tomorrow….so I hope they’re good!
Nicole Harris says
June 3, 2018 atThat was a Rodelle Vanilla Sugar Crystals . . . unfortunately they don’t make it anymore :/
Shanna says
September 19, 2018 atI made this last fall for a meeting at work and my teammates and admin team loved them (so did I). Since school has started back my assistant principal has been begging me to make them again. So Iām making them to take to work Friday. They are dense but have amazing flavor. The frosting is to die for. I used gold sprinkles on top just for a little pop of color. Thank you for a great recipe.
Nicole Harris says
September 24, 2018 atAwesome! Happy Fall š
Erica says
November 19, 2018 atAll I have is a 12 ct cupcake pan. Would that make any difference with the cooking time ?
Nicole Harris says
November 19, 2018 atYou will have leftover batter with this recipe if only making 12 cupcakes. Only fill tins 3/4 the way full or they will spill over. The bake time should be the same though.