Caramel Cashew Bars {Baking with My Baking Addiction}

Hello! I’m Jamie from My Baking Addiction, filling in today for the lovely and talented Amanda. I’ve forever been a lover of all things I Am Baker, so I couldn’t resist Amanda’s invitation to guest post. From a brand new cookbook deal to a charming site redesign – Amanda’s on top of her game and I couldn’t be more honored to fill in for her today!

In case ya haven’t figured it out by now, Amanda makes cakes. And not just any cakes – gorgeous, creative, delicious cakes that leave people in awe of her talent. Yup – I’m kinda obsessed with her creations! With that being said, there was no way that I was making a cake to share with you. If you can believe it, that thought actually crossed my mind until I got a grip on reality! Instead, I’m sharing a recipe for Caramel-Cashew Bars.

I’m kind of a sucker for those holiday baking displays in the middle of the grocery store. Come on, I can’t be the only one sucked in by the canned pumpkin pyramids! On my most recent trip, I ended up with 3 bags of cashews, 2 bags of mini marshmallows, and too many cans of pumpkin to count. Some may call it a bit of an obsession, I like to refer to it as preparedness – ya know, stocking up for Winter – kinda like a squirrel, except this nut is obsessed with cans of pumpkins!

With all these sweet holiday confections overflowing my pantry, I knew I had to find a recipe to put everything to good use. These Caramel-Cashew Bars start with a buttery foundation of crushed shortbread cookies, then topped with a sprinkling of miniature marshmallows and a layer of sweet, gooey caramel.

I’m pretty sure these guys will be a superstar on any holiday dessert table you decide to offer them up on. Different enough to be memorable among the pumpkin pies and Christmas log cakes, but familiar enough to be comforting and perfect with a generous cup of hot cocoa. I hope you love them as much as I love Amanda for letting me hang out here today.

Caramel-Cashew Bars

Ingredients

3 cups finely crushed shortbread cookies (I used 32 Keebler Sandies Simply Shortbread Cookies)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
36 caramels, unwrapped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups chopped salted cashews
2 cups miniature marshmallows

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 13x9x2 inch baking pan with foil – be sure to extend the foil a little over the edges. Spray foil with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine cookie crumbs, butter, and sugar. Press the cookie mixture firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan creating an even layer of crust. Bake crust in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until it starts to lightly brown around the edges. Remove pan to cooling rack.
3. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt caramels and cream until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and cashews. Sprinkle the marshmallows evenly over prepared crust. Spread the caramel-cashew mixture over the marshmallows as evenly as possible.
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the caramel is set. Remove to wire rack and cool completely.
5. Once bars are cool, use the foil overhang to remove the bars from the pan and cut into squares.

Notes

-Bars can be stored arranged in a single layer in an airtight container for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
-Recipe slightly adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

About Jamie

Jamie Lothridge is hopelessly addicted to sugar, sprinkles, and Top Chef. She started her blog as a way to justify having copious amounts of each in her life.

When she’s not in front of her stand mixer, or behind her camera, she can be found teaching middle school, hanging with her fiance, or watching the Food Network.

You can follow Jamie on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for her recipes, random thoughts and latest addictions.

· 44 Comments

Creepy Millipede Cake

I get asked a lot of questions about cakes. One of the most common questions I get is, “What can you do with a 9×13 cake?  I don’t want to bake a layer cake.”

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I happen to really, really like layer cakes.  Might even have a small obsession with them.  Like making them twenty five layers and rainbow inside obsession.

But every now and then its nice to just make a cake like mom made.

Well, minus the creepy millipedes.

You know what I mean.

So I found this picture of a giant millipede.

photo from here

That sucker is like a foot long.  I do not like looking at pictures of creepy crawly things but I do like you so I sucked it up and moved forward.

This cake is a marriage between wanting to make something fun out of a regular old 9×13 cake and wanting to do something seasonal. (Halloween)

Hence the creepy crawly millipede cake.

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After icing the cake with white frosting, I just added some black food coloring to the remaining frosting.  I always use *Americolor Gel Food Coloring when I need to achieve deep, rich color.

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Since I am more familiar with the tiny millipedes in real life, I knew I wanted to add some to this cake.  They are what really got me… since those little rollie pollie ones look EXACTLY like the real thing.

Pretty much my skin has been crawling for a week now.

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So there you have it.  I see a Cake Challenge post in the futuree.  Maybe even a candy post.  Maybe I will just snuggle up next to this cake in bed because its so beautiful.

But that might be weird.

I do know one thing, and that is that I have a few more Halloween cakes to share!

Hope you like Halloween as much as me!

*Link is through Amazon Affiliate.

 

· 63 Comments

Chocolate Spider Web {Cake in a Jar}

Spiders in jars.  Spider webs made from chocolate.  Black and orange everywhere.  It must be ‘that’ time of year!!

