Celebrating 6 Years Of "Lick The Bowl Good" With A Giveaway! (CLOSED)

Every year my blog anniversary comes and goes and I forget about it. I intend to do something special to celebrate the day (November 3rd) and time escapes me, stuff comes up and then the holidays hit and my blog birthday goes unmentioned again. Well this year, to say "thank you for sticking by me!" I have a giveaway for you. I've been blogging for 6 years and so much good has come out of it. I've connected with some amazing people, made and eaten lots of tasty treats and some not so great ones too. I've learned a lot about baking formulas, food styling and photography and I even wrote my own cookbook, gosh darn it! Such an amazing opportunity and accomplishment that was! Would you like to win a signed copy of Lick The Bowl Good? 

I'll tell you more about the giveaway in a moment, but first let me tell you about this cake, streusel squares to be exact. The recipe comes from Great Cakes by Carole Walter. The Cake Slice Bakers are baking from this new book. This was a good recipe, the cake had a soft tender center, lightly scented with vanilla. The topping was the best part though- those buttery, cinnamon-y crumbs were hard to resist. This would be a great one to share with a crowd or to give as gifts this Christmas. You can even play up the flavorings a bit and use rum, lemon, or almond extracts in the cake. 

Streusel Squares
Recipe from Great Cakes by Carole Walter
via All That's Left Are The Crumbs

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Streusel Topping:

• ⅓ cup (⅔ stick) unsalted butter
• 1¼ cups unsifted all-purpose flour
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cake:

• 2¼ cups unsifted all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 cup superfine sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk 
• 1 large egg white

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350⁰F. Butter a 9 x 13 x 2” pan.

To Make The Streusel Topping: Melt the butter, then cool slightly.

Add the flour, sugar and cinnamon all at once and stir with a fork until the mixture forms small crumbs. Take a handful of the crumbs and make a fist to press the mixture into a large clump, and then separate into smaller clusters, at least two or three times the size of the original crumbs.

Repeat until all of the crumbs have been reshaped, then set aside.

To Make The Cake: Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to soften on low speed. Increase speed to medium-high and cream until smooth and light in color, about 1½ to 2 minutes.

Add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, taking about 6 to 8 minutes to blend it in well, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Add the eggs and additional yolk, 1 at a time at 1-minute intervals, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.Blend in the vanilla.

Reduce mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, dividing the flour mixture into three parts and the milk into two parts, starting and ending with the flour. Mix just until incorporated after each addition, scraping the sides of the bowl and mix for 10 seconds longer.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with the back of a tablespoon.

Beat the egg white lightly with a fork, and using a pastry brush, spread about half of the beaten egg white over the top of the cake batter. Discard the remainder - the egg white helps the streusel adhere to the top of the cake.

Sprinkle the entire surface of the batter generously with the streusel, gently patting the crumbs into the batter with the palm of your hand; do not press hard.

Center the pan on the rack and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown on top, begins to come away from the sides of the pan, and the streusel is crisp. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out dry.

Remove the cake from the oven and set on a cake rack to cool. When ready to serve, dust the top with powdered sugar and cut into squares.

Can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days.

The Giveaway! 

1. A Signed Copy of Lick The Bowl Good

2. Red Striped Paper Straws

3. Kitchen Utensils Magnets

4. Magnetic Note Pad

5. Baker's Twine

6. "For You" Baker's Tags

7. Recipe Cards

8. Sticky Notes for Bookmarking Your Favorite Recipes :-)

Giveaway open to U.S. residents only. You have 4 chances to win. Please leave a separate comment per entry. 

Entry #1 (mandatory entry)- Leave me a comment on this blog post telling me about your favorite holiday traditions.

Entry #2- "Like" Lick The Bowl Good on Facebook

Entry #3- Follow monica_h30 on Instagram

Entry #4- Share this giveaway with your friends and family and help spread the word about Lick The Bowl Good

Please remember, if you enter more than once to leave me separate comments per entry. 

I will select and announce the winner using random.org on Monday, December 30th. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Best of luck and Happy Holidays to you all. Thank you for your generosity and support over the last 6 years. My family and I are thankful for you.

~Monica Holland

Going Bananas!

