All posts filed under: Sweets

Monster Cupcakes

Published by Margo Leigh

It’s spooky season! Halloween is right around the corner and while trick-or-treating may look a little different this year, the spirit certainly does not. These monster cupcakes are the perfect treat for the holiday. They may not be very spooky, but they are very adorable. Making these little monster cupcakes was really fun. Also, they are very easy to make and easy to get creative with! All you need is a few cupcakes, frosting, edible googly eyes, and some piping tips. Now, this can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be. I made the cupcakes and frosting from scratch, but they easily could have been made out of a box. For this recipe, I turned to Sally’s Baking Addiction and her yellow cake recipe. It is super fluffy and light. For the buttercream frosting, I used the recipe from Chelsweets. Her buttercream is great for making decorative cakes. Once the cupcakes cooled to room temperature, it was time to create the monsters. I stacked two cupcakes on top of each …

Cinnamon Pear Loaf Cake

Published by Margo Leigh

We all know apple cake is good but what about pear cake? Pears tend to get lost in the shuffle in the fall baking season. I am here to change that with this cinnamon pear loaf cake! Now, I’ll be honest. This loaf cake was originally made with apples and it was great. However, I’ve made countless apple cakes throughout the years and had some pears laying around the house and thought that they would taste great in this batter. Turns out I was right. The pears seamlessly replace the apples and add such a juicy flavor to the cake. Remind me again why we don’t use pears more often? Now, this cake is LOADED with pears. If you are a big pear fan, then I would suggest adding in 3 chopped pears as I did. If you like pears but want more of a fluffy cinnamon cake, stick with adding in just 2 pears. The cake will still have a strong pear flavor, they just won’t be the dominating factor in the cake. Let’s …

Apple Cider Donuts

Published by Margo Leigh

Apples are finally back in season and you know what that means! Fresh apple cider. Do you know what is even better about fresh apple cider? Fresh apple cider donuts. Now the best apple cider donuts are the ones that are piping hot out of the fryer and doused in cinnamon and sugar. Now, those situations are usually best created while picking apples. So, while that may not be easy to recreate at home, these baked apple cider donuts might just be the next best thing. These baked apple cider donuts are made with fresh apple cider. Now, to get the maximum flavor out of the apple cider, I use an apple cider reduction. This creates an intense apple flavor and brings out all the best notes from the cider. To make the apple cider reduction, all you have to do is boil the cider and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes. It should reduce significantly in size and have a darker color when done. The rest of the recipe is pretty typical and …

Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake

Published by Margo Leigh

It truly wouldn’t be fall baking season without some pumpkin, right? This year I am going full force into fall flavors. We’re taking apple pie cookies, cider doughnuts, and this pumpkin spice coffee cake!! I love a good coffee cake. It’s a great dessert and a true crowd-pleaser. Most importantly, you can eat it at any time of the day. It goes great as a breakfast dessert (is that a thing?) and even better after dinner with a hot drink. Regardless, coffee cake is always a good idea. Especially this pumpkin spice coffee cake. So, let’s talk about the cake. For the base, I adapted Sally’s Baking Addiction sour cream coffee cake recipe. The cake is super moist and light. In order to make it seasonal, I added in some fall spices to the batter. However, it didn’t stop with the spices. Next, I took some classic canned pumpkin and mixed it in with about 1/4 of the batter. This gave some of the batter a good pumpkin layer and added in more fall flavors. …

Apple Pie Cookies

Published by Margo Leigh

Fall baking season is in full swing. While I am sad to see stone fruit season coming to an end, I am fully embracing all of the apples and pumpkins! Speaking of apples, let’s talk about these APPLE PIE COOKIES! Yes, you read that right. These cookies are truly the best of both worlds. I’ve been on quite a giant cookie spree in the last few months. After perfecting the classic giant chocolate chip cookie, I used the same dough base to make peach cobbler cookies. They were the ultimate seasonal summer treat. The great thing about that recipe is it is pretty interchangeable with the filling. Enter these apple pie cookies! The recipe for the cookies is basically the same. Just like the peach cobbler cookies, the crumb topping is folded into the cookie dough. The filling is the only thing that changes. Don’t worry, they are still crazy delicious. For the filling, I used Gala apples. Gala is not normally my go-to when baking with apples. I typically use Granny Smith, but I …

