This must-try cupcake recipe from Twin Cities food blogger greens & chocolate is perfect for fall!

This fall I’ve already baked no less than five caramel apple desserts.

Here’s the thing: I don’t even like actual caramel apples! I don’t like how the caramel gets all stuck to your teeth and how with the first bite you usually can’t even get through the caramel to the apple. And then once you get through the caramel it’s not even chocolate or nougat filled. No, there’s fruit. Such a disappointment. So no thank you, caramel apples. I’ll pass.

But caramel apple-esque desserts and baked goods? Oh heck yes. Count me in. Between caramel apple crisp, caramel apple bread and caramel apple French toast casserole, I will get my fill of caramel apples without ever touching an actual caramel apple.

Of course I couldn’t stop there and I am now swooning over my new favorite caramel apple treat: Caramel Apple Cupcakes. They are such a fun and delicious fall treat.

The cupcakes are a simple vanilla cupcake with apple pie spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, and then filled with shredded apples. I shredded the apples instead of chopping them so there aren’t big chunks throughout, to keep the texture more cupcake-like, but still legitimately apple cupcakes.

Then there’s the caramel frosting. I might have died a little when I licked the spatula (quality control purposes!) and then a second time when I tasted it on the cupcakes. It’s oh so decadent and paired perfectly with the apple cupcakes.

I went ahead and drizzled the cupcakes with more caramel sauce after they were frosted just to emphasize that caramel flavor and also because why the heck not? No one has ever been mad about extra caramel, I’m pretty sure.

So whether you’re a caramel apple fan in its truest sense or just in all of the dessert spinoffs, you are going to love these cupcakes either way.

You can store these cupcakes in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.