A couple weeks ago, I had eight black bananas sitting on my counter. The obvious choice would have been to make banana bread, but it's not my favorite thing to eat and if I'm going to consume the calories it better be something I want! When I have a couple ripe bananas to use, I usually make Strawberry Jello Salad that my husband loves so much. But I had 8. EIGHT. That's a lot of black bananas. So I turned to my peeps on Facebook (I finally joined FB- yay!) and my friends came through for me with these two recipes. 

First off, I have to tell you why I had so many dang bananas. My husband likes to eat a bowl of frozen fruit at night and he likes to add a banana to it to break up the cold. Well he was out of cherries so he quit eating the bananas. They started to turn brownish and he didn't want them anymore so he bought fresh green ones. I used up a couple in smoothies, then a couple more in peanut butter banana sandwiches, then the new bananas that he bought started to get speckles on them and he quit eating those too! At this point I was staring at bananas on the counter that got darker by the day and they started to smell. They needed to be used and I'm not a fan of freezing them. 

Chocolate Chip Banana Coffee Cake- Go HERE for the recipe. 

Allie from Eat at Allie's suggested I make muffins but that's not what I was craving at the time. I wanted something a little more indulgent so I called my banana loving friend Ingrid from 3B's. Without hesitation, she recommended a banana coffee cake with a chocolate chip streusel. Funny thing about that recipe, is that I recommended it to her over two years ago! The recipe came full circle and I made it. Danelle from Let's Dish made it too! The house smelled heavenly and it was delicious. A couple mornings later, I made Allie's banana crumb muffins to take to a friend. I saved a few for us to have for breakfast and they were equally good and simple to make. All that to say that, I now have two  new banana recipes and you do too! Enjoy my friends. 

Banana Crumb Muffins adapted from Eat at Allie's

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For The Topping: 

• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

For The Muffins: 

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper muffin cups*.

Make the topping: In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, flour and cinnamon.

Use a fork to cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Place in refrigerator until ready to use. 

Make the muffins: In large bowl, mix the mashed bananas with the sugar, egg, vanilla and melted butter. Stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until just combined. 

Use an ice cream scoop to evenly disperse the batter into prepared muffin cups.

Sprinkle crumb topping over muffins.

Bake in preheated oven for 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

*Makes 12-14 muffins. 

If you have any great recipes to use up ripe bananas, please let me know!

Festive Muffins for Eating and Sharing

I promised you all another eggnog recipe, and here it is! Only this one uses real eggnog and is enhanced with rum extract and nutmeg to heighten the eggnog flavor throughout the muffins. And nothing says its the holidays more than eggnog and cranberries nestled together in a spicy crumb topped  muffin. There's freshly ground nutmeg in the muffin, as well as cinnamon and more nutmeg in the topping. They're warm and spicy, then you get a tart little bite of the bright cranberry. They're moist and tender, then crumbly and crunchy. Delicious and perfect when eaten with an eggnog spiced hot coffee. 

I've made these a couple of times now, tweaking along the way until I was happy with them and now I'm sharing with you...and the neighbors. I made a fresh batch yesterday morning to take to the neighbors on either side of us. They usually bring over my favorite pecan butter balls and tins of still-warm-from-the-oven gingerbread. I love eating homemade baked goods, that I didn't have to labor over, don't you? So whether you choose to make these for yourself on Christmas morning or as gifts, keep in mind that this recipe only makes 9 muffins, which might be a good thing, if you can't seem to put down the cookies and need portion control (like me). 

Cranberry Eggnog Crumb Muffins from Monica h

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For the crumb topping:

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 Tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

For the muffins:

• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup eggnog
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon rum extract
• 1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cranberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Line 9 muffin cups with paper liners.  

To make the crumb topping: In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; stir to combine. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until a coarse, sandy mixture forms. Refrigerate the mixture, while you make the muffin batter. 

To make the muffins: In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, melted butter, egg, eggnog, vanilla and rum extract. Stir until well combined.  

Add flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg to the wet ingredients and stir just until incorporated.  The batter may appear thick and dry, once you add the cranberries, it will loosen up a bit. Fold the chopped cranberries into the batter, but do not overmix. 

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin liners, filling them about two thirds of the way full.

Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly on top of the muffin batter.

  

Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or a until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  

Makes 9 muffins. 

I have one more festive recipe for you, so I'll be back in a couple days. Happy Wednesday! 

