Candy Bar Bundt Cake with Chocolate Fudge Icing.

It's October. Now is the time to spend way too much money on fun-sized candy bars, smash them into chocolate chunks, and bake them into a candy bar bundt cake. Because you can... and you can get away with absolutely anything in October. Pumpkin spice cookies for breakfast, pumpkin lattes for dinner, candy bars and cinnamon in your popcorn (I can't even) , "just one more" pumpkin spice candle because I'm in love and obsessed/just try and stop me, and spending hours pinning all things pumpkin and then baking absolutely nothing because The Walking Dead is on. This is real life and we're living it!

Aren't you glad too? I'm in love with this Etsy print... and with October. It's the calm before the storm. You know... before we have to deal with candy canes and mistletoe and tangled-up Christmas tree lights.

And a month away from home, at training, where I'm expected to run three miles, study the law, and excel at ground-fighting. Do not major in criminal justice.

In the mean time, we're celebrating that calm by putting down the pumpkin spice and baking a cake. A soft, fluffy, tender, brown sugar-vanilla bundt cake filled with chunks of our favorite chocolate Halloween candy and then completely covered in the thickest, most pure fudge chocolate icing ever.  

And sprinkles. You should never miss an opportunity to use sprinkles. It's the best life advice I could ever give you.

My real life isn't always as sweet, styled, and covered in pumpkin-shaped sprinkles as you would think. Maybe I stress-bake bundt cakes sometimes... because it's who I am, they're a cake-walk to bake, and let me feel completely in control of things for at least 50 minutes.

P.S. Are cake walks even a thing anymore? They were my favorite part of my town's annual Halloween fair growing up. I mean, why try and win a Pixy Stix at the ring-toss when you could when a WHOLE CAKE for walking in a circle?

... this is probably why I run today.

  This bundt cake is the perfect place to start for Everything Ever Baking. As in... this batter smells like chocolate chip cookie dough... and anything can be baked into a chocolate chip cookie! What do you have hiding in your cabinets? Oreos? Chocolate-covered pretzels? Seventeen opened and forgotten bags of chocolate chips?

If you're reading this in November... the answer is probably leftover Halloween candy.

Into this cake went all of my favorite fun-sized chocolate things... 

❤ Reese's peanut butter cups

❤ Rolos

❤ Hershey's Cookies & Cream bars

❤ Almond Snickers 

I love a good suspenseful cake. With this bundt, each slice was different! The slice above was full of chopped almond Snickers and Rolo halves... making it taste like a rich, moist caramel-vanilla cake with unexpected chunks of chocolate.

My boyfriend ate this slice for breakfast full of nothing but peanut butter cups. He totally thought I'd baked him a peanut butter pound cake.

The secret to this cake's fluffy softness? I almost always swap out the light, golden brown sugar in any cookie or cake recipe for dark brown sugar. Besides adding a deeper and richer brown sugar/caramel taste, it leaves my baked goods so much more tender, soft, and moist.

P.S. This cake came THIS close to having a brown butter icing (my second best life advice tip? Follow that link to my buttermilk pumpkin cake & immediately make it a part of your life). This chocolate icing though? Pure fudge + a good decision. It was similar to the stovetop icing used to ice one of my favorite go-to chocolate cakes: Texas sheet cake.

There's just too many things going on here that I love.

It's fall. Let's smash chocolate and bake cakes!

Candy Bar Bundt Cake with Chocolate Fudge Icing

Printable Recipe

Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour + more for dusting
1 cup vegetable oil + more for greasing
1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup vanilla Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups assorted candy, roughly chopped & tossed in 2 tablespoons of flour (I used Rolos, Reeses peanut butter cups, and fun-sized almond Snickers and cookies & cream Hershey bars)- 

Chocolate Icing
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
6 tablespoons evaporated milk
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-3 tablespoons evaporated milk or heavy whipping cream, if needed

Prep. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12-cup bundt pan generously with oil and dust with flour, tapping out any excess. Set aside.

Mix. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the oil and brown sugar. Add the eggs and mix well. Next, mix in the vanilla extract and vanilla Greek yogurt until thoroughly combined. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold in the chopped candy bars (tossed in 2 tablespoons of flour).  Pour cake batter into prepared bundt pan and spread evenly.

Bake. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake tests clean. Remove cake and allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make icing. In a medium saucepan, bring butter, cocoa powder, and evaporated milk to a boil over medium heat, whisking occasionally. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt, and whisk continuously until smooth, about 30 seconds. If icing is still to thick, add extra evaporated milk or heavy whipping creaming one tablespoon at at a time until icing is a pouring consistency. Immediately remove from heat and pour icing over the top of your cake. Work fast- the icing will harden quickly once it's removed from heat!

Source: Candy Bar Bundt Cake inspired and adapted from Scarletta Bakes. Chocolate icing from Brown Eyed Baker.

Brown Butter & Everything Ever.

It's no secret that I am absolutely in love with/cannot stop talking about/am totally obsessed with brown butter. What's so special about those golden specks of butter and why bother taking the time to "brown" it? 

I'll totally make you a list... because I'm in Lake Tahoe! And you just can't bake anything when you're staring at snow-covered mountains, cabins in the woods, and fruity rum drinks all day. 

❤  It adds a rich, nutty hazelnut flavor (and beautiful golden specks) to your baking that'll make you instantly fall in love. I mean, in French, brown butter is known as beurre noisette... it literally means "hazelnut butter"! 

❤  It's that extra something special that turns those cookies or cinnamon rolls into the best thing you've ever baked.  

