I Love Me Some Pie

I came up with the idea of making apple pie cupcakes, but didn't really want to have the apples baked into the cake itself. So I figured I'd saute the apples in some butter, sugar and cinnamon till it got all nice and caramel-y but not too soft, and top the cupcake off with it, and finish everything off with vanilla buttercream. And so the apple pie a la mode cupcake was born.
Apple Pie a la Mode Cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the cake:
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1½ tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
4 eggs
(This recipe makes quite a number of cupcakes, I have scaled it down to half before with equally good results.)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Cut butter into 1-inch pieces. Soften on low speed. Cream until light in colour.
4. Add sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, taking 8 to 10 minutes to blend it in well.
5. Add eggs one at a time at 1-minute intervals.
6. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk, dividing flour mixture into 4 parts and milk into 3 parts.
7. Spoon batter into cupcake papers (about 1/3 full, so there is space for the apple pie filling after the cake is baked) and bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until golden brown in colour.
8. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

For the apple pie filling:
diced and peeled green apples
butter
cinnamon
brown sugar
(I usually just eyeball the amount of spice and sugar used, depending on how much filling I need.)

Directions:
1. Melt butter in pan, and add cinnamon and brown sugar. Let it cook a little, before adding in apples. Cook for a few minutes, stirring well. Don't overcook the apples, just a few minutes should do the trick. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

For the vanilla buttercream:
4 oz. butter
2½ cups icing sugar, sifted
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice

Directions:
1. Cream butter and salt for 30 seconds, then add ½ the icing sugar and milk to the butter. Beat until combined. Add remaining icing sugar, vanilla and lemon juice and beat well.
2. Beat on high speed for 5 to 6 minutes until frosting is fluffy.

To assemble:
Spoon apple pie filling on top of baked and cooled cupcakes, and then top off with vanilla buttercream.