No More Holding Out

I have a confession to make. I made this delicious cake back in December and I've been keeping it from you. Forgive me for withholding this sugary goodness. My friend, Ingrid from 3B's blog, made this umpteen years ago and I had been waiting for the perfect occasion to make it. I contemplated halving the recipe and making it in a smaller Bundt pan just so I could try it, but I held out, baked it in the biggest Bundt pan I had and shared it with my family. 

This recipe comes from the brilliant mind of Julia from Dozen Flours. It's a recipe I've seen all over the internet but it was Ingrid's love of snickerdoodles that convinced me to make it. This cake is downright delicious. What makes it similar to a snickerdoodle cookie? Well the pan is buttered then, coated in cinnamon sugar. When you turn the cake out of the pan, you're left with a thick sweet and spicy crunchy crust. There's also a ripple of cinnamon sugar that runs throughout the center on the cake. In my opinion the cake doesn't need the extra sweetness  because the cake was so moist, tender and flavorful all on it's own. 

Aaron showing off the beauty of a cinnamon sugared pan :-)

I'm not sure why I didn't take many pictures of the inside of the cake. Maybe because I was enamored with the sparkly exterior and just plain forgot about it. I don't know how else to convince you of how good this cake was. If you have a cinnamon sugar lover in the family, this cake is sure to please. I think the only thing that I would do differently next time is to use the streusel filling from this cinnamon swirl buttermilk cake. instead of the one below. Yes, that would make it near perfect. Enjoy with a glass of icy milk or creamy coffee for the full effect. 

Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake from Dozen Flours via 3B's 

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• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup white sugar

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup full-fat sour cream, at room temperature

In a small bowl, combine 1 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Mix together really well and set aside. 

Preheat oven to 325F. Generously spray a 9 inch Bundt pan with a nonstick baking spray with flour, being careful to cover all the nooks and crannies, as well as the center tube.  If you don't want to use baking spray with flour, you can just grease the pan with shortening. Gently dust the entire inside of the pan with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. You should only need about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar, but you want to try and evenly coat the inside surface of the pan, including the tube. Save the remaining sugar and cinnamon mixture and set everything aside. 

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Beat just the butter on medium speed for one full minute. Add the white sugar and mix for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and blade and add the brown sugar.

Mix for 2 minutes until the mixture looks light brown and uniform in color. Add the eggs one at a time, beating each for 1 full minute. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream; beat well. 

Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of the cinnamon sugar mixture over top the cake. Spread the rest of the batter into the pan and sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture over the top. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Look at that crust!

Simplicity At It's Best

I did not intend to blog about this coffee cake. I was wanting to make Belgian waffles from my Williams-Sonoma Breakfast cookbook and noticed this recipe. The original version included dried cranberries and chocolate chips. In typical fashion, I wanted to use fresh cranberries and leave out the chocolate while Mr. H only wanted chocolate and no cranberries. We both compromised and left it plain, and I'm so glad we did. This coffee cake was perfectly delicious without any additions.

We may have left the coffee cake plain, but it was anything but. It's simple in that it doesn't call for any special ingredients to gussy it up- no nuts, no oats in the streusel, no brown sugar, not even vanilla extract (though I added that anyway, because old habits die hard). It does include sour cream, but other than that, it's just butter, sugar, flour, eggs and leaveners. One unique thing about this recipe is that it has you combine the sour cream with the baking soda prior to adding it to the batter, which makes it really light and airy. I've never seen or heard of that technique before, but it worked brilliantly.

The end result was a cake, so light and spongy, but buttery and rich at the same time. There's nothing dense or heavy about this breakfast cake and it'll keep you wanting more. I took a bite when it was still piping hot from the oven and couldn't stop picking at it. Before I knew it, I had eaten a quarter of the cake myself- it was just that good! Don't feel compelled to add anything to it, just try it as it is and enjoy it, in all it's simple glory. As I mentioned above, I didn't intend to blog about this recipe so there aren't any photos of the baking process, but it was just too good not to share. If you try it, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake adapted from Breakfast

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For The Streusel:

• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

For The Cake:

• 1 1/4 cups sour cream
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with butter.

For the Streusel Topping: In a chilled bowl, combine the butter, sugar and flour. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut the butter into dry ingredients until the mixture is the consistency of fine, moist crumbs. Work the mixture with your hands until it will hold together when compressed, then squeeze it between your hands into several firm pieces. Cover and refrigerate until the cake is ready to go into the oven. (I did this the night before and had it ready to go the following morning).

