Cupcakes A to Z: Apple Spice Cupcakes

This was another big day of baking.  I pulled six (yep - that's 6) recipes from my folder to test out. 

It wasn't until much later that I realized that one of them actually didn't fit under this name.  There was no apple flavour to found!  So I'll move that to another post.  So there's only 5 that fit in this category.

Back to the Apple Spice. 

Remember when I did the Almond Cupcakes test day?  Well, I thought about it afterwards and tried to figure out what would be the fastest way to do a test day.

Here's what I did.

I cleared off my kitchen table and went through each recipe and pulled out everything I was going to need.  I measured out each recipe one at a time and then carried it over to the counter on a cutting board.

Okay - that's kind of vague.  What I mean is - measured out the first recipe, put it all together, stuck it in the oven, washed the dishes, and back to the kitchen table for the second recipe.  And on and on until I was done. 

I only made four cupcakes from each recipe.  And while I do feel kind of bad throwing out all that batter (I hate being a waster) - what would I do with a zillion cupcakes?  For real.  Have you seen my butt lately?  It's HU.MON.GOUS.

I also decided not to frost them.  Not because I'm lazy.  Okay, I'm kinda lazy.  But after I did the Almond Cupcakes and frosted all of them with that decadent Almond Buttercream, I kind of think I was somewhat distracted by the frosting.  And because this is really a test day for a base cupcake recipe, I left them naked.

Surprisingly - I think to do all 6 recipes it took me about 5 hours.  Well, that's including pulling everything out, doing all the dishes, and cleaning up the kitchen, and putting everything away.  I'm not sure if that's better than before, but it felt more organised.

My house smelled amazing.  I really do love the smell of these when they're baking.

And now I'm sure you want to hear the results.

Here they are.  Oh, and if the sight of a naked cupcake freaks you out - you may want to look away.

A.  This is the one that I made previously, okay - like ages ago, and it was fluffy and light and had great flavour!  Now I remember why I liked it so much!

B.  This one was definitely my second runner up.  Very yummy, was a little bit more sturdy than E - I guess I would say that because it didn't stick to the wrapper.

C.  This one was quite moist, but I thought it lacked a flavour that the other ones had.  So this one is a pass for me.

D.  I wasn't in love with this one - it was light and fluffy, but somewhat dry.  I also thought they were kind of ugly.

E. This one was very moist and had terrific flavour, my only complaint is that it stuck to the wrapper, although that was not an issue the day after.  And I thought they didn't have as much of a rise as they should have.  If I did make them again I would put more batter in the liners.  I used the same 1/4 cup scoop on all the recipes, but these ones weren't as tall as the others.

One of these is not like the other....  That would be the cupcake with the crack in the top.  It's icky, don't pick that one.

I bet you're wondering how I kept track of which one is which - since I was lazy and didn't make a frosting and couldn't pipe letters on the cupcakes for you to point and laugh at?  I used labels.  Like, those return address labels.  You know the ones?  I just wrote a letter on and stuck 'em on to the bottoms.  But they didn't stick terribly well.  So I'm trying to figure out what to try for next time.

It came down to three.  A, B, and E.  They were each of them wonderful.  They all tasted the same.  A was the most dry of all three.  Okay - when I say "dry" it's a real stretch, because all three were nice and moist, but out of the three this one was less than the others.  E didn't have as much of a rise as the other two and was a little more dense, but was also fantastic.  But for me - it was definitely B.  By a hair.

So there you have it.  Decision made.  I'll be adding this to my recipe book tonight!

Oh - and Mom, if I went on dates with six different GUYS to find the RIGHT ONE you wouldn't think I'm crazy.  So why does making six different cupcake recipes make me a nut?



Sources:
A.  Um - sorry, I can't remember where I got this...
B.  Baking Bites
C.  Bourbonna Trix Bakes
D.  Sweet Revelations
E.  Baking With Basil