Today I am introducing you to super moist apple cupcakes with caramel frosting and some extra drizzles of caramel. If you are on the lookout for moist cupcakes that are easy to prepare and you love caramel, these are perfect for you! This cupcake is moist and has a very creamy and light frosting as a topping. Perfect for any season.
These cranberry orange muffins are the perfect start of a winter day. They are not overly sweet and have just a little bit of glaze, lots of cranberries and a soft dough in the center. I got so excited when our local produce owner started selling fresh cranberries. They are really hard to come by in Germany. He said he would have them around for a while, so I immediately knew I was going to make these muffins. Since my blueberry muffins are a hit every year, I wanted to create a winter version of this beloved muffin. Of course you are free to make them without the glaze, they taste wonderful just as is.
Spice waffles with mulled wine cherries! I love breakfast. I love eating breakfast, especially on weekends when I can get up early and have enough time at hand to make something special. I really enjoy making these waffles for a breakfast or bunch. Do you like using cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. also in January and February? Here in Germany you can buy already prepared spices mixes for gingerbread and I love buying in bulk shortly before Christmas to have the spices also available in January and February. I love making waffles with this spice mix, especially between Christmas and New Year’s when people are on vacation and are more relaxed.
While you are reading these lines, I will be busy packing my suitcase for Christmas. We are going to visit my parents in law in Spain and I will probably be debating which baking utensils to take along for the trip. I am really looking forward to celebrating Christmas with my Colombian family. Colombian Christmas is very different from German Christmas. There is going to be a lot of dancing, a lot of joy, sparkle and food, so much food. I can’t tell you for how long my mother-in-law has been talking about what she is going to make as a special treat for us and what her ideas are for the Christmas menu. In Colombian culture food is extremely important. I am going to suggest to her that we make Uruguayan flan as the Christmas dessert. Why? Because flan needs to be prepared the night before as it has to be chilled. Perfect in my opinion, one thing less to worry about on Christmas. Flan only requires only a few basic ingredients and is prepared in a jiffy, if this is not enough reason, I don’t know what is.
Moist and delicious pumpkin layer cake with a buttercream that actually contains brown butter and cream cheese, that’s what I am introducing today. Reason for introducing this cake here ist two-fold. Reason #1 has to do with a German blog event I hosted. It had all to do with pumpkin recipes. For that reason I made these delicious pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting and also this vegan pumpkin pasta with only two ingredients.
Baci di dama are heavenly cookies, a touch like a feather. These Italian cookies literally translate as a kiss by a lady. If you look at the profile of these cookies, they look like a set of lips wishing to kiss you. I really like this picturesque name which does tell you a lot what these cookies are going to taste like. Roasted hazelnuts are combined with buttery shortbread, which is sandwiched together by delicious melted chocolate. Baci di dama are perfect as a giveaway, superb for a coffee break and simply to enjoy.
I often take cake to work. My colleagues are some of my regular test eaters. And since I bring cake to work often, I usually can tell if a recipe stands out. That was definitely the case with this apple almond cake. Suddenly I found post-its saying “Thank you to our baking queen” or “Thanks for making my Thursday morning much sweeter.” My conclusion? This apple almond cake is a keeper, it is a keeper because no other cake has received as many post-it notes. It definitely needs to be posted on the blog. If you want apples in your coffee cake, this is the cake to choose. You have some apple in the cake dough, a lot of apple compote on the top with some nicely browned almonds plus one full apple as pretty decoration on the top. I mean, you got APPLE cake for sure with this one.
I can’t believe I had forgotten about this apple pie with cream cheese pie crust! Sometimes you need to be reminded, in this instance it was my mom who actually baked the pie when I came for a visit for me to remember. I had sent her this recipe more than 15 years ago when I was fortunate enough to spent a year in Canada. This is an apple pie prepared with a cream cheese pie crust, so you will not need any egg or water. It basically has the cream cheese as the binder. Ironically, I had totally forgotten about this method of making pie crust, so I was very happy when she actually made this apple pie for my visit the other day.
These German nut triangles are one of my favorite desserts from Germany. I just learned recently that you supposedly only serve them during Christmas season in some regions of Germany. However, I remember seeing them everywhere all year round, every bakery had them at least where we lived. Even the school kiosk offered them all the time and I happily ate them day in and day out.
I honestly can’t imagine Christmas without gingerbread. Every year at the end of November I am faithfully going to make gingerbread of some kind. Be it to decorate the Christmas tree, traditional gingerbread men, or be it gingerbread cut into stars, angels, and stockings. Today I am going to present the cutest mini gingerbread houses you can decorate your mugs with. Prefect for a dinner invitation or as a gift. You can print out the mini houses here.
I do agree that anything made from gingerbread requires a lot of work, but I feel nothing says Christmas more. I really do enjoy starting the season this way. Gingerbread may require a lot of work, but there is one advantage to it, you can take a break after every stage and you can make gingerbread in advance. You can easily store the gingerbread dough for a week in your fridge. Undecorated gingerbread will also keep for weeks if stored in an airtight container, and even fully decoarted gingerbread is safe for consumption. Mind you, I at least happily munch away my Christmas tree decoration every year after Christmas. So I invite you to decorate some gingerbread with some friends. Have them come over, prepare some hot cocoa and just give it a go!
