Brown butter caramel apple plum cakes

This would've been a post on baked caramel apple doughnuts if not for them active dried yeast dying out on me ^^||

I'd melted my butter and beaten 3 eggs to discover that the yeast was a goner.. I was devastated! Guess no use crying over spilled milk. On to plan b (???!!)!.. something yummy and super-easy, to ease my pain (?) ^^. 

Brown butter caramel apple plum cakes (inspired by lynna's apple donuts and blueberry muffins ^^)

180g unsalted butter
3-4 medium apples, grated
3 small plums, diced (think this could work with strawberries/raspberries/grapes too ^^)
3 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp honey
180g self-raising flour, sifted
1-2 small pinches of salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon powder
150g sugar (75g caster sugar + 75g brown sugar)
caramel sauce, for drizzling (make more ^^ just keep them in the fridge)

1. Melt butter over MEDIUM heat. Pay attention as the butter's boiling and crackling ~ and continue cooking until it turns clear and golden, and the milk solids have dropped to the bottom of pan. Once you see brown bits at the bottom of pan, immediately remove from heat. Leave to cool. Strain through a fine metal sieve or cheesecloth-lined strainer.

2. Grate apples and squeeze out the juices with your hands. Set aside grated apples. Dice plums and set aside.

3. Preheat oven to 180C.

4. In a bowl, beat eggs till pale and foamy (but no need till light and fluffy). Mix in honey till combined.

5. In another bowl mix sifted flour, salt, cinnamon powder and sugars together. Make a well and fold in egg mixture and brown butter till combined. Then add the grated apples and diced plums till well incorporated. Do not over beat.

6. Pour into 12-muffin/cupcake tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.

7. Drizzle with caramel sauce and serve warm ^^

A-ha! Sounds familiar? That's because this is (almost-)exactly the same recipe I made recently, brown butter apple caramel cake! Not very original, eh? Sorry, didn't have much choice ^^||! It was an emergency! And all I could think of was this recipe ^^. So I just tripled the ingredients, added diced plums ('cos I didn't have enough apples ^^|| and plums were all I had ^^) and omitted the egg separation method! And voila! easy, yummy cakes to chase away the blues! ^^

Well, the addition of plums in the cakes was really nice.. it added a nice texture and tang to an already yummy cake ^^. And the cakes turned out really soft and moist despite not using the egg separation method ^^. I really, really like this easier, one-bowl-mix way! (^^)

And the kitchen smells soooo soooo wonderful ~  a whiff of heaven, perhaps? (^^)

p.s cake's pretty good on it own too.. drop the caramel if you like, for a lighter and healthier version ^^