For the week of August 22, 2010, I chose to center the cupcake around the item we use most often when teaching the letter A to children–an apple. Yes, the apple is oh so good. Each bite crisp and juicy, tart, yet sweet. Great sliced, in a pie, or with caramel sauce. But I chose to feature the apple in three ways in these cupcakes. I started with an applesauce sweetened batter and baked the cupcakes to a nice golden brown. I roasted a Granny Smith apple and a Jonagold apple in their skin and pureed the caramelized flesh. Starting with a basic buttercream, I added the roasted apple puree, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and developed a wonderful Roasted Apple Brown Sugar Spiced Buttercream. I finished the cupcakes with a caramel apple chip sticking out the frosting! Hey, they do say an apple a day……