Pumpkin Pie Blondies

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // October 23, 2014 // 36 Comments

I’m a brownie girl through and through. The rich chocolate, gooey centre and fudgy goodness is enough to make any girl weak at the knees. But I gotta tell you, these blondies seduced me! The soft texture, pumpkin pie filling and chewy edges are enough to make me seriously consider reevaluating where my loyalties lie – and that’s saying something!

These yummy pumpkin pie blondies were born out of left over pumpkin pie mix after making my pumpkin pie ice cream. But it’s totally worth making the mix especially for the blondies, they’re too good not to! You might want to invite some friends over to enjoy them with you or you’ll be in danger of eating the whole pan yourself (I wouldn’t judge you if you did though!)

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Spider-Man Toffee Apples

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // October 16, 2014 // 34 Comments

Okay, I have a confession to make – I hate halloween! There, I said it! Don’t throw rocks at me, please! I actually love all the festivities surrounding Halloween, the dressing up, the parties and of course, the baking, but I have this one extreme phobia that ruins the whole holiday for me! That doesn’t mean I can’t take part in the baking fun though, so enter these toffee apples!

Halloween isn’t all that big in the UK anyway, kids do trick or treat and there’s the odd party, but it’s definitely no where near the scale you find in the US! It’s crazy how much those guys get into the spirit of Halloween, I love it. Or, I would, if I could celebrate Halloween in any way other than hiding in my house until it’s all over! Toffee apples aren’t just a halloween treat, here in the UK we serve them up on Bonfire Night too.

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Autumn Strawberry and Banana Smoothie

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // October 13, 2014 // 5 Comments

Happy Monday guys! Well, I say “happy”, I’m writing this post from bed while I’m off work sick. The lurgy has well and truly gotten a hold of me. This autumn strawberry and banana smoothie would definitely warm me up and make me feel better though. In fact, I might get out of bed and make myself one up now!

I was having a real craving for a smoothie and the only fruit I had in my freezer was strawberries. I also had some quickly over ripening bananas. As yummy as a classic strawberry and banana smoothie is, it was a bit too summery for my over enthusiastic autumn mood. So I autumned this sucker up!

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Plum and Ginger Upside Down Cake

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // October 8, 2014 // 12 Comments

Wow, what a day today has been! It’s my day off so I had plans to be pretty lazy and also make some mini poptarts. The lazy part of the plan didn’t work out too well when the dishwasher decided to break and flood my kitchen! So I have spent most of the day trying to fix the dishwasher (and failing), cleaning up the the floods and hand washing everything that was in the dishwasher! I did make the mini poptarts too though and they’re adorable (don’t worry, I’ll be sharing those with you ASAP!). I’m going to spend the rest of the evening watching New Girl and eating pasta!

When a day doesn’t go to plan it can really throw you off, so I decided to cheer myself up by sharing something with you all that went better than planned – this amazing plum and ginger upside down cake! I got this idea from a client at work, she told me about a plum and ginger upside down cake that she makes and it just sounded divine to me, I had to make my own!

I’ve never made an upside down cake before, I’ve always associated them with pineapple and I’m allergic to pineapple so it’s never an idea that’s been at the front of my mind. I’m glad I started with this cake though. The combination of the buttermilk, sour cream, and syrupy goodness make this cake so moist it should be illegal! Yet it still holds its shape well, slides out of the pan with zero effort and isn’t mushy.

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Fig Jam

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // October 1, 2014 // 5 Comments

September is my favourite month (yes I know it’s October now, but shh). It’s the start of autumn, the weather is cool but sunny, there are warm spices wherever you turn. And figs come into season! I love figs a lot. It’s hard to get them fresh where I live though so I pounce on them whenever I get the chance. And when I was walking past the fruit market stalls in town last week and saw they had fresh figs – I went a bit crazy. I came home with over 1kg of fresh figs!

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