Pecan Pie Stuffed Apple Cupcakes + a fun Fall Mason Jar!
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Fall is almost here and I am more than ready for it! Fall is quickly becoming my favorite season. It’s the weather getting a little cooler, the leaves changing colors, but most of all it’s the food that makes me love fall. During the fall months I can always be found in the kitchen baking with apples, pumpkin, pecans, and squash.
Since fall is less then a week away I wanted welcome in the season with a delicious baked good using several warm fall flavors. On a recent trip to Walmart I found M&M’s® Pecan Pie and knew I had to bake with them. They come in fun fall colors, smell like pecans, and taste like pecan pie.
While I usually make my cupcakes and frosting from scratch, fall is a busy time for me. I’m back to work and it’s usually pretty hectic. I like to take treats into my fellow teachers and it’s often easier to put a semi-homemade twist on a box cake mix. I picked up a box of Pillsbury™ Moist Supreme® Yellow Cake Mix and a can of Pillsbury™ Creamy Supreme® cream cheese frosting to help with the base of my apple cupcakes.
When I got home I picked up the box of Pillsbury™ Moist Supreme® Yellow Cake Mix and dumped it in a bowl. I was planning on making apple cupcakes since we just received a bag of apples in our weekly CSA. Fresh picked farm apples are a great way to put a homemade spin on a box cake mix. To give the batter even more apple flavor I substituted in Mott’s® applesauce for some of oil.
Next I made the filling for the cupcakes. Instead of filling them after they came out of the oven I made a small mixture of pecan pie and placed it in between two layers of apple cupcake mix. I popped them in the oven and got working on my frosting. I didn’t have to do much to it since I thought cream cheese frosting would go wonderfully with the apples and pecans. The only thing I did was add a little bit of cinnamon to give it a hint of spice.
Once the cupcakes were out I let them cool then frosted them with the cinnamon cream cheese frosting. The last step was decorating the tops with pecans and the M&M’s® Pecan Pie. They looked so pretty. I cut one in half to see what they looked like inside and was pleased to see that the pecan pie was baked right into the middle of the cupcake. When I took a bite it was like fall bursting in my mouth! Apples, cinnamon, and pecans all mixed into one sweet and tasty dessert. I couldn’t help myself, I ate the entire cupcake! At this point I had to reach into the refrigerator and grab a bottle of Snapple® Apple to wash down the cupcake. It was definitely the right choice to go with the cupcake.
I quickly packed up the rest of the cupcakes, minus two for my husband and I to enjoy later, to take to school for the teachers. Now our table at school is very bare and I thought it would be nice to make something that screamed fall to put on the table and give it taste of the season. I knew I had several leftover mason jars in the basement and figured they would look really nice in the middle of the faculty room table.
In order to jazz the up I used fall colored tissue paper, glue, and glitter glue to decorate the outside of the jars. I filled them with those amazing cinnamon scented pinecones. I figured not only would it look like fall in the faculty room, it would smell like it too! Plus I ended up having two jars leftover so I put candles in them and I’m using them as centerpieces on our dining room table. They will end up staying there until after Thanksgiving.
I took everything to work the next day and everyone was thrilled. The Pecan Pie Stuffed Apple Cupcakes were a huge hit and all the teachers kept commenting on how great the faculty room smelled and how cute the jars were. I think we are all ready welcome fall next week.
To celebrate fall MARS is hosting a Bake In The Fun Sweepstakes where one lucky person will be winning a Kitchen-Aid Mixer! Enter the sweepstakes and get baking with your own fun fall flavors.
Pecan Pie Stuffed Apple Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 box Pillsbury™ Moist Supreme® Yellow Cake Mix
- 1 c. water
- 3/4 c. Mott's® Apple Sauce Original 48oz
- 2 eggs
- 1 apple chopped
For the Pecan Pie:
- 1/4 c. sugar
- 1/4 c. brown sugar
- 1/2 c. corn syrup
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 c. pecans chopped
- 4 Tablespoons butter melted
For the frosting and topping:
- 1 can Pillsbury™ Creamy Supreme® Cream Cheese Icing
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 c. M&M's® Pecan Pie
- 1/2 c. pecans halved
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the yellow cake mix, water, applesauce, and eggs. Fold in the apple and set aside.
- In a medium bowl whisk together all of the ingredients for the pecan pie. Set aside.
- Place just enough batter in the bottom of the cupcake liners to cover it. Place 1 teaspoon of pecan pie on top of the batter. Place apple cupcake batter on top of the pecan pie batter, filling the muffin cup to 3/4 of the way full. Repeat for remaining muffin cups.
- Bake the cupcakes for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the muffin tin to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To prepare the frosting simply mix the cinnamon into the cream cream frosting.
- Frost each cupcake with the frosting. Top each cupcake with 3-4 M&M's® Pecan Pie and a pecan half.
Notes
Pecan Pie Stuffed Apple Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 box Pillsbury™ Moist Supreme® Yellow Cake Mix
- 1 c. water
- 3/4 c. Mott's® Apple Sauce Original 48oz
- 2 eggs
- 1 apple chopped
For the Pecan Pie:
- 1/4 c. sugar
- 1/4 c. brown sugar
- 1/2 c. corn syrup
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 c. pecans chopped
- 4 Tablespoons butter melted
For the frosting and topping:
- 1 can Pillsbury™ Creamy Supreme® Cream Cheese Icing
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 c. M&M's® Pecan Pie
- 1/2 c. pecans halved
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the yellow cake mix, water, applesauce, and eggs. Fold in the apple and set aside.
- In a medium bowl whisk together all of the ingredients for the pecan pie. Set aside.
- Place just enough batter in the bottom of the cupcake liners to cover it. Place 1 teaspoon of pecan pie on top of the batter. Place apple cupcake batter on top of the pecan pie batter, filling the muffin cup to 3/4 of the way full. Repeat for remaining muffin cups.
- Bake the cupcakes for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the muffin tin to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To prepare the frosting simply mix the cinnamon into the cream cream frosting.
- Frost each cupcake with the frosting. Top each cupcake with 3-4 M&M's® Pecan Pie and a pecan half.
Notes
Be sure to check out more fun fall recipes HERE.
Those look amazing. I love the festive touch!
Besos Sarah.
The cupcakes sound delicious! I am huge fan of mason jars and this weekend we start fall decorating and I can’t wait! (client)