Apple Cinnamon Donut Cakes

Happy New Year! It's a new year and another opportunity to make a fresh start. I don't usually make resolutions, rather I use the new year to set some intentions and put together my to do list for the year. Number one on my list this year will be to dive back into blogging. I took a little bit of a break from blogging in 2019 as you might have noticed. I spent the year reassessing, refocusing and recovering from 3 surgeries after an abnormal mammogram last May. I'm all recovered and ready to jump back into my creative space of food and fun Halloween ideas and projects. But before I get ahead of myself and dive right into Halloween, I have a 'better late than never' recipe to share. I made them before Christmas and never got around to posting them. So these Apple Cinnamon Donut Cakes are my first post of 2020. A delicious cinnamon sugar coated, 3 bite morsel of apple cinnamon cake! Make a batch. Invite your girlfriends over for coffee, cake and conversation to kick off the new year! Enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon Donut Cakes

Makes ~2 dozen

3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. cardamom
1 t. salt
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup apple cider
1 cup applesauce
3/4 cup olive oil or canola oil
3 t. vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/2 cup butter melted
1 cup granulated sugar
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and salt. Set aside. 
In a medium bowl, combine sugars, apple cider, applesauce, olive oil, vanilla extract, and eggs and whisk until mixed. Combine wet and dry ingredients and whisk until incorporated. Spray mini bundt cake pan with baking spray. Using a medium cookie scoop, fill mini bundt cakes half full, taking care not to overfill. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes and then turn out of pan. Cool completely on a wire rack.  

Prepare cinnamon sugar. Combine sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl and mix. In a small bowl, melt butter in the microwave. 
Brush donut cakes with melted butter and then roll them in cinnamon sugar until completely coated. Serve. Store covered at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Other dessert recipes to try:

Red Velvet Brownies with Cookie Crumble Frosting

Gingerbread Spritz Cookies

Gingerbread Petits Fours with Cinnamon Buttercream

Cinnamon Sugar Skulls

Coffee! My husband makes the best coffee! What makes his so delicious is that he adds a sprinkle of cinnamon to the grounds before brewing. It's rich, coffee flavor with a hint of cinnamon tastes so good! I like my coffee a little sweet so I add just a smidgen of sugar as well. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw this idea on Pinterest to make skull-shaped sugar cubes. First, I love Halloween and two, I love my slightly sweet cinnamon coffee in the mornings so I adapted this recipe by adding a little cinnamon to them for the perfect cup of fall coffee! Drop one of these skulls into a super-sized coffee, grab a blanket and a good book and enjoy! 

Surprisingly, sugar cubes are super easy to make and are a great way to add a festive touch to any holiday, not just Halloween. Imagine making little stars for Christmas, chicks or bunnies for Easter, or hearts for Valentine's Day. Imagine adding different flavors and food coloring to them. Replace a little water with vanilla extract to make the perfect vanilla sugar cubes. Or make a strong Chai tea and use it in place of the water for a tea infused sugar cube. Add some red food coloring to the water to make pink hearts for Valentine's day. The possibilities are endless.
Depending on the size of your silicone molds, these sugar cubes are bigger than your traditional 'one lump or two' sugar cubes in the store, so make sure you use these with a super-sized cup of coffee unless you like it really sweet! Enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Skulls

Makes 2 dozen

1 cup granulated sugar
1 t ground cinnamon
2 t water
2 silicone Skull molds

Mix the cinnamon and sugar until evenly incorporated. Add water and mix with a fork until the sugar is the consistency of wet sand. Spoon into silicone skull molds. (I got these from the 99centsOnly Store ,2 for $0.99.) 
Pack sugar into molds with the back of a spoon. Cover the mold with a cookie sheet or cutting board and holding on to both, flip the whole thing over to un-mold the skulls. Let dry for 5 hours or overnight. 
If you prefer you can let the sugar dry in the molds however it'll take a little longer to dry.

More Halloween inspired recipes

Cinnamon Cheesecake Cookies

I was panicked by the end of last week, because I hadn't spent any time cooking and as a result, I had nothing to blog about. It's Christmastime and I got nothing in the pipeline, nothing waiting to be written or pictures waiting to be reviewed and cropped. I was so ready for fall, so what happened to Christmas? ...the most wonderful time of the year...*sigh*
So...last weekend was catch up time. I made one of my easy dinners on Sunday and in addition to the easy main dish, I wanted to make something sweet and festive, like cookies. I perused my Pinterest pins, but nothing really jumped out at me. Then, I remembered the Cinnamon Cheesecake Cookies, I made last year for my neighbor's annual cookie exchange. My neighbor, Lily and her daughters host a cookie exchange each year and there are three categories to win, best presentation, most creative and best tasting. Last year, I was so excited that I won 'best tasting" for these little Cinnamon Cheesecake Cookies.  

The basic recipe came from from Heat Oven to 350 but I made a few changes to get to these delicious cookies. I omitted the fruit topping and added a cinnamon glaze, I also added cinnamon to the cookie dough and also added cinnamon graham crackers to the outside coating. They are so delicious, you won't believe all that yumminess comes from such a simple looking cookie. If you like cheesecake and sugar cookies and Snicker doodles, you'll love these soft, decadent cookies with a little bit of icing. Merry Christmas!

Cinnamon Cheesecake Cookies 
makes ~5 dozen

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/4 t cinnamon
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 t vanilla extract
1 cup cinnamon graham cracker crumbs

1 T Hershey's Cinnamon Chips 
1 1/2 T milk
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. 
In another bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. 
Add eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated. 
Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Refrigerate dough until firm, at least 30 minutes.

Place one package of cinnamon graham crackers in a Ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to roll along the bag, crushing the crackers until they are uniform in size. Pour crumbs into a shallow dish. 

Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Using a small cookie scoop, drop 1-inch rounds of the dough into the graham cracker crumbs and then roll the balls until covered with graham cracker crumbs. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using the back of the spoon, slightly flatten the balls to ensure even cooking. Bake until golden brown around the edges, 12 to 14 minutes. Cool for five minutes on the sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

While cookies are cooling, prepare the icing. Placing the tablespoon of cinnamon chips and the 1 1/2 tablespoon of milk in a small microwavable bowl. Heat the milk and chips for 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and let sit for 1 minute and stir to melt the chips. Return to the microwave and repeat until chips are completely melted and smooth.  

Once melted, add the cinnamon chip and milk mixture to the cup of powdered sugar and mix until smooth. The mixture will not be runny. It will be the consistency of thick caramel. Add a 1/4 teaspoon of more milk if needed, but take care not to add too much milk. You don't want a runny icing that will melt and soak in to the cookie. 

Once the icing is prepared, use a spoon to drizzle icing in long strokes onto the cookies. Let icing set and then store cookies in an air tight container.
 

For other Christmas Cookie recipes see:
Gingerbread Biscotti 
Red Velvet Brownies with Cookie Crumble Frosting