Salted Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

How was your weekend?

Ours was really nice. Saturday we visited our friends and their brand new baby boy. I forgot what it felt like to hold a baby who weighs practically nothing and it was glorious. We both fell asleep pretty early on Saturday night, but were up early Sunday morning for music class and my brother-in-law's birthday celebration. Sunday ended later than I wanted, as always. I made these bars for Steve's birthday party. It felt really good to get creative and baking in the kitchen again. 

I always love apple desserts. Is it me, or is there just no better smell than apples mingling with cinnamon and sugar? I need to bottle that and carry it around with me. Our whole apartment smelled unbelievable on Saturday evening. While Shaun watched college football, and Penelope snoozed, I worked on finishing these bars with a glass of wine in hand. It felt like old times. Windows cracked with a cool breeze, candles burning, decadent smells permeating the house and everyone feeling sleepy on a Saturday night. It's one of my favorite feelings...all of us home, cozy and taken care of.

I used a bunch of recipes that finally led to my inspiration for these bars. I love bars so much. They are perfect for sampling and snacks, and really perfect for taking to a birthday celebration. They require no cutting once at the party. Instead, they can just be grabbed and eaten, with sticky fingers and cake crumbles tumbling down. I added kosher salt to the tops of these. It melted right into the caramel topping, but make no mistake, the saltiness was the perfect balance to these super sweet bars.

As for the caramel topping? Though you can use caramel from a jar, I really recommend this topping. The key here is that it sets, so you don't have to worry about the caramel running once you cut into them. It's an easy topping and I really think it's worth it. I could just eat it all with a spoon.

Salted Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

For the crust:

1 box yellow cake mix, minus 1 cup

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 egg

For the apple cheesecake filling:

2 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

1/2 C + 1 Tbsp granulated sugar, divided

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 baking apples, peeled, cored & chopped

1 tsp cinnamon

For the salted caramel topping:

1/2 C butter

1/2 C brown sugar

3 Tbsp evaporated milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 C confectioners sugar

1/4 tsp coarse salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13" pan and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, mix together the cake mix (removing 1 C of the plain cake mix; set it aside, pack it away. we won't be needing that 1 C here), oil and egg with a wooden spoon. Once incorporated, press into the bottom of the pan. 

Peel, core and chop up the apples. I used Granny Smith. In a bowl, mix them with 1 Tbsp sugar and the cinnamon. Set aside.

In another mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese, 1/2 C sugar, vanilla and eggs with a hand mixer until combined and smooth, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Fold in the apple mixture.

Pour apple cream cheese mixture over the crust. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. Mine had a few crumbs on it and I took it out to continue cooking in the hot pan while it cooled.

Once cool, make the caramel.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add brown sugar and evaporated milk and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla and confectioners sugar until smooth. Pour over the tray of bars and let set. Sprinkle immediately with salt.

Once cool and before cutting them, refrigerate the tray for 30 min to 1 hour, or overnight. Use a sharp knife and cut carefully. Since the bars are now cold, they should cut nicely and cleanly. 

Sprinkle extra salt before serving if needed.

I hope you like these bars. I had a lot of fun creating and baking them! I think they were a hit at the party. Too bad I'm starting back hardcore on Dukan today, or I'd be having one of these babies tonight. Instead, I'll live vicariously through my weekend self, when I devoured many!

How was your weekend? 

What is your favorite apple dessert?

Also: chocolate caramel apple bars, apple upside down cake, apple cupcakes + cinnamon frosting, apple cranberry strudel, caramel apple cider shake

Holiday Baking List

One of my favorite parts of Christmastime is all of the baked goodies.

I love baking up a storm, trying new recipes, breaking out our classic family ones, and of course, devouring the treats throughout the holiday season.

Midway through 7-layer cookie baking, 2010

It seems as though everywhere I look, there are more and more amazing holiday recipes. If you follow me on Pinterest, you may have even seen lots of baking ideas I've been pinning over the last few days.

