Apple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

This cupcake batch uses the same recipe as Apple Cake in previous blog entry; yields roughly 24 cupcakes. Cooking time was between 15 to 20 minutes at 350F.

In this picture, I have used chocolate teddy cubs as a garnish. I’ve decided against tinting the frosting with blue to make the teddy cubs look like they’re swimming!

Frosting would take approximately 10 minutes from start to finish.

Cream Cheese Frosting (adapted from Betty Crocker’s “The big book of cupcakes”)

1 stick of cream cheese, softened (8 oz)
1/4 cup of butter, softened
1 to 2 tsp Tia Maria
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp milk
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar

1. In large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, Tia Maria (or any brandy of choice), vanilla and 2 tsp of milk with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Beat in icing sugar ONE cup at a time.
2. Check the consistency of your frosting. If it’s too thick, you can add 1 tsp of milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thin, beat in a small amount of sugar.
   (Note: I used 4 cups of icing sugar and it was a bit too sweet; I will use between 3 to 4 cups next time)
3. Leftover frosting can be tightly covered and refrigerated up to 5 days or frozen up to 1 month. Let stand 30 minutes at room temperature to soften; stir before using. Frosts 24 cupcakes (about 2 1/2 cups).