Zombie Brownie Cake

This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible! 

Halloween-themed food is my absolute favorite because I just think it's so much fun. I've done my fair share of a variety of cute and creepy treats over the years, although some people, like my friends and family who are supposed to support me no matter what, think I take it a little too far (remember that amputated hand appetizer?). 

This zombie brownie cake is my compromise--not necessarily cute, but not so creepy that it will haunt you in your sleep. Most importantly though, it's incredibly tasty.

I start with my favorite homemade brownie recipe. Yes, you can use a box mix, but I much prefer the taste of this recipe. It's thick and fudgey with the perfect crackly top. The recipe starts by melting salted Challenge butter in the microwave. Challenge butter is the only butter I will use because it’s churned daily from two natural ingredients: the freshest 100% real pasteurized sweet cream and salt. That’s it. There's nothing artificial or synthetic about it, and you can really taste the difference. The recipe also uses dark chocolate, which I much prefer over cocoa powder. The other key ingredient is a little bit of espresso powder to amplify the chocolate flavor and make it more intense.

To make the moss on top of the brownie, all I did was dye sugar cookie dough green and place the cookies on top. I also crumbled some of the cookies to add to the effect. And the zombie fingers couldn't be easier. They're just Tootsie Rolls!

Zombie Brownie Cake

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

For the brownie

• 2 sticks (8 ounces) salted Challenge butter
• 10 ounces (283 grams) dark chocolate, chopped
• 4 large eggs (8 ounces)
• 2 cups (396 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon (14 grams) vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons (4.5 grams) espresso powder
• 2 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour

For the moss

• 8 ounces sugar cookie dough
• Green food coloring

For the zombie fingers

• 5 Tootsie Roll snack size candies
• 5 almond slivers
• 5 toothpicks

Directions

For the brownie

1. Preheat oven to 35o degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare 8-inch cake pan by spraying with nonstick spray, lining with parchment paper circle, and spraying with nonstick spray again.
2. Melt butter in microwave.
3. Add chocolate and whisk until melted. If chocolate doesn’t melt all the way, heat in microwave 10 more seconds.
4. Whisk eggs in separate bowl. Add sugar, vanilla extract, and espresso powder, and whisk until smooth.
5. Whisk into melted butter-chocolate mixture.
6. Fold flour into liquid ingredients until just combined.
7. Bake at 350 for 30 - 35 minutes

For the moss

1. Mix the sugar cookie dough with green food coloring until dough is uniform in color.
2. Spread dough in various irregular shapes on baking sheet, making sure to leave room between each cookie.
3. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges start to turn golden brown.
4. Remove from oven and let cool.

For the zombie fingers

1. Mold and stretch the Tootsie Rolls so they resemble fingers and stick toothpicks at the end of each finger. Remember, each finger / thumb is a different size.
2. Place one almond sliver at the end of each Tootsie Roll so it resembles a nail

Assembly

1. Remove brownie from cake pan and place on serving platter.
2. Stick zombie fingers in brownie with toothpicks so it looks like a hand is coming out of the ground.
3. Arrange green sugar cookies bottom side up around fingers on top of brownie. Once you have enough cookies covering the brownie, crumble a few of the remaining cookies and sprinkle on top to resemble moss.

Apple Cider Bundt Cake

 This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

There has been a recent surge in the popularity of bundt cakes. I think it's because they look impressive, but they're incredibly easy to whip up on a whim. Unlike a standard layered cake, bundt cakes come out of the pan in a pretty design, so they don't need a lot of extra pizazz and embellishments.

What exactly is a bundt cake? A bundt cake refers more to the cake pan it is baked in rather than the actual cake itself. But traditionally it's a firm, moist cake halfway between a pound cake and a high-ratio cake.

This apple cider bundt cake incorporates cider 3 separate times: in the batter, in the cake soak, and in the icing. So it's really bursting with apple flavor!

