Caramel Apple Crumb Cake

Have you seen "The Cake Boss" yet? It is about a bakery named Carlo's in Hoboken, NJ, about 5 minutes from our home. And they make the most AMAZING crumb cake. It is about 7/8 crumb, and 1/8 cake, the perfect proportion iun my opinion. You have to get to the bakery first thing in the morning to have a shot of even getting some. But I may not even try to brave those lines anymore after discovering this recipe! This crumb cake was so delicious, the perfect proportion of crumb and cake, with caramel apples separating the two. I did not make any changes to the original recipe, so I will link you right to Dinners for a Year and Beyond:

Caramel Apple Crumb Cake

Preparation pictures and some randoms from our brunch:

My husband helping in the kitchen :)

Holiday Morning Buns

As I was poking around at My Kitchen Cafe after I had found the Pomegranate Cheesecake recipe from the site, I discovered the perfect Christmas morning breakfast, Holiday Morning Buns. It is genius- you can make the buns as far ahead of time as you want and then stick them in the freezer. You don't even have to thaw them before you bake, they just go from the freezer to the oven, and after a little over an hour of baking, you have some awesome buns.

Matt was very skeptical, as he saw that there was no sticky glaze on top, and thought that without a sticky glaze, there was no way the buns could be that good. But they were. They weren't too sweet, which sometimes in the morning makes me sick. And plus, who wants something so super sweet and heavy Christmas morning, when you know all of the Christmas dinner delishessness is yet to come!? And I was very skeptical, as I realized while I was making these, that I had no extra cream at all (which the recipe suggests to use if the dough isn't cohesive); I could have probably used the extra cream, but the buns still turned out fantastically. The recipe was easily doubled, so I had enough for us for Christmas morning, and enough to take to CT with us for Christmas with Matt's family the morning after.

Assembly line of batter, melted butter, and cinnamon sugar love:

Balls of goodness ready to be stuck in the feezer.


The finished product- I forgot to take a snapshot before we dug in!

These will definitely become a Holiday tradition for our new family :)


No changes were made from the original, so I will just send you directly to the recipe:

Holiday Morning Buns