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Warning: If you are on any kind of diet, you may want to look away.

I first made these bars over the Christmas holidays last year with the intention of blogging about them. Well, let’s just say, they didn’t make it that far. They seemed to disappear before I could get pictures. So obviously I had to bake them again. For the sake of pictures, of course.

The bars look so sinful and taste incredible! They have a blondie type texture with chocolate chunks, carmel pieces, mini marshmallows and butterscotch chips mixed in. And it doesn’t stop there, oh no, right before you bake them, the batter is topped off with even more chocolate, carmel, marshmallows and butterscotch. Oh yeah!

I’m not sure why they are called Rocky Ledge bars but quite frankly, I don’t really care what they are called when they taste as wonderful as they do!

Rocky Ledge Bars
adapted from Martha Stewart

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups packed dark-brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
18 soft caramel-candy cubes, coarsely chopped
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used semi-sweet chocolate chunks)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Lightly butter a 9-13-inch baking pan and line with parchment paper, allowing an overhang on the longer sides. Lightly butter parchment with butter (not overhang).

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt and baking powder; set aside.

Mix butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla; mix until combined. Mix in flour mixture until just combined, being sure not to over-mix. Fold in half of each of the caramels, marshmallows, butterscotch chips and chocolate.

Pour batter in pan and spread evenly. Distribute the remaining caramels, marshmallows, butterscotch chips and chocolate on top. Bake until golden brown or a cake tester comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cool. Lift out of pan and move to baking sheet. Refrigerate 30 minutes or until set.

Remove the parchment and cut into pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temp for up to 1 week.

Note: the original recipe called for white chocolate but I omitted it. If you prefer, add 1 cup white chocolate, coarsely chopped, in with the rest of the goodies (1/2 cup in batter, 1/2 cup on top).

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My second cupcake for this month’s IronCupcake challenge is based on the song “Heart of Glass” by Blondie. It’s one of those songs that always manages to make its way in to my brain and get stuck there for hours.

The cupcake is a blondie cupcake with mascarpone frosting, topped with a sugar “Heart of Glass”.

I’ve mentioned before that I am addicted to music. Well, I think I might have understated it just a bit. I have over 1200 songs in my library at the moment. That number is constantly growing as I discover new artists or songs. The genres range all the way from rock to classical and everything in between.

Some people have gone as far as to call me obsessed. That’s such a harsh word; I prefer the term extremely fascinated. Plus, there are people that have way more songs than I do. So, in other words, I’m not alone. Check out just a few of my current favorite songs.

Anyway, while I’m not a massive fan of Blondie (the group), I am however a massive fan of blondies (the dessert). Put them in cupcake form and I’m not sure life could get any better. The combo of butterscotch and toffee bits make these cupcakes amazing. I was imagining them to come out a with the texture of a cupcake but no, these are like actual blondie bars. Perfection!

Okay, back to the point of this whole post… the cupcakes!!

Blondie Cupcakes – Makes about 12 cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup toffee bits (or chopped Heath or Skor chocolate covered toffee bars)
1/3 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a muffin tin with paper liners. Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together.

Cream butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Reduce the speed to low and add flour mixture; beat until just incorporated. Fold in the toffee bits and butterscotch chips by hand.

Divide the batter into the lined cup, filling each three-quarters full. Bake at 350°F for 23-25 minutes until golden brown. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before removing them from the pan.

To make the sugar hard candy, I combined 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup water and 3/8 teaspoon cream of tartar in a saucepan over medium heat.

Stir until sugar is dissolved, about 4 minutes. Without stirring, let the mixture come to a boil (about 5 minutes). Raise the heat to high and let it continue to boil until the temperature on your candy thermometer reaches 300°F. Remove from the heat and let the mixture cool just until it stops boiling (it will still be very hot). Add 4-5 drops of red food coloring and mix quickly. Pour the mixture onto a greased cookie sheet.

Allow it to cool a minute and press the greased cookie cutter into the mixture (it should be set enough to hold the shape). Once it’s almost cool, break apart the hearts. Don’t worry if you break a few. I started with 16 and ended with 12.

I used a Wilton cookie cutter for the shape.

Mascarpone Frosting – Makes about 2 cups
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces mascarpone cheese, room temp
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

With an electric mixer, whisk heavy cream on medium speed until stiff peaks form. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Gently fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately.

Voting for IronCupcake begins Friday, October 30th at 8 p.m. (cst) and will be open through Thursday, November 5th. You can use the icon below or go here to VOTE.

The awesome IronCupcake:Earth Prize Providers are:

• The Demy™ by Key Ingredient
• Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson
• Bella Cupcake Couture
• Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac
• The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrne
• Beautiful Baking Liners by Vestli House
• Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Bakery & Cupcakey Supply

Check out all things IronCupcake:Earth!

I’m curious, what are some of your favorite songs/artists/genres?

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I don’t have a reason for baking these. No birthdays, holidays or special occasions. But really, does one really need a reason to bake? I didn’t think so.

I came across the recipe while I was flipping through Martha Stewart’s Cookies. My mom’s favorite candy bar is the Heath Bar so I immediately thought of her when I saw the recipe. Plus, I found a bag of actual heath bar toffee bits (I think its called Bits ‘O Brickle) in the baking section of my local supermarket so I just had to make them.

The history of the Heath toffee bar is quite interesting. According to the Hershey site, the recipe for the bar was perfected by the Heath brothers in 1928. It was made by completely by hand until 1942. During World War II, the U.S. Government contracted with Heath to produce bars for military distribution. Okay, okay, back to the blondies…

To be honest, I didn’t really know what brown butter was. Isn’t that sad? I had heard of it before but never understood what actually was or how to make it. I guess I should have figured it out from the name; brown butter. Just cook until it browns slightly. Duh! Although it did take a lot longer than I expected to brown the butter, the results are totally worth it! The subtle nutty flavor is just superb!

These blondie cookie bars are ones I will be making again, for sure! And yes, mom loved them.

Brown-Butter Toffee Blondies
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies

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