For the Cake: Place the sour cream in a bowl and sift the baking soda and salt into it. Stir to blend evenly and set aside. As the sour cream mixture sits, it will get airy and fluffy.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed or a wooden spoon, beat together the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Sift the flour and baking powder over the top and mix in, then beat in the sour cream mixture. Scoop the batter into the prepared dish and smooth the surface. Scatter the streusel mixture evenly over the top, breaking it up into large crouton-sized pieces (some of the streusel mixture may be small crumbs).

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center on the cake comes out clean but not completely dry, 40-45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into squares.

And for those of you who are hooked on Hayden, here are a couple pics of my bright-eyed little man. For Christmas, he wore this penguin sweater, but we didn't get any pictures of him wearing it. So last week before I took the Christmas tree down, I got him dressed up and snapped a few pictures. I put him on the ottoman and slid it in front of the tree. That's his handprint in the background. I couldn't find a "baby's 1st Christmas" ornament that I liked so we just made one with stuff I had around the house- a glass ornament, glue and glitter.

This one is my absolute favorites and will find it's way into a frame, I'm sure. I might be a little biased but I think he's just so beautiful and perfect. Y'all, I'm in love!

Have a great rest of the week!

Apple Or Cherry Pie? How 'Bout Both!

This is one easy peasy dessert. It literally comes together in minutes and bakes up in about half an hour. Pie in half an hour-that's awesome!

This recipe comes from a Pampered Chef cookbook titled, All The Best. My friend Maranda is now a Pampered Chef consultant and I snagged this recipe from her while at one of her cooking shows. It really is simple to throw together since all you basically do is layer ingredients then toss it in the oven. The hardest part is peeling and slicing apples but that really isn't difficult.

I liked this tart because it combines apple pie that my husband likes and cherry pie that I like. The two fruits come together and are topped with cinnamony crumbs- it's like three desserts in one! It really would have been great served with ice cream but I didn't have any. The only down side to this dessert is that the crust got soggy on the second day. So if you make it (and I highly recommend that you do) make sure you have enough mouths to feed and eat it while it's fresh!

Cherry Apple Crumb Tart adapted from Pampered Chef

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• 1 refrigerated pie crust
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 large Granny Smith apples
• 3/4 cup canned cherry pie filling (about 1/2 of a 21 oz. can)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Let pie crust stand at room temperature 15 minutes.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Add butter and blend thoroughly using a pastry blender or two forks. Mixture will come together and form crumbs when squeezed in your hand. Set aside.

Roll out pie crust into a 13-inch circle and place on a baking stone or a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Peel, core and cut apples into thin slices. Layer apples evenly over crust leaving a 1-inch border of crust.

Spread 3/4 cup cherry pie filling over the apples. Sprinkle flour mixture over apples and pie filling. Fold the outer edge of the pie crust up over the fruit to form a rim.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool slightly. Serve warm.

I have a couple more Thanksgiving dessert recipes to share with you and I'm on a mission to get them blogged before Turkey day, so I'll see you back here in a few!

Pumpkin, Cream Cheese and San Francisco

Here are the muffins I promised you a few days ago. I tried to get them up by Friday but it's hard blogging with a squirmy baby in your arms and typing with one hand while trying to balance a laptop on the armrest of the recliner. :-) But as they say, "better late than never" right? These muffins were fantastic so I'm glad to be sharing them with you today. Before I go any further, here's a picture of Hayden. After all, I know that's why you're really all here and I'd hate to make you scroll all the way down to the end of this post to see him. ha!

Last November I went to The Foodbuzz Fest in San Francisco. It was so much fun and it's coming up again next weekend. Unfortunately and fortunately I can't go this year because I'm a new mom and my baby needs me. Oh, what a great excuse to have! Once the fest was over, Mr. H joined me in SF for a couple days of rest and relaxation. While shopping around Union Square and the surrounding area we spotted a cupcakery by the name of Cako (pronounced Cake-O) and had to go in. Mr. H got a chocolate cupcake with coffee buttercream and I got their seasonal cupcake- pumpkin cream cheese with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting. That was truly one of the best cupcakes I've ever had.

