Modified from 500 Cupcakes
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar [they say superfine, I used the regular stuff I had]
1 cup self rising flour [okay to make this, use 1 cup flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt...that's what I did]
2 eggs
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce [note unsweetened!]
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts [they said pecans, I used walnuts as that's what I had]
1/2 cup raisins [they said golden, I used the regular purple ones]
1 small red apple, thinly sliced [I used Macs, I think]
2 tbsp sugar
Preheat oven to 350. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
Put butter, sugar, flour and egg in a bowl and beat and smooth and pale. Stir in applesauce and cinnamon. Then mix in nuts and raisins. [I did make one "plain" as I hate nuts, but wasn't so thrilled with it].
Spoon batter into cups. Lay apple slices on top and sprinkle with the 2 tbsp sugar (okay, so I didn't measure....the first batch I forgot this and put it on when they came out hot and that worked fine as well].
Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Remove to rack to cool.
This recommends serving warm.
Makes 1 dozen [I did a double batch and got about 2 1/2 dozen...obviously the nuts/raisins will mess with this a bit.]