Room temperature ingredients

• About an hour before you start baking the cake, bring the butter and the eggs to room temperature. Room temperature ingredients mix together more uniformly and ensures the cake will bake more evenly. 
• It is imperative that you use high quality ingredients in this recipe. That’s why I only use Challenge Unsalted Butter. Challenge uses real cream and only natural ingredients for superior flavor and an ultra smooth finish

Make apple cider concentrate

• In order to get the strongest apple cider flavor in this cake, I made apple cider concentrate. 
• Here’s how to make: Look at the recipe, double the amount of apple cider you need, pour it in a pot, bring it to a boil and reduce it to a simmer, continue to simmer until it reduces by half.

When baking the bundt cake

• Before you pour the batter in the pan, make sure you’ve sprayed it heavily with nonstick spray. You can also coat the inside of the pan with sugar, and that helps too.
• The easiest way to tell a cake is baked all the way through is by touching it. It should be firm but still spring back.
• If you really want to make sure it’s cooked, stick a thermometer in it. It should register around 210 degrees.

Getting your bundt cake out of the pan

• I recommend waiting about 20 - 25 minutes before inverting your bundt cake. It’s still warm enough to slide out, but it should be fully set by then.
• If you flip it and it doesn’t come out, you can try one of these two tricks. The first trick: Heat the pan with a kitchen torch. You should be able to feel it start to slide out. The second trick: Dampen a kitchen towel and place it over the bottom of the bundt cake. The heat from the cake should create steam with the towel, and after about 15 minutes the cake should slide right out.

Infusing cake with flavor via simple syrup

• Brushing a hot cake with simple syrup is a great way to keep cakes moist and infuse them with flavor. Simple syrup is equal parts liquid and sugar. In this recipe, the liquid I used was the apple cider concentrate for extra apple flavor.
• Brush the cake with this simple syrup as soon as you remove it from the pan.

Icing the cake

• Once the cake is completely cool, finish it by drizzling icing over the top.
• The icing is just apple cider and powdered sugar. I like to make the icing really thick, but if you prefer more of a glaze, you can thin it out with more apple cider.

Apple Cider Bundt Cake

Yield: 20 servings

Ingredients

For the cake

• 3 sticks (339 grams) Challenge Unsalted Butter 
• 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) brown sugar 
• 4 eggs 
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups (360 grams) all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons (12 grams) baking powder
• 2 teaspoons (5 grams) cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon (6 grams) salt
• 1/4 teaspoon (0.5 grams) nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon (0.5 grams) cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon (0.5 grams) ground ginger
• 1 cup (240 milliliters) apple cider, concentrated
• 1/2 cup (123 grams) applesauce

For the cake soak

• 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (60 milliliters) apple cider, concentrated

For the icing

• 2 cups (240 grams) powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup (60 milliliters) apple cider concentrate

Directions

For the cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl.
3. Reduce mixer speed to low and add eggs one at a time. Wait to add the next egg until the previous egg is fully incorporated. Add the vanilla. Scrape down the bowl.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cardamom, and ground ginger. In another separate bowl, mix together the apple cider concentrate and the apple sauce.
5. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the mixer, and mix on low until just incorporated. Add 1/2 of the liquid mixture and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the bowl. Repeat until all the flour and the liquid ingredients are incorporated.
6. Heavily grease a bundt pan and coat the inside with a thin layer of granulated sugar to prevent sticking. Pour the cake batter evenly into the bundt pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and springs back when touched.
7. Remove the pan from the oven and cool for about 25 minutes inside the pan before inverting the bundt cake onto a wire cooling rack.

For the cake soak

1. Mix the sugar and apple cider concentrate in a small bowl. Heat until the sugar is dissolved. Brush the cake all over with the simple syrup. Continue to allow the cake to cool.

For the icing

1. Whisk together the powdered sugar and the apple cider concentrate. Drizzle over the cooled cake. Slice and serve.