Hello to everyone again! I hope you all have been enjoying the fall weather as much I have been. :) I cannot express how much I just love this time of year. The beautiful leaves, the heavenly smells, the addicting flavors... AHH I love it!      Anyways... I have a recipe for you! 
Nothing says fall the same way that baked apples do. And these aren't just regular baked apples... they are SUPER STUFFED with oats and cranberries and some of those amazing spices we all love this time of year. Ready? Here we go! 

Jenni's Super Stuffed Baked Apples
Ingredients:
6 regular sized granny smith apples
4 Tbs butter, at room temp
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1/3 cup pecan pieces 
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. 
In a medium mixing bowl, add all ingredients except apples. Use a spoon to make sure it is all mixed well and butter is thoroughly mixed in. Set aside.
Core your apples, if you have an apple corer... obviously this is ideal. However I do not. So I used a paring knife. DO NOT PIERCE THE BOTTOM OF THE APPLE! You need to keep it in tact to hold all the goods. :) Sprinkle lemon juice over the apples to keep them from browning.

Take your filling and divide it evenly between the 6 apples. For an added touch I put about a teaspoon of caramel on top of each apple. Place apples in a baking dish (I used a 9'' round baking pan). Put about a 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of the pan. Cover in foil and bake for 35 minutes. Take foil off of pan and bake for 10 more minutes to brown the tops.
Serve with ice cream drizzled with caramel and you've got a super simple dessert that everyone is going to love and be impressed with! 

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Happy Baking! :) 
-Jenni

This is one of the most time consuming desserts that I have done because of all the elements to it. But they are so worth it! So if you have an evening off and feel like trying something new in the kitchen, this is perfect! They would also make quite an impression at a picnic or family gathering. :) 

This is a 4 part dessert: cake, crumble, filling, and icing. The cake is a mild spice cake with a cinnamon crumble on top. Then it has an apple cobbler filling and just a little vanilla cream cheese icing. :) 

Cake
2 cups flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 shortening (room temp)(like Crisco) 
3/4 cup milk
1 Tbl. vanilla flavor
1/2 tsp almond flavor
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
(you can increase the amount of spice you put in your cake if you like, this is a mild spice cake)

Preheat oven to 350. 
Prepare a cupcake pan with liners and set aside. 
Using a mixer, blend together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and shortening.Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter. Set aside. 

Crumble
6 Tbl. unsalted butter (room temp)
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients and use fork or hands to blend until crumbly. Sprinkle this on top of you cupcakes before you bake them. 

Bake the cupcakes for 18-20 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean), rotating halfway through the baking process to get even baking. Let cupcakes cool. 

FIlling

2 Tbl. butter
5-6 cups of diced apples
1 Tbl. corn starch
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbl. lemon juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves 
1/2 cup water

Heat up a large skillet to medium and melt butter. Add diced apples and let them cook for about 5 minutes to soften, stirring occasionally. Add brown sugar, salt, vanilla, and lemon juice. Stir in. Sprinkle corn starch over top of apple mixture, and mix in. Let this cook for about 5 more minutes, still stirring occasionally. Add water to reduce the thickness and let cook for 1 more minute. Remove from heat. 
* This can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge in an airtight container. And if you have extra left over, I think it would be sooooo good on pancakes! 

Icing
1 8oz pkg cream cheese (room temp)
1 stick unsalted butter (room temp) 
2 tsp vanilla flavor
4 cups powdered sugar

Blend first 3 ingredients until smooth. add powdered sugar and blend until smooth and creamy. 

FINALLY!! ASSEMBLY!!
1. Core your cupcakes
2. Pour some of your delicious apple filling in
3. Top with some cream cheese icing

Sadly.. the assembly of this cupcake was the easiest part. lol. But wasn't it worth it!? 

So who's up for a challenge with this delicious Apple Cobbler Cupcakes? Please let me know if you tried it! I would love to see how it turned out for you.