Every year, I do a baking day with my mom. Last year, we made dozens upon dozens of cookies...I think 11 different varieties in 1 day.

This year, I have so many things I want to make that I might even start testing things out this weekend and distributing goodies to my office mates, building concierge and neighbors over the next couple of weeks.

Here's what I've got on my list this season:

Raspberry Thumbprints

Cherry Chocolate Kisses

Cocoa Thumbprints

Eggnog Snickerdoodles

Butter Cookie Cutouts

Italian Rainbow Cookies

Chocolate Crinkles

Other recipes from around the web that I would love to have time for!

Candy Cane Kiss Cookies via Recipe Girl

Christmas Candy Cheesecake via Sprinkle Bakes

Eggnog Crumble Crunch Cake via How Sweet It Is

Red Velvet Marshmallow Thumbprints via How Sweet It Is

Hot Chocolate Cookies via Baking Serendipity

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cookies via The Comfort of Cooking

Soft Gingersnaps with White Chocolate Frosting via Two Peas and Their Pod

Sooo...at almost 8 months pregnant, I'll totally have time for all of the above...right?

I'll be sure to keep you posted along the way :)

Now it's your turn...

What's on your baking list this holiday season?

What other amazing recipes have I been missing out on?

Share some link-ups in the comments!

Birthday Cake Part I: Fluffy Yellow Cake + Milk Chocolate Frosting

Thanks for all of your comments in the SlimKicker giveaway! In case you missed it, head over to yesterday's post to enter to win a slow cooker from SlimKicker! SlimKicker turns your diet/fitness goals into a level-up game.  When you join, you get points as you count calories, track your fitness, and participate in challenges. You have until tomorrow at noon to enter the giveaway!

As I mentioned, this weekend was a big birthday weekend in our families! Both my mom and Shaun's mom's birthdays fall within a week of each other. In fact, March is a big birthday month on both sides of our families all around.

But this past weekend, we celebrated Shaun's Mom's birthday on Friday evening. We had offered to bring dessert and so I got to work on finding a cake to bake in celebration. I wasn't 100% sure of what her favorite combination would be and so I decided to keep it very simple. I decided on a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

If you're a long time reader, you may recall this post of yore in which I broke Kimberly's birthday cake in half while getting it out of the pan. I had to remake the cake. I had used a Betty Crocker recipe for that one and even despite the cake breaking...well, I just didn't love the cake itself.

It looked pretty though after I remade it though, no?

So for this one, I went in search of a new recipe. I dug out my America's Test Kitchen Cookbook and found a recipe for Fluffy Yellow Layer Cake and Milk Chocolate Frosting. I have really been loving this cookbook. Though many of the recipes I've tried require a lot of extra steps, unlike a simple Betty Crocker, I have found that this book just has not steered me wrong. Every recipe thus far has been a winner! This one included.

I frosted up the cake with loads of milk chocolate frosting and Shaun dusted the entire top with sprinkles. Sprinkles makes everthing better, don't they?

Following a delicious Italian dinner, we headed back to Shaun's parents' house and it was time for dessert!

And time for the moment of truth for me! I was so hoping that this cake turned out fabulously.

It did!

Luckily, this was one of the best cakes I've ever made. It was so good and I can't wait to make it again!

I didn't post the recipe because I literally took it straight from the book with very minor adaptations. If you are interested in making this, I can add the recipe! Let me know! I should also note that I worked very hard to frost this cake and did an average job at best. I'm just not a cake decorator! But if you have any cake frosting advice, lay it on me!

Questions of the Day:

Have you ever been in charge of dessert for a birthday?

What did you make? Or bring (even if you didn't make it yourself)?

We also picked up a couple of pints of Ben & Jerry's since we know Shaun's mom loves ice cream! It was an extra fun treat!

For some more America's Test Kitchen recipes, you may also see:

Loaded butterscotch blondies with salted chocolate glaze (I heavily adapted this one!)

Skillet roasted chicken + potato wedges

Pineapple coconut dream bars (also very heavily adapted, but a great base cake!)