After Eleven Trials...Caramel Apple Pecan Cupcake

This was the hardest recipe to come up with to date. But I finally have it. I can legitimately say this is a Tina original recipe - not a slight tweak of someone else's recipe.
Caramel Apple Pecan Cupcake - a vanilla cupcake with dried apples, drizzled with caramel sauce on the cake, frosted with cream cheese frosting, and sprinkled with meaty pecan pieces.
Lesson #1: Granny Smith apples do not shine through unless it's in small pieces (diced, shredded, or grated.)
Lesson #2: Some spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice will get stronger with time (after being baked). Use half or less nutmeg to cinnamon.
Lesson #3: Using fresh apples in the cake will make the cake wetter, you may have to paddle the batter longer to build the cake structure to compensate.
Lesson #4: If you don't have Granny Smith, use Gala apples. Don't use Braeburn apples - makes the cake too soggy. Gala will break down easier when baked, so expect a wetter cake.
Lesson #5: If you want to control the flavor of the spices, don't use spices at all in the cake or frosting unless you like that pumpkin bread type taste.
Lesson #6: If you like the quick bread texture, use a traditional apple cake recipe. If you like a less wet, but moist, more crumbly type cake, more "cupcake- like", use a traditional vanilla cupcake recipe and mix in diced dried apples.

Laura's First Birthday

No way was I going to buy a birthday cake for my daughter's first birthday party. It had to be special. It's a good and a bad thing knowing how to do complex cakes. At first Alec and I were going to do a tiered cake with gum paste lotus blossoms floating on piping gel water cascading down the tiers. Then we got real, plus we wanted Laura to identify with the cake. So we chose the theme of Patrick Starfish (of SpongeBob Squarepants). We have a large stuffed animal Patrick Starfish, which Laura kisses and sticks her finger into his belly button.
We decided to do square-shaped cupcakes that forms a mosaic of Patrick Starfish. I saw a similar idea with cupcakes in the image of SpongeBob.
The entire process spanned three weeks - cake recipe experimentation, frosting recipe experimentation, frosting color testing, decorating test run, final batch of cupcakes/frosting, and assembly.
Even with both Alec and I working, the evening of the assembly took two and half hours: 9-11:30pm. Alec got to experience what I go through on "assembly evenings" - lack of focus, deterioration of design standards. In the morning, I put finishing touches and decorated additional cupcakes to fill in the gaps in the mosaic. I also decorated a personalized cupcake for Laura - white vanilla frosting, with white jimmies border, a modified star fondant cut-out for Patrick Starfish, with pink "Laura" inscription.
I learned that the "cupcake mosaic" takes at least double the time of a standard order, so I wouldn't do it again unless the price was right.
Of course, it was all worth it for our little girl. It came time to put out the cupcakes at the birthday party. We placed a yellow candle in Laura's cupcake and lit it. Alec and I held her between us, everyone sang the birthday song, and we blew out the candle together. Laura didn't know what the heck was going on. But she did enjoy the first few bites of a darn good cupcake made with love.