(I also made spiders and webs in 2009 on petite fours!)

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Its Halloween!  Well.  In like a month and a half it is.

But its definitely fall… and I adore fall.

What I don’t adore about fall is every spider known to man trying to make its way into my house so it will not perish in the bitter winters of Minnesota.  We have some big spiders around here.

I digress.

I wanted to do something fun with cake in a jar and also wanted to add a little somethin somethin to the outside.  So I found a way to write messages or pictures on the inside of the jar as well as add lots and lots more calories with chocolate on top!

It was a good day in my kitchen.

And it can be a good day in your kitchen too.  These are super easy!

To write on the inside of a jar I used a chocolate cake and made a white cake to fill the jars with.  If you dont want to make two seperate cakes, simple reserve about 1/4 cup of your white cake and use food coloring to tint brown or black.

One cake recipe made approximately six jars.

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After I piped the cake into the jar, I popped it into the microwave for eight seconds.  Maybe ten seconds, but no longer.  I just wanted the chocolate batter to set in place so it wouldn’t fall when I poured thewhite cake batter in.

I added 1/2 cup of white cake to the jar and then baked for about 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

This was tricky… some baked fully in 18 minutes, some took about 25 minutes.  It really depended on where it was placed in my oven.  So just keep a close eye on them!

And if writing inside your jars isn’t enough, I am also gonna show you how to make chocolate spider webs that fit snuggly over the rim of your jar!

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You do not NEED to use a wide mouth jar for the chocolate spider web, I just prefer it.

*These are the jars I buy.  Also, I used  these candy melts.  Just popped them in the microwave for 30 second intervals until the chocolate was completely melted.

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I grabbed the jar with my left hand, then slowly moved the rubber band from the jar to my wrist.

While the chocolate is sturdy, if it ever broke it was when I was removing the rubber band.  So be careful during that process!

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Seriously that easy.  Less then ten minutes from beginning to end!

I also piped out BOO! and a pumpkin and other fun stuff for the kids.

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While the words are fun (you know I am so excited to do jars with red velvet Christmas greetings in them!) I think my kids liked the spiders best.

Ok, ok, so did I.

But if you happen to have arachnophobia, don’t ever google “spiders in jars” like I did and slowly torture yourself looking at huge creepy crawly heinous beasts while trying to find a template for your jar design.

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But do grab yourself a spoon and tell the kids to ‘break’ into their jars.

They are as fun to eat as they are to make!

 

*Linked to an Amazon Affiliate page.

· 123 Comments

Baking with Bakers Royale

Hi everyone, this is not Amanda. In fact hello, my name is Naomi Robinson of Bakers Royale. I’ve blog-jacked iambaker while Amanda is speaking at The Creative Connection with Blogher.

Being here is like being in wonderland. I’ve been a long time reader, fan- some call it stalking, but let’s not get caught up in semantics. Let’s just agree that like many of you, I’m a little infatuated with Amanda’s sugar sculpting skills.

So while she is busy juicing everyone at the conference with her goodness and creativity, she has been kind enough to share her space with me. With that, I thought I would gear you all up for the upcoming holiday season with three easy no-fuss, no-bake, gift-giving chocolate treats.

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Rocky Road Chocolate Bark – A three ingredient no bake dessert that comes together in just 20 minutes.

 

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Peanut Caramel Clusters – Candy making made easy with just three ingredients.

 

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Salted Caramel and Whiskey Truffle – Classic chocolate truffles modernized with salted caramel and dressed up with whiskey for adult consumption.

 

Thank you so much Naomi, for sharing your beautiful treats and photographs here!  Me thinks I need to invest in a new camera! (and photography lessons!)

As Naomi mentioned, today I am off at a conference in Minneapolis.  If you happen to be attending, please do come up and say hi, I have a sweet little surprise to share!

 


 

· 21 Comments

Zucchini Pound Cake

We have a lot of zucchini.  And I was desperate to do something new with it! So I decided on pound cake. I have made approximately five pounds of pound cake in the last three days. But it was of vital importance to me that the recipe I ultimately shared [...] Read more »

· 42 Comments

Toolbars and Wedding Cake

They go hand in hand don't ya know? I recently got to make a wedding cake for a friend.  Her invitation is just gorgeous, and recreating the flower in all buttercream was a challenge to say the least!  But so worth it. This cake was a BIG boy.  The equivalent [...] Read more »

· 51 Comments

Cherry Cake

Happy Birthday Rachael Ray! On August 25th Rachael is celebrating her birthday.  Her fun and loyal staff over at Everyday With Rachael Ray Magazine thought it would be neat to get the world involved! If YOU would like to make her a cake click on her facebook page and just [...] Read more »

· 102 Comments