Kathleen Siegle

Salted Caramel Apple Cider Blondies

September 26, 2014

Salted caramel and spiced apple cider mingle together in a golden and chewy brown sugar and walnut blondie. Tart apple slices drenched in salted caramel make the perfect topping for this September treat.

I’ts official. I’m a soccer mom. I knew this day was coming, but man I didn’t expect it to come so soon. Oliver has practice every Thursday night and a game every Saturday. My little CRV is doomed for piles of dirt and grass. Oh, how I loathe thee. It always looks like I was transporting livestock back there. Yeesh. If I haven’t cleaned after practices and games (especially after the rain) I sometimes just avoid turning and looking at the back seat. Thank God for rear view cameras. I haven’t fully transitioned into super mini van mom yet, but I’m super jealous of the new models with built in mini vacuums. That right there is genius.

So since Autumn has started I must confess that I have totally neglected apples. I dove right off the cliff into pumpkins. Glorious pumpkins. Like with these Pecan Pie Pumpkin Cupcakes. I’ts apple season and I completely overlooked it. So before we head into October I wanted to bake something with delicious, beautiful, sweet apples. A nutty and spiced blondie bar topped with tart baked apples was the perfect choice. Oh, and don’t forget the salted apple cider caramel drizzle. I call this baby, Salted Caramel Apple Cider Blondies.

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Pecan Pie Pumpkin Cupcakes

September 22, 2014

Luscious moist pumpkin cupcakes stuffed with pecan pie filling and topped with cream cheese frosting. It’s the ultimate triple threat. Let these Pecan Pie Pumpkin Cupcakes kick off the holiday season!

The holidays have officially started at our house. Halloween decorations are up already (Oliver calls it his spooky house), I’m baking with nothing but Fall flavors and listening to Ella Fitzgerald’s Swinging Christmas. Yes, I start Christmas music before Halloween. Call me crazy, but I don’t think I will ever tire of it! The rain has been coming in more lately, and thank God, it’s also bringing cooler weather with it. Cooler weather = dipping a few degrees down in temperature. Hey, I’ll take whatever I can get!

One of my all time favorite desserts during this time of year is definitely crunchy, gooey, nutty pecan pie. Specifically chocolate chip pecan pie. It’s my downfall when I’m watching my muffin top. The muffin top usually ends up turning into a bundt top, but let’s not get into that. Enough about me. Let’s get to these Pecan Pie Pumpkin Cupcakes! I took my favorite pumpkin cupcake recipe and after baking, filled them with an easy pecan pie filling. I just baked the pie without the crust. After all, we just need the good stuff.

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Strawberry Key Lime Cupcakes

September 2, 2014

Strawberry Key Lime Cupcakes filled with key lime pie filling and topped with swirled strawberry and key lime butter cream frosting.

I’m not gonna lie. I think my husband “put a ring on it” because I can bake an amazing key lime pie. I’m not going to say it’s the only reason he married me, but I’m pretty sure it’s in his top five reasons he loves me. It surely is his weakness. He can’t really handle acidic foods like tomatoes, lemons, and oranges, so you could probably say it’s his Kryptonite. I’ve always loved strawberry combined with lime so this cupcake is the perfect marriage of sour and sweet.

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White Chocolate Pineapple Coconut Cookie Bars

August 7, 2014

Chewy White Chocolate Pineapple Coconut Cookie bars topped with crunchy coconut, sliced almonds, and drizzled with melted white chocolate.

I’m still on a pineapple high. From these amazing cupcakes I posted about a couple of days ago. I’m still longing for them as I type. When I sought out to make the Pineapple Dole Whip Cupcakes, I bought A LOT of crushed pineapple. I pretty much cleaned the super market out. I was worried I wouldn’t have enough in case I botched the first round. Oh, but I didn’t. They turned out perfectly delicious. So here I am with leftover cans of crushed pineapple itching to be put into another yummy dessert. I was thinking blondies, (which I still might make with pineapple for another post) but I wanted something chewy and dense. I was also thinking coconut. Coconut needs to be with pineapple. They complete each other. The almonds just weaseled their way in.

The combination was a winner.

