It’s that time of year when all the cosy flavours come out. And on those days, where the rain is pouring and the wind is blistering there’s no place I’d rather be than cosied up at home under a blanket with a cup of tea and a cake.

These cakes are just the ticket. They’ve got the perfect combination of apple, sweet spices and salted caramel, and the apple also helps keep the cakes lovely and light. The frosting is SO creamy and rich and coupled with the cake and then the caramel surprise in the middle, it’s a whole thing going on.

I’ve been making these cakes a whole lot recently, I should probably rename them 3pm cakes, as it’s become somewhat of a ritual for me. I do nursery drops, school drops, try to squeeze some work in while the littlest sleeps, nursery pick ups, make lunch for the little ones, try to do a little more work, and then it gets to 3pm and I feel like I owe myself a little tea and cake before school pickup comes around.

I’ve used some of the Nature’s Charm products in this recipe; I’ve been so impressed with them! They use coconut instead of dairy, and the dessert sauces are just out of this world!

Makes around 10 cupcakes

• 2/3 cup oat milk
• 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups ground almonds
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon-
• 1/2 tsp mixed spice
• 1/4 cup rapeseed oil

For the filling and frosting:

• Nature’s Charm Salted Caramel dessert sauce
• Nature’s Charm coconut whipping cream
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon, plus extra for dusting

Preheat your oven to 180C, then add the oat milk, ground flaxseed and apple cider vinegar to a bowl and mix well. In another bowl, combine the ground almonds, spices and coconut sugar and stir well. Add the applesauce and rapeseed oil in with the wet ingredients, then stir and add this to the dry ingredients, mixing as you go.

Spoon this into around 10 cupcake cases and bake for around 20 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Leave them to cool before you fill and frost them.

Using an apple corer, remove the centres of the cakes. Spoon in a teaspoon of Nature’s Charm Salted Caramel dessert sauce into the middle of each cake.

To make the frosting, add the whipping cream to a stand mixer with the other ingredients and mix until fluffy. Spoon or pipe this on top of the cupcakes then enjoy!

Love, Mrs H xx