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!
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- 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
- 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter - softened
- 8 ounces Cream Cheese - softened
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 3 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
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Preheat oven to 350°F
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Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in egg, apple butter, yogurt and vanilla.
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Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and salt.
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Gradually mix in dry ingredients with wet.
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Divide batter between 18 standard muffin tins prepared with paper liners.
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Bake 25-27 minutes or until cooked through.
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Transfer to rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
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Using whisk attachment; whip butter and cream cheese for 2 minutes.
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Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, mix for 1 minute between each addition.
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Mix in cinnamon, vanilla and salt.
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Mix 1-2 more minutes or until light and fluffy.
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Refrigerate frosting 15-30 minutes before piping onto cupcakes.
Refrigerate cupcakes until serving.
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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Apple Butter sounds so divine and in cupcakes it must be so moist and delicious, thank you xoxo
It does make these cupcakes super moist! Thanks, Beverley 🙂
Haha. A chilly 70 degrees. 😉 Sounds good to me! And these cupcakes look so delightful. I love Musselman’s and bet it must make the cupcakes even more delicious!
LOL, Thanks Erin!
I’ve never baked with apple butter. Such a great idea.
What!?!? It makes baked goods taste so unique. Hmmm … apple butter cream puffs, maybe 😉
Apple butter + Fall + Cupcakes = perfect!!! although I have to admit, I enjoy apple butter all year long, these cupcakes are calling my name
YES! This recipe screams Fall. And I am so happy to hear that you use apple butter year round … so do I!
LOL 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!
Thanks Tanya! It finally started raining here today. Yay!
You can just tell from these photos how moist these cupcakes are from the apple butter and they look like fall! Total comfort right here.
Yes! The apple butter adds so much moisture (and flavor) to these cupcakes.
I 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.
Oh 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 🙂
Hi 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.
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Hi! Most amazing recipe ever. Do you think this is ok to bake as a cake? I don’t want to lose any moistness. Thanks!
Thanks 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 🙂
I 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.
Sorry 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.
Hi 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.
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Does anyone know how much baking time I’d need to decrease for mini cupcakes?
Sorry 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. 🙂
Hi, 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!
I 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 🙂
Hi 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!
Yes, exactly! I hope you enjoy 🙂
Hello Nicole,
I was wondering if these cupcakes need anything added to them if we don’t have access to apple butter?
I 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.
I’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
I 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.
Do 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!
This is a very thick batter. The greek yogurt and apple butter make the batter thick and the baked cupcakes moist. 🙂
I 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!
Yes, 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 😀
Is that cinnamon sprinkled on top in the pictures? Or…cinnamon/sugar? Or…something else? I don’t see anything about it in the description. 🙂 I just made them…to take to work tomorrow….so I hope they’re good!
That was a Rodelle Vanilla Sugar Crystals . . . unfortunately they don’t make it anymore :/