They were so delicious I ended up eating some for breakfast. I don’t know if it was the crunchy almonds or coconut, but it tasted perfect with my morning coffee and thus my guilt was gone. The sweet and tart pineapple is baked right into the cookie bar base so you get these bursts of pineapple flavor with each bite. I sprinkled the almonds and coconut on top right before baking. The finished result was a crunchy, golden, buttery top layer.

White Chocolate Pineapple Coconut Cookie Bars

Author: Kathleen Siegle

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Serves: 48 bars

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapple drained.
1 cup white baking chips
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Grease a 13×9 inch baking dish.
Microwave the butter until melted. Set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In your electric mixer on medium speed with a paddle attachment, beat the melted butter and sugar until smooth.
Next beat in the eggs and vanilla.
On low, blend in the flour mixture.
Fold in the crushed pineapple (drained really well) and white chocolate chips.
Pour batter into greased dish and sprinkle coconut flakes and almonds on top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
Cool until set and drizzle melted white chocolate on top.

If you want death by pineapple:

Pineapple Dole Whip Cupcakes

August 4, 2014

Pineapple Dole Whip cupcakes filled with fresh pineapple curd and frosted with tart pineapple frosting. A Disney inspired tropical treat.

Have you ever had the Dole Whip Pineapple soft-serve at Disneyland or Disney World? It’s in my top ten desserts that I eat while I’m at Walt Disney World. It’s one of a kind and it’s absolutely out of this world delicious. It has a cult following it’s so amazing. You can read all about it at Disney Food Blog. They show you exactly where on Disney property you can snag the cool, refreshing pineapple dessert. Check out all their other posts while you’re there. If you’re a Disney fanatic and visit regularly, you need to follow this blog. They document nearly every restaurant and every menu item served at Disney. It’s a blog I visit regularly every week!

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Strawberry Shortcake Bundt With Fresh Lemon Curd

August 3, 2014

Strawberry Shortcake Bundt drizzled with warm fresh lemon curd and topped with tart strawberry buttercream and strawberries.

For ten years I have never had a weekend off from work. My Mondays always started on Wednesday and my Friday was Sunday. Confusing right? I’ve worked in hospitality for as long as I can remember so I was quite used to it. That was my life. Even when the kids came along nothing changed with my schedule. Chris and I both work, so we pretty much tagged each other into the ring. Like a crazy wrestling match. The only time our clan is all together in the same house at the same time (and awake), is for a few hours.

Kind of lame.

Until recently…I snagged a job at Disney World (pretty cool huh?). My new schedule allows me to pick at least one day off during the weekend. So now, for the first time in 10 years I have Sundays off with my family! I’m loving it! I’m beginning to really see how important it is to spend time as a family and just be together. Last Sunday we decided to splurge and head to the local flea market, dramatically called “Flea World”. Extravagant, I know. My husband likes to plunder for used cd’s while I hit the dishes, antiques, and bake ware. That day I snagged some cute baby bundt cake pans. I finally put them to use with this dreamy Strawberry Shortcake Bundt. I had some fresh lemon curd I made earlier in the week and drizzled it all over the finished cakes, and topped them with some strawberry buttercream frosting. I see you drooling 🙂

I just took my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe found here, and added fresh chopped strawberries to the batter. That was it! The lemon curd recipe is super easy and can be found at My Baking Addiction. These are pretty small, so they are the perfect serving size for one person. These would be great at a bridal shower or tea party.

Strawberry Shortcake Bundt With Fresh Lemon Curd

Ingredients

Strawberry Shortcake Bundt
3 cups All-purpose Flour
2-½ teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Butter, softened
2 cups Sugar
4 large eggs, Room Temperature
1 cup milk, Room Temperature
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

Instructions

Strawberry Shortcake Bundt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt)
In your mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time mixing each one well into the batter.
On low speed, mix the flour and milk alternating between each one. Start and end with flour.
Mix in vanilla until just blended.
Fold in strawberries.
Pour into greased mini bundt pan 2/3 full and bake for about 15-20 minutes. Check with a toothpick to see if they’re done.

Here are my favorite strawberry cupcakes:

Strawberry Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting and Basil Sugar

Kathleen Siegle

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