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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. If you want to try them for yourself click HERE for an M&M’s® coupon!
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 Pecan Pie M&M’s®. 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.
MARS Bake In The Fun Sweepstakes
Pecan Pie Stuffed Apple Cupcakes + a fun Fall Mason Jar!
Print
Prep time
30 mins
Cook time
25 mins
Total time
55 mins
Delicious apple cupcakes stuffed with pecan pie and topped off with cinnamon frosting and Pecan Pie M&M's® .
Author: Heather Lynne
Recipe type: dessert
Serves: 2 dozen
Ingredients
For the Cake:
1 box Pillsbury™ Moist Supreme® Yellow Cake Mix
1 c. water
¾ c. Mott's® Apple Sauce
2 eggs
1 apple, chopped
For the Pecan Pie:
¼ c. sugar
¼ c. brown sugar
½ c. corn syrup
2 eggs
1 t. salt
1 c. pecans, chopped
4 T. butter, melted
For the frosting and topping:
1 can Pillsbury™ Creamy Supreme® Cream Cheese Icing
1 t. cinnamon
1 c. Pecan Pie M&M's®
½ 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 ¾ 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 Pecan Pie M&M's® and a pecan half.
Notes
A Hezzi-D Original Recipe
3.3.3070
Pecan Pie Stuffed Apple Cupcakes + a fun Fall Mason Jar!
Print
Prep time
30 mins
Total time
30 mins
Turn your Mason Jars into fun and festive fall centerpieces!
Author: Heather Lynne
Recipe type: Fun Fall Centerpieces
Serves: 2 jars
Ingredients
2 pint sized mason jars
Tissue paper in fall colors (red, orange, yellow, black)
Clear Craft Glue
Gold glitter glue
Rustic ribbon
Cinnamon scented pinecones
Instructions
Choose a solid color of tissue paper for each mason jar (not a fall color). I used white and black. Cut a piece so that it will wrap the entire way around the jar without covering the top or the bottom.
Using the craft glue, cover a quarter of the jar at a time and smooth the tissue paper over the jar. Continue around until the jar is covered by the tissue paper.
Cut the red, orange, and yellow tissue paper into 1 inch squares. Using the craft glue, glue the squares all over the jar, leaving a little bit of the white or black tissue paper showing.
Spread a thin layer of gold glitter glue over the entire jar giving it a sparkling look and sealing in the tissue paper. Let sit 15 minutes.
Tie the rustic ribbon around the top of the jar. Fill with cinnamon scented pinecones. Set on the table as a fall centerpiece.
Notes
A Hezzi-D Original craft
3.3.3070
Be sure to check out more fun fall recipes HERE.
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