When I do think about a christmas dessert all these aromatic spices come in my mind: cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg and cardamom! These Christmas cupcakes have a moist and tender cake with spices along with the best combination: apple dices!

And what is the next best flavor that combines all the above? Of course, caramel! So the buttercream has to be a caramel buttercream. For an extra touch I decided to make a lightly salted caramel buttercream, which I love! If I did not have to pipe the buttercream high to get a christmas tree and a santa's hat, maybe I would have opt for a classic american buttercream, but as always with less sugar. However the reduction of sugar in the american buttercream would have make it less stable and not very nice pipeable. Therefore, I decided to frost these cupcakes with my favourite (but more tricky) swiss meringue buttercream. Swiss meringue buttercream is a less sweet buttercream, compared to the american one, and it is so smooth, silky and pipes perfectly! It is based on egg whites and sugar, with which you make a meringue and then butter is added in order to get a buttercream texture. Then the flavour combinations are limitless. For these apple spice cupcakes I decided to add caramel aroma and a pinch of salt to give it a salty caramel twist! I mentioned that swiss meringue buttercream is tricky, because the egg whites have to be heated along with the sugar until a specific temperature (where a cool thermometer is needed) and then they have to be beaten for a long time (around 15' or even more) until they form a nice meringue at room temperature. For beating so long, a stand electric mixer is advised. I have never made a swiss meringue buttercream with a hand mixer, but it would be a challenge for sure!

The cupcake itself is a very easy 2 bowl recipe. One bowl for the dry ingredients and one for the wet, that at are combined together. Start by finely chopping dices of one large apple (about 1 cup).

In one bowl mix together all the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

The gently fold in the dry ingredients the apple dices and set aside.

In another big mixing bowl add the vegetable oil, the warm milk, the yogurt and the vanilla extract. Stir them well.

Add the eggs all and stir well until it becomes nice and smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and gently mix them making circular motions with a rubber spatula. Do not overmix the batter, else your cupcakes will end up tough.

Fill 18 paper cupcake liners 3/4 full with cupcake batter. I use one full ice-cream scoop for this purpose and I find that this is the proper amount of batter for a cupcake. Make sure that all the cupcakes have the same amount of batter for even baking. The paper cupcake liners I used in this recipe, do not need a muffin tin for baking, since they are strong enough to hold their shape while baking. Therefore I just placed them on a flat oven pan. However, if you are using the classic paper cupcake/muffin liners make sure to place them in a muffin pan before filling and baking.

Bake the cupcakes in preheated oven at 170°C (350°F) fan-forced on a rack placed in the middle of the oven. Bake for 15' - 20' or until golden and springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and let them cool for 5' in the pan.

Transfer the cupcakes on a wire rack and let them to cool completely at room temperature. Make sure that the cupcakes have cooled completely before frosting them, else the frosting will start to melt.

Now it is time for making the swiss meringue buttercream! For me personal, it is my favourite kind of buttercream! It is not very sweet, is is very smooth, silky, airy and it pipes perfectly! The basic recipe is a vanilla flavored buttercream, but it can take any flavor enhancement you like! Moreover it can be stored in the refrigerator for up 5 days or in the freezer for up 3 months. Once you want to use it, just let it come to room temperature and then give it a good whisk and it is ready to use like it was fresh made! However, it is not the most easy and quick buttercream to make. The swiss meringue buttercream, as it name reveals, is based on meringue, i.e. on whipped egg whites with sugar. For a successful meringue, make sure that the bowls and the whisk attachment used are very clean with no trace of fat, else your meringue will not whipped up. Additionally, you should be careful, in order not to let any yolk come into your egg whites, while separating the eggs. Similarly to dirty equipment, any trace of egg yolk into your egg whites. will not let the meringue to foam properly.

For making the swiss meringue buttercream add the egg whites, the sugar and the salt in a heatproof bowl and give them a good stir.

Then transfer the bowl with the egg whites mixture over a pot of simmering water. Make sure that the water does not touches the bottom of the bowl. Whisk constantly till the mixture gets 71°C (160ºF). If you do not have a cooking thermometer heat until the mixture has a marshmallow texture, it is white, sticky and it is no longer grainy between your fingers.

Transfer the mixture immediately to the bowl of your stand mixer and beat on high speed until you get nice glossy peaks and the meringue cools down at room temperature. You can put some bags with frozen products on the sides of the mixing bowl to speed up the cooling process. It is very important the meringue to be at room temperature before adding the butter. If any butter is added on warm meringue, then it will start melting and your buttercream will become soupy. If this happens, do not worry, just put the bowl with the meringue in the refrigerator to let it cool down and then continue adding the rest room temperature butter. So, keep beating the meringue until it cools down completely. You do not have to worry, the meringue cannot be over-whipped.

Once your meringue has been cooled down completely at room temperature, then start to add the butter. You can change to paddle adjustment if you want, but I almost always keep going with the whisk attachment. Add one full tablespoon of room temperature butter at time and beat at medium speed. Add each dollop of butter after the previous has completely incorporated. Do not worry, if while adding the butter the buttercream starts to become soupy or curdled, it will get firm enough and smooth again as soon as all the butter has been added. Add the vanilla and beat until incorporated.

At this point reserve some white swiss meringue buttercream (with vanilla flavour), about 1/8 of the whole buttercream and transfer it to a piping bag with a small open or closed star. This white frosting will be used as the fur of the santa's hat.

To the remaining swiss meringue buttercream add the caramel spread and beat until incorporated. Test if more salt or caramel spread is need and beat until the salt fully dissolved. Do not worry, the swiss meringue buttercream cannot be overbeaten. Your salted caramel swiss meringue buttercream is ready! You can use it right away or if you want you can store it in the refrigerator for up 5 days or in the freezer for up 3 months. To store the swiss meringue buttercream transfer it into a piping bag (which you seal very good afterwards) or into a zip lock bag. Once you want to use it, remove it and let it come at room temperature. Once reached the room temperature give it a good whisk and it is ready to use.

For the christmas cupcakes I made half of the cupcakes to be christmas tree and the other half to be a santa's hat. Therefore I divided the buttercream in half, one half for each design. For the christmas tree cupcakes I made the fondant star by myself. I used yellow fondant (you can use gold if you want, but I wanted to make it more cheerful). I took a small amount of fondant and soften it with my hands. I rolled it out until 2mm (1/16 inch) and cut small stars using a small star cutter. Then I let the stars to dry and harden at room temperature for an hour.

Get half of the swiss meringue buttercream and add a small amount green food coloring. Whisk well in order to get a green buttercream. Add more green color if needed, until you get the color that you like. Transfer to a piping bag with a big closed star tip.

Pipe a christmas tree (the frosting should be piped high). Sprinkle with confetti sprinkles and add a small fondant star at the top of frosting! Your christmas tree cupcake is ready!

For the santa's hat cupcakes reserve about a quarter of the other half of the buttercream and transfer it into a piping bag with a small open star. (This will be used for the fur of the santa's hat). Add red food coloring to the remaining swiss meringue buttercream. Start with a small amount and whisk well until the color is uniform. Add more food color in order to get the wanted shade. Transfer to a piping bag with a big round tip.

Pipe the santa's hat with the red buttercream by piping a 2 or 3 stacked circles. With the white buttercream pipe small stars around the bottom of the santa's hat and one star at the top of it. Your santa's hat cupcake is ready!

Store the cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. For better experience, when you want to consume them, remove them in the fridge and let them come at room temperature, before serving. The cooled cupcake itself should taste good also cold, but the buttercream would be hard.