Apple and cinnamon cupcake

Making cupcakes is always fun. There's something just a little frivolous about bite size cakes and their pretty frilly cases.

These ones are very moist and appley, streaked through the middle with a band of cinnamon sugar and crunchy with the same on top. Very tasty.

The recipe is adapted from a very cute little book called simply cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans.

Without further ado:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup sugar and 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3. In another bowl mix 1 cup grated cooking apple with 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon sugar mixture
4. In a larger bowl stir 1 1/4 cups plain flour, 3/4 cup soft brown sugar, 3/4 tsp baking soda and a pinch of salt together, and make a well in the centre
5. Add 2 eggs, 1 cup sunflower oil and 1 tsp vanilla extract and mix well
6. Stir in the apple mixture with any juice that has been released
7. Put 12 cupcake papers into a muffin tray and half fill each with mixture
8. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of cinnamon sugar over each one and top up with more mixture
9. Use a pastry brush to dab the top of the batter with the melted butter and sprinkle a tsp of cinnamon sugar on top of each
10. Bake until the tops are light brown and a knife inserted comes out clean; about 25 minutes