Last year, I prepared these beautiful and delicious apple cupcakes in time for Staci Segal’s pre-Rosh Hashana bake sale.  They were such a hit that one of my blog readers rushed down to the bake sale and purchased all the baked goods that I had delivered.

Rosh Hashana is around the corner again and I prepared a few items for Staci to sell this year.  The proceeds will benefit Yad Sarah, an impressive organization in Israel that provides and lends medical equipment to patients in need.

Traditionally, on Rosh Hashana, we eat apples dipped in honey for a sweet new year.   It is interesting that an apple is chosen as the fruit to dip.

One reason is that in King Solomon’s Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs), the nation of Israel is compared to an apple.  “As the apple is rare and unique among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved (Israel) amongst the maidens (nations) of the world.”  Furthernore, an apple is symbolic of the love between the nation of Israel and G-d as we read in Shir Hashirim , “Beneath the apple tree I aroused you.”

We are taught that an apple tree sprouts the tiny core of each apple before the leaves surround and protect the young fruit.  In the same way, the young Jewish nation accepted the Torah before understanding the myriad of details within.  The famous acceptance of our nation was verbalized as “we will do and we will understand”.  We committed to the holy observance of Torah commandments even before we understood the full extent of what this commitment entailed.  Therefore, the apple has become a symbol and remembrance of the commitment to our faith and acceptance of Torah at Mount Sinai.  We recall this on Rosh Hashana when our mission is to proclaim G-d as our King.

 

These cupcakes are available for sale among other delicious desserts at the Segal Home this Sunday, September 17th, 2017 from 12 noon-5 PM.  The address is 475 FDR Drive #301 on the Lower East Side. For more information, please contact Staci at 917-295-7285 or stacisegal@aol.com

 

 

INGREDIENTS

Vanilla Cupcake recipe

sprinkles

White or red frosting

Red sanding sugar or sugar and red food coloring

Brown licorice, brown taffy or small pretzel nub

Green fruit by the foot or taffy

 

INSTRUCTIONS

Use your favorite vanilla cupcake recipe.  I baked mine as confetti cupcakes by mixing sprinkles into the dry ingredients before adding the wet ingredients.  I baked them according to the recipe.

Cut brown licorice into thirds or prepare a small piece of taffy or pretzel nub for the stems.  

Flatten green taffy with a rolling pin or mallet, or use green fruit by the foot.  Use knife or scissors to cut out leaf shapes.  Use blunt knife to form leaf veins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To make red sanding sugar, combine 1 cup of sugar with red food coloring, adding food coloring until the desired depth of color is reached.  I pulsed this in my food processor. Alternatively, you can combine the sugar and color in a ziploc bag or in your mixer.

 

Either frost cupcakes using a knife and mounding the center, or fill a piping bag with frosting and cut bottom of bag.  Pipe concentric rings of frosting onto cupcakes, heaping frosting to form a mound in the center of  each cupcake.

Sprinkle sanding sugar on top of each cupcake until well coated.  Gently shake off excess sanding sugar.

Insert brown stem and green leaf.

 

 

Wishing you all a Kesiva Ve’Chasma Tova (a positive inscription and seal for the upcoming year).