Baked Cake Donuts

Published by Margo Leigh

Donuts have to be in the top 10 when it comes to desserts. Doesn’t matter what the flavor is, they are always delicious. I’ve had a love/hate relationship when it comes to baking donuts. For the past two years, I’ve attempted to make sufganiyot, also known as fried jelly donuts, during Hanukkah. Let’s just say they never come out as planned. They never rise fully, always fry up weirdly, and are super dense. Because of this, I was super skeptical about making donuts. They’ve just never worked out for me. Luckily, that is all about to change thanks to these baked cake donuts. I know, I know they aren’t technically the same as a fried donut so it doesn’t count. However, these cake donuts are just as good and pretty simple to make. These baked cake donuts are the perfect base for pretty much any flavor and topping. I went with some sprinkles for the first time around but cannot wait to try out some different flavor combos. Just like the donuts, the glaze was …

Apple Cinnamon Babka

Published by Margo Leigh

Babka is always a good idea, especially when it is filled with cinnamon and apples. Whenever I make babka, I am always thinking of the different flavor combinations. S’mores, chocolate peanut butter, or even something savory. That’s when I got the idea for apple cinnamon babka. Rosh Hashanah seemed like the perfect occasion to try out this idea. Apples are always severed for the holiday with honey for a sweet new year. While this babka doesn’t have any honey, it is certainly VERY sweet. I made the cinnamon apple babka using my classic babka recipe. The dough is a standard yeasted dough and pretty simple to make. The hardest part is being patient while it is rising for a few hours. Let’s talk about the apples. I chose to use Granny Smith because they have a good balance of sweet and tart. They also bake very well and hold up great in desserts. In order to make sure the apple flavor was spread throughout the babka, I chopped them into very fine pieces and spread …

Cast Iron Skillet Fig Cake

Published by Margo Leigh

Let’s talk about fig season! One of the only silver linings of the weather cooling down is fig season! When I saw those fresh containers of figs lining the shelves of Whole Foods I was instantly excited. I was a little disappointed that it meant summer was winding down, but all the possibilities of different recipes with figs brought my mood back up! Figs are great because they are SO versatile. They can be sweet, savory, eaten raw, or cooked. You pretty much can’t go wrong with figs. The only downside to fresh figs is that they have a pretty short shelf life. Because of this, you’ve got to use them fast! Since I did not expect to see them in the store, they were definitely an impulse buy. I didn’t really think it through as to what I would put them in. All I knew is that I wanted to bake them into something. With some quick thinking and a quick scroll on Instagram for some inspiration, an idea was quickly reached. I decided …

S’mores Babka

Published by Margo Leigh

First things first, nothing is wrong with classic babka, especially chocolate babka. However, every time I am eating chocolate babka I am brainstorming other possible flavor combinations. Finally this summer, I went ahead with the s’mores babka that has been brewing in my mind. I normally stick to the classics when making babka. Since it is a little bit of a process it always seems easier to keep it simple. Chocolate and cinnamon are also pretty crowd-pleasing, so they seem to be the go-to flavor.

Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

Published by Margo Leigh

Toffee chocolate chip cookies are a classic, yet underrated combination. The two ingredients are never my go-to combo, but whenever I have them together my first thought is that I should have this more often. I’ve been on a roll making some pretty giant cookies. I’ve kept it classic with some plain chocolate chip but also experimented with some seasonal flavors. The cookie dough is pretty standard and can be used as a vehicle for pretty much any topping. The recipe for these toffee chocolate chip cookies is pretty simple. The one thing that I love about this recipe is that it makes GIANT cookies. Like they are huge, I mean just look at this one. I’ve attempted to make normal-sized cookies with this dough and unfortunately, it just doesn’t turn out great. They were stiff and didn’t sit well after they came out of the oven. This recipe is truly meant for giant cookies, and giant cookies only. Once these cookies were hot out of the oven, I knew the flavor choice was a …