An apple a day... may make me a winner!!

Apple, cinammon, wine! Hmmm, sounds good right? I thought so, so I decided to bake these cupcakes for the Iron Cupcake:Earth challenge for this month in which the ingredient was... yes you guessed it... apples! Nooo! WINE, how's that for a shocker? Cupcakes and wine? What the *//&*$%%# bleeeep??? Don't get me wrong, I like wine, I do, I even enjoy getting drunk on the stuff once (read often) in a while. I just didn't know how to incorporate (fancy bakers word) it in a cupcake recipe and have it be fantastic! Hey, maybe I need more experience, I'm sure Martha Stewart could do it with her eyes closed, who knows.

Anyhoo... I racked my brain thinking what cupcake am I going to bake with wine that is worthy of winning this challenge and what wine, red, white, frizzy, bubbly, cheap, expensive ... jeez! Make a girl think why don't you?

Sooo, to make a long story short (too late huh?) I decide to bake these sweet wonderful cakes that I love and mix up the recipe a bit with booze!!

I would like to apologize for any bad pictures, lighting, framing, bluriness and everything else that could go wrong with a picture. I am not a professional photographer and do not have one of those fancy cameras that cost like a gizillion bucks and take amazing pictures all by themselves.

And finally... the recipe, with pictures yay! If you want to skip the recipe and amazing professional photography that's fine but please keep reading afterwards to check out the prizes I'm going to win, um, offered and how you can help me win... yes!!!

To make these tasty delights you will need:

*1/2 cup of water

*1/2 cup of red wine (I used Port or Oporto which is sweet)

2 cups sugar

2 cups grated apples

2 cups raisins

2 sticks butter

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 teaspoons baking soda

3 1/2 cups flour

Place water, wine, sugar, apples, raisins, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a saucepan.

This is how it's going to look, can you see the wine? mmmm...boozie

Bring to boil. I'm not going to show that picture cause it doesn't look that great. Cool completely.

This is what the cooked ingredients will look like.

Stir nuts and baking soda into the flour. No picture for that one, I was too engrossed cooking and forgot! Add to the cooked and cooled mixture.

Here is the complete mix. Looks pretty yummy eh? (eh??? wtf?) Anyways, I can taste the already.

Fill your muffin or cupcake tins till about 3/4 full and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If you want to make these absolutely fantastic like mine, combine about 1/4 cup sugar with 1/4 water and simmer until a syrup is formed and then add about 1/2 tablespoon of wine and with a pastry brush, brush these puppies as soon as they come out of the oven. This makes them incredibly moist and delicious!

Now for the important part, getting me to win!! Please go over to No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner and vote for me!! Yep, that's it, you can do it come on!

Check out the fantastic prices:

When I win, I mean, the winner will receive this amazing ETSY PRIZE-PACK from artists:
DOGBONE ART

cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES
CAKESPY, who is now going to be doing a piece for the winner each month until further notice - sweet!

As an added bonus for January, SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY will be tossing in another treat as well.

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget the corporate prize providers:
HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS,
HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson,
JESSIE STEELE APRONS
CUPCAKE COURIER
TASTE OF HOME books.

BEGINNING IN JANUARY; UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM will be providing the winner with one of their cute cupcake attitude t's!
Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.


Who decides the winner of Iron Cupcake:Earth?
You will. You and the entire blogosphere.

During the 5-days following the baking period, a summary of all cupcakes, their photo, and links to their blog post will be live on No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner. In the right hand column of the page there will be a button to vote for the 3 favorite cupcake, based on appearance and summary of each recipe.