Mini apple crumble and custard cakes flavoured with cinnamon. A surprise middle of apple purée with a topping of custard buttercream and crumble makes these little cupcakes a complete delight. Perfect for an autumnal party.

Back along, I made these mini chocolate surprise cakes for a friend’s celebration, along with these dairy and gluten free lemon and almond coconut cakes. It so happens that I also made some rum and raisin cupcakes and these rather fun apple crumble and custard mini cakes for the same occasion.
Apple Crumble and Custard Mini Cakes
With ninety four cakes to make in four different flavours, I had a day of logistics to contend with and my mini muffin moulds got used as never before.
I adapted a recipe I found in Primrose Bakery Christmas by Martha Swift. And I used my tried and tested cake mix. It hasn’t failed me yet. I decided to create a filling of apple in the actual cake as well as apple in the batter. It seemed like a good way to go. And so it proved to be.

Once cooked, these little apply morsels are topped with custard buttercream and pieces of pre-baked crumble. They are very cute and super tasty too.
There are a few steps involved in making these cakes, but all of the processes are quite easy.
Other Crumble Cakes You Might Like
- Blackberry & apple crumble cake via Family Friends Food
- Blackcurrant buckle via Tin and Thyme
- Peanut butter oreo crumble cake via Anne’s Kitchen
- Pumpkin cream cheese muffins with crumble topping via Kerry Cooks
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these apple crumble and custard mini cakes, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more cupcake recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
And if you’re interested in more apple recipes I have this post with 80 seasonal and delicious apple recipes.
Choclette x
Apple Crumble & Custard Cakes. PIN IT.

