Winner! Winner! Cupcake Dinner!

If you follow me on facebook, you probably noticed I posted this link last week.  Well,  here are my pictures of my cupcake - you'll notice my pictures aren't quite as good as the Tribune's...something to work on over Christmas break I suppose!

The competition was a lot of fun to compete in and I'm looking forward to next year's competition already!
This is how the whole process worked: I entered my recipes online, and waited patiently anxiously for a month until they notified finalist. *Bragging ahead* I have to say I was proud when they notified me I was the only finalist to have two recipes chosen! Another post about the other recipe later.  I made both recipes, delivered them for testing/photographing and then again, waited for the awards the next week.  These cupcakes took third in the filled category, not my ultimate goal, but still highly respectable.  So here they are:

Don't worry, I actually piped the frosting for the official ones!

If you've been on pinterest you may have seen a couple pins about filling cupcakes with apple butter - well, that's exactly what I did. Everyone that had one really seemed to enjoy them, of course that was mostly my family and they're a little biased, so take that with a grain of salt!  Here's the recipe; hope you enjoy them!

Apple Butter Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting
(Don't worry, it sounds more complicated than it really is!)

Cupcakes:

2/3 cup sugar

1 stick butter, room temperature

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup sour cream

1/3 cup milk

Filling:

Apple Butter (or if you're a food snob like me, you make your own)

Frosting:

2 sticks butter, room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup heavy cream

Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease a cupcake tin. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extracts.

In another bowl, whisk together flour, and baking powder. Beat 1/3 of flour mixture into wet ingredients. Alternatively add the flour mixture and milk/sour cream to the wet ingredients, blending until smooth after each addition.

Fill the cupcake liners about 1/4 full. Create a crater with the back of a small cookie scoop and drop in 1-1/2 tablespoon of apple butter into each cupcake liner. Fill the liners with rest of batter until about 3/4 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. (It’s OK if the apple butter leaves residue on toothpick). Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

While cupcakes cool, place all frosting ingredients in a bowl. Mix until frosting comes together and is smooth. Do not mix too fast, to avoid whipping any air into the frosting. Frost cupcakes to taste.