I was hoping to be able to attend Foodbuzz 2011, just so I could go back to this bakery (amongst other destinations). I know that sounds ridiculous but it's true. It was a memorable cupcake. A couple weeks ago when I was dreaming about these cupcakes, I got online to browse some of my favorite blogs and found that Cassie of Cassie Craves had just posted Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins with a cinnamony streusel topping. Hello, come to momma! I then remembered that I bookmarked this exact recipe last year and never got around to making them. I was not going to let another year go by without making them.

I made these muffins right away and took them to my doctors office at my 6 week checkup. I gave away 22 muffins and kept 2 for Mr. H and myself. He didn't want his so I gladly ate it. I only wish that I kept more of them because they were delicious. They aren't quite as rich and sinful as the Cako cupcake I had in San Francisco last Fall, but they were moist, tender, full of spice and had a substantial amount of cream cheese baked right into the center of them. The topping was slightly crunchy and loaded with cinnamon. There are some great textures going on in this muffin and since they're called muffins and not cupcakes you can eat them for breakfast and not feel the least bit guilty. For those of you heading to San Francisco next week I hope you'll head to Cako and eat a cupcake for me. For all you others, make these muffins!

If you're looking to make a loaf instead, this Cream Cheese Rippled Pumpkin Bread is my favorite!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins adapted from Cassie Craves and Annie’s Eats

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For The Filling:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For The Muffins:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1- 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

For The Topping:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

For The Filling: Combine the cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth.

Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hours. (I made this a couple days in advance and left it in the fridge til I was ready for it.)

For The Muffins: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two muffin pans with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend.

In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

For The Topping: Combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.

Assembly: Fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons).

Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well.

Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.

Makes 24-26 muffins

If you're looking for Halloween recipes, give one of these a try:

• Spiderweb Brownies
• Black Cat Cookies
• Monster Cookies
• Halloween Cupcakes
• "Candy Corn" Rice Krispie Treats
• Dirt and Worm Cups
• Turkey Pesto Meatball "Eyeballs"
• Mummy Mix
• Sticky Salted Caramel Corn

Happy Halloween!

Sweet and Tart

Last Sunday, my in-laws celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary. That's just amazing to me! We invited them over for dinner, dessert and Christmas tree decorating. Dinner was roast chicken, mashed potatoes and glazed carrots and dessert was this delicious cranberry cake from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman. This cake was also baked by all the other Cake Slice Bakers and judging by their comments, it's an all around winner. Pretty darn perfect for the holidays too.

I decided to make this cake for their anniversary, because it was far less fussy than the one I made last year and because it's loaded with cranberries (an entire bag), which I know my MIL loves. That night, we carefully placed hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of ornaments on the tree, placed the embroidered tree skirt around the base then sat down to have a nice slice of cake. Afterwards, Mr. H and I presented them with a photo of themselves, framed in aubergine velvet and a silver border. A friend of mine took this photo of them and I think it's just beautiful (thanks Lori!) It's also special because they don't have any formal photos of themselves, and now they do.

Back to the cake, I did have a minor issue, but nothing that would keep me from making it again. The recipe says to bake it for 60-70 minutes at 300 degrees F, but after an hour and 30 minutes it still wasn't done. So I upped the temp to 325 F and baked it for an additional 15 minutes and it was finally done. Of course, it delayed my dinner plans, but it was well worth it. Just keep this in mind if you decide to make it. This cake stayed moist and tender for days- the cranberries were tart and the almond streusel was sweet and crunchy. Light enough to eat for breakfast and sinful enough to have for dessert.

Cranberry Almond Cake from Cake Keeper Cakes

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For the streusel:

• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar, packed

For the cake:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 bag (12 oz.) fresh cranberries

Make the streusel: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Grease a 10-inch round springform pan.

Combine the almonds, butter and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Work the mixture between your fingers to form large crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Make the cake: Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Combine the eggs and granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on a medium high speed until the mixture is lightened and increased in volume, about 5 minutes.

With the mixture on low, add the butter in a slow stream. Turn the mixture to medium speed and beat for another 2 minutes. Stir in the vanilla.

Gently but thoroughly fold in the flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time. Stir in the cranberries.

Scrape the batter into a prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Sprinkle the streusel over the batter. Bake the cake until it is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes (mine took over 1 hour and 30 minutes).

Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Release the sides of the pan and use a large spatula to slide the cake from the pan bottom to a wire rack. Cool completely, cut into wedges and serve.

Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 5 days.

To see more cakes, head on over to The Cake Slice Bakers!