Apple Crumble and Custard Cakes – The Recipe
Apple Crumble and Custard Mini Cakes
Ingredients
Apple Purée
- 3 large cooking apples
- 30 g light muscovado sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- splash of water
Cupcakes
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 125 g light muscovado sugar
- 2 large eggs I used duck eggs
- 75 g wholemeal flour
- 75 g plain white flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- apple purée
Crumble
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 50 g light muscovado sugar
- 75 g wholemeal flour
- 75 g plain white flour
- 1 tsp cold water
Custard Buttercream
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 20 g custard powder
- 100 g icing sugar
Instructions
Apple Purée
- Simmer all the ingredients together in a small pan for about ten minutes or until the apples are soft.
- Blend into a rough purée with a stick blender.
Cupcakes
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
- Sift in the dry ingredients and stir gently in.
- Fold in 1 heaped tbsp of the apple purée.
- Place 1 tsp of batter into each muffin case (24 in total), add a scant tsp of apple purée than top up with another tsp of batter so the muffin is slightly over 3/4 full.
- Bake at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 15-20 minutes when the cakes should be well risen and firm to the touch but not too brown.
Crumble
- Rub the butter and sugar into the flower with fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water and stir with a knife until the mixture clumps together.
- Spread out onto a baking tray and bake at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 15 minutes or so until golden.
- Allow to cool.
Custard Buttercream
- Beat the ingredients together in a bowl until well combined and light in texture. Add a drop of milk if the mixture is too stiff.
- Spread onto the cooled cakes and top with a little crumble.
Notes
Nutrition
Link-Ups
I am sending these mini cupcakes off to Lisa’s Apple Season link-up over at United Cakedom. I’m also sharing them with Apply to Face Blog for #BakingCrumbs.
OMG – these look delicious!!!! I thought my apple cake was good, but you’ve outdone me with this recipe!!! I can’t wait to make them and try one. PS – how do I give you 10 stars?
Hahaha, thank you Veronica. I have so many apple cake recipes on my blog that I’m at a complete loss as to which is the best one.
What a fabulous friend you are and what a fabulous recipe! They sound one of the the nicest cupcake combos I have ever coveted! What a genius recipe! The custard buttercream sounds like it deserves a post in itself! Thank you so much for sharing it with #BakingCrumbs
Hahaha, thanks Jenny. I made these such a long time ago now, that I feel I need to make them again to remind myself.
Cake, Custard, and most importantly apples. Yum! Yum! These would be great for bonfire night!
Thanks Lisa, they would indeed be good for Bonfire Night 🙂
What a great recipe! And with crumble and custard buttercream – sign me up! Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks Callie, it’s a lovely concept and a delicious little bake 🙂
These look so good! Bet the apples and custard are great together.
Thanks Becky. It’s a classic, although the custard isn’t the real deal of course, it’s just a nod to it really.
I have a teenaged son who would adore these. The combination of custard with cake and crumble is just mouthwatering.
Thanks Laura. It really is mouthwatering and I can feel a real apple crumble coming on – with custard 😉
I really do love the sound of these mini cakes, especially with the puree, custard and crumble. I’m pinning this for later!
Thanks Amanda. Hope you like them, they are a bit of a crowd pleaser.
What a great idea! I love cupcakes and I love apple crumble so I think I will really love these. Definitely bookmarking!
Thank you Eb. These little apple crumble bites are a bit of a winner 🙂
Love the recipe, mouth water as always from you Choclette! Just curious does using duck eggs instead of regular eggs enhance the taste in any way?
Thanks Prateek, that’s really lovely of you. Duck eggs are the eggs of choice for baking, you can find out why in this post I wrote about it – /2009/07/duck-eggs/
They look so nice and perfect bite size. Love the crumble n custard icing too – Absolutely Yum!!!
Thanks Molly. I have a thing for mini cakes 😉
Must be very tasty.. No doubt 🙂
Thanks Sundari, blueberries and lemon make for a great combination 🙂
These look great! Pinning to my apple dessert recipes board!
Thanks Sara. I think I need one of those on Pinterest too!
This is really a nice combination. .. love the recipe. ..can u tell me the substitute of egg for this recipe!
Thanks Waagmi. I’ve not tried it with anything other than egg, so I wouldn’t like to say. But I know flaxseed is often used as a vegan egg substitute.
Sounds delicious. Love the custard and crumble topping idea..
Agree, it’s a good one Erica and perfect for this time of year.
94 cakes… where’s this party?
It should be yours and the Vikings TODAY Dom. Happy Birthday.
These sound fantastic and I’m seriously impressed that you baked such a variety of cupcakes in one day! Bookmarking this recipe 🙂
Thanks Jo. These were the most I’d done in a while and I was out of practice. Luckily it all came good 🙂
Ooh these look devilishly good. Great use of seasonal apples! More to come I’m sure
Yes Ceri, I love the autumn with so many apples and other bounty available. It may be apples now for some time to come.
Totally lush cakes for autumn – can you post?
I can virtually post Camilla, will that do?
woooahh!!!! 94 cakes in 4 different flavours? Sounds like a GBBO double take!
If they were all as good as this, then I am sure they went down a storm! Apple, crumble and custard all in a cake….delish!!
Thanks Kate. It was fun, but as always took me longer than I’d anticipated so I was in a bit of a panic. I’d be a gibbering wreck on Bake Off 😉
How lovely are these! Custard on a cupcake sounds yummy xx
Thank you Emily. Really loved the concept of these and they were really cute too.
94 cakes!! wow…surely you had some fun with it. These muffin form cakes look fantastic!
Thank you Angie, I really did have fun. It was great trying to think up four complimentary flavours as well as something that pretty much anyone could eat, whatever intolerances they had.
You are too productive Choclette ;)) I can’t keep up anymore. These mini cakes look great and I’m sure they taste great too. Definitely to be tried in some future !
Ah but that’s because you are more thorough than me Henk and try variations until you’ve hit on something you’re really happy with 🙂
These look so delicious and quite delightful… I am not a huge fan of those over-iced sickly looking cupcakes they sell in some stores, but would gladly eat a few of yours xx
Thank you Lizzy. I can’t cope with copious amounts of sugary buttercream either. I tend to make mine less sweet and rarely use more than a smidgeon 🙂