Salted Caramel Apple Snickers Cake

When I saw Salted Caramel Apple Snickers Cake on Half Baked Harvest's blog  I knew I had to try it.  Her photo's had me hooked. All that delicious caramel dripping down the sides of the cake and the chocolate ganache, oh my my.  When I told my co-workers I was making it they immediately said, " You ARE bringing in left-overs right?"

Half Baked Harvest warns you that this cake has a lot of steps. She wasn't kidding. There's A LOT.  She assures you the cake is worth all the steps.  Myself and everyone who tried it would agree. 

Now, my cake does not look as pretty as Half Baked Harvest's. As you can see, there is no chocolate ganache showing.  This would be because I accidentally burnt the chocolate and heavy cream which would have been the ganache. It was getting late at night when this happened so I improvised and grabbed the Hershey Syrup in the fridge and used that. Hee hee 

 You can also see the caramel didn't get as thick as Half Baked Harvest's too. Once again, I didn't wait for the caramel to cool enough. My friends, bless their hearts said the cake looked really good and they couldn't wait to try it.  The mmm's and the way they devoured the cake told me they all really enjoyed it. Yeah! 

Don't you love the faux twigs in the apples. Those are forks from Party Pail inc. I love these forks. They're realistic looking, dishwasher safe and every one of my friends commented on how much they liked them.

Have you ever seen baked goods on blogs that look picture perfect and think, mine won't look like that so why even try to make it?
Just look at mine! That's why. Although mine looks nothing like Half Baked Harvest's it still tasted amazing, my friends appreciated it and I learned new baking skills.  So try those baking recipes you've always wanted to try. 

Go in for One, Come out with Another

This past weekend I was stalking the elusive new craze, the Candy Cane  Corn Oreo.  I keep saying Candy Cane instead of Candy Corn. Hmm, is there a Candy Cane Oreo?  Yep, I just Googled and sure enough there is.  Christmas is subconsciously seeping into my brain. NOOOooooo. I will NOT skip Halloween and Thanksgiving and zip right on to Christmas. 

The Candy Corn Oreo's are only available at Target.  Or Amazon if you're willing to wait for it to be shipped to you. I drove to the 2 Target's nearest me looking for them.  One didn't even have Halloween candy out yet and the other told me they sold out by noon the day they hit the shelves.  Now I work a day job so I didn't stand a chance. Sure, I could have driven to every Target around but I didn't need them that badly.

I did however find something that sounded tastier than the Candy Corn Oreo's (I'm not an Oreo's fan, *gasp*) Milky Way Caramel Apple mini's!  You know a bag of these leaped into my cart :)

They don't taste much different than a regular Milky Way. Caramely with a hint of apple taste on the back end.  Listen to me sounding all Master Chef like.  I'm a sucker for anything Limited Edition and holiday themed.  

If you were lucky enough to snag a bag of Candy Corn Oreo's let me know what you think about them.  
The Milky Way Caramel Apple mini's should be easier to find. Let me know what you think of those too. 
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Related: Pumpkin Everything 

Pumpkin Carving Party 2011

Just wrapped up the Pumpkin Carving Party.  Missing a few this year but as every hostess knows, sometimes that can't be helped.  A moment of silence for my friend who couldn't come who just lost her fur-kid.... Thank you.

Last year I asked everyone to come in costume so we could tour the corn maize and then carve.  This year the weather has been so iffy I just asked guests to dress in Halloweeny clothes.  I can not believe I didn't take a picture of the invitation I made. Unbelievable, where is my head.  Anyway. I show a Halloweeny movie while we carve too. This years feature:

I always have a signature party shot too. This years, Bloody Brain Shooter They were pretty good. Everyone hesitated before downing them.  The visual creep factor is worth it.

I set the tables very simply.  Using the many left over Halloween party goods I had.  Those napkins, ancient.  I love that my man HAD to have those skull glasses.  Perfect for Halloween parties.

We all gorged on amazing fall foods, probably ate way too much, but isn't that what parties are for?
Homemade peanut butter cups, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cream cheese roll and hee hee, that empty platter is suppose to be holding caramel apples.  We all got to yapping and well, they didn't get put out until much later.  But that's how real parties go sometimes. 

Oh yeah, pumpkin cream cheese roll. THIS is always a hit. Everyone loves it. My secret...it's the recipe on the back of the Libby's pumpkin mix.

What's a party without a Chex mix. And pizza is soo easy.  Papa Murphy's Mediterranean Delite is so good and healthy, as far as pizza goes.

My friend made pumpkin cookies for the occasion.  My first taste of the pumpkiny goodness. Zombie brains (watermelon) filled the pumpkin bowl.  Had to have something a little healthy on the table ;)

I finally got out the caramel apples.  I don't know how the pumpkin patches get theirs to look so darn good. Caramel apples are not the easiest to make look all pretty and perfect. Oh, we still ate them. mmm caramel. My man jokes that I'd eat anything if you poured caramel on it.

Everyone to the pumpkin patch...

I always do gift bags too. Listen to me, ALWAYS, as if I've been throwing this party for YEARS. This is only the second year.  Last year was socks. This year I snagged these plain bags from JoAnn's, jazzed them up and filled them with bubble bath and a note pad.

Woo Hoo!! from pumpkins to Jack-o-Lanterns. Now if only we could have gotten Rachel's pumpkin to quit looking out the window at the squirrels long enough for us to get a picture, ha ha!

Hope you enjoyed the pumpkin carving party. I'm already planning for next years. It's going to be bigger and better. Possibly my own pumpkin patch in the backyard :)  Stay tuned for my brain storming 2012 Pumpkin Carving Party.  

Related: Pumpkin Carving Party 2010