❤  It complements and adds depth of flavor... which is a fancy way of saying it pairs perfectly with all those flavors you love: cinnamon, oatmeal, brown sugar, caramel, chocolate, pumpkin, bananas. In my experience, brown butter is some kind of baking magic that makes those flavors pop. 

❤  It's versatile. Put it everything ever! Cupcakes, cookies, frostings, cakes. Can we put it in banana bread? Yes. Drizzle it on our popcorn? Do it. Our coffee creamer? It's already a thing. 

❤  The best part: it's easy. It's one extra step... that only takes about eight minutes.

I browned butter for the first time last summer... and since then I've posted fourteen recipes full of those golden specks. Brown butter for days!

I'm ready to jump into some new and exciting things this summer (summer just seems like a good time for that!)... but in the meantime, here's every brown butter recipe ever. 

How to Brown Butter // ... this just seems like a good place to start. A how-to situation just for you. P.S. it's easier than you think.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies // my favorite go-to chocolate chip cookie... and the perfect base for M&M cookies.  

Pumpkin Buttermilk Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Icing // Three things: this is my first (and favorite) bundt cake I ever made, it's never too early for pumpkin cake, & brown butter icing is unlike any icing ever. It also belongs in your life.

Brown butter toffee & macadamia nut chocolate chip cookies // These cookies were inspired by dreams of Hawaii and eating nothing but chocolate-and-toffee-covered macadamia nuts. Cookies inspired by real life living? It doesn't get any better than that!

Brown butter snickerdoodles // For a girl who hasn't fallen head-over-heels in love with snickerdoodles yet, let me just tell you: these are the best cookies I have ever made. They taste like hazelnuts and cinnamon rolls and rich, sugary snickerdoodles, all with crispy edges and buttery soft centers. It's true love.

Brown butter berry cheesecake muffins // Cakey brown butter vanilla muffins + fresh raspberries and blueberries + a scoop of cheesecake + brown sugar-cinnamon streusel = all things that belong in your life. 

Brown butter white chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies // The most irresistable oatmeal cookies I have ever tasted. Sprinkled with sugar and sea salt, bursting with that dark brown sugar and brown butter flavor, and studded with huge chunks of rich white chocolate... no chocolate chips or raisins here! 

Brown butter oatmeal M&M cookies // It's summertime. Let's bake colorful cookies with ice cream scoops.

Brown butter-peanut butter truffle chocolate chip cookies // These were one of the first brown butter cookies I ever made... and to be honest, brown butter doesn't really add anything extra or rich to the flavor of peanut butter. It's a nutty flavor on nutty butter situation. But the swirls of peanut butter truffle in these cookies? I can't even deal/I would put it in everything if I could.

Pretzel-crusted brown butter bourbon blondies // Boozy blondies full of chocolate, white chocolate, bourbon, and brown butter... all baked onto a sugary pretzel crust. Just look at that cookie math!

Brown butter, brown sugar chocolate chip shortcakes // Fat cakey shortcakes studded with mini chocolate chips, sprinkled with brown sugar, and baked with brown butter. Strawberries + whipped cream totally optional.

Buttermilk banana bundt cake with brown butter icing // The best thing about bundt cakes? You can totally pass them off as a breakfast thing. The best about this bundt cake? The brown butter icing. It pairs perfectly with the soft buttermilk banana cake. You have to try it.

Brown butter oatmeal s'mores cookie cups with graham cracker frosting // The only thing better than brown butter and oatmeal is brown butter and oatmeal with s'mores sprinkled on top.  

Brown butter bourbon chocolate chip cookies // Three things I love about these chocolate chip cookies: the brown butter, the bourbon, and the giants discs of baking chocolate. This is one unforgettable chocolate chip cookie.

Zebra Bundt Cake.

Gingerdoodles, "I Want to Marry You" cookies, zebra bundt cake. All things I've baked now entirely because of their name. 

This soft, fudgy, chocolate-swirled cake is my first attempt at baking a "zebra" cake... a stunning, intricate, black and white striped pound cake with thin, zig-zagging ribbons of vanilla and chocolate. At least... it's supposed to be thinly striped, but I have no patience with when it comes to spoonfuls of cake batter. Don't be like me.

See the three thin wavy stripes of chocolate?    

Perfect zebra stripes. The rest... dense, slightly-sweet, extra-chocolatey marbled cake covered in thick chocolate ganache. Real life: things don't always turn out how you want them to, but if means marble cake slices  and baking more bundts, embrace it! 

My favorite part of this cake? Cutting into it. Those swirls! I mean, let's just rename this post How to Make Cake and Impress People. Honestly.

This cake is a little different than other bundt cakes I've made because it uses 3 cups of cake flour, making it bake up so thick, dense, and soft, with just the right amount of moist and tender crumb. We're making pound cake!

And it all begins with a floured bundt pan and vanilla cake batter... batter that looks like pancake batter and smells like birthday cake. Off to a good start.

2 cups of the vanilla batter is scooped into a second bowl and whisked together with cocoa, sugar, and water. It's like chocolate art!

And that's it. That's your chocolate layer.

Next, the stripes.

The stripes are made by alternately spooning chocolate and vanilla cake batter one over the other into the center of each. Start with a scoop of vanilla, then spoon a scoop of chocolate batter directly into the center of the vanilla. Allow each layer to spread a little on it's own and alternate back and forth. The best method I found was using two separate scoops: an ice cream scoop for the vanilla batter and a small cookie scoop for the chocolate batter (or a separate ice cream scoop for each). 

Can I break down the mistakes I made? 

The ice cream scoop creates uniform, round scoops, making the layers even. Using two scoops keeps everything separate. Trust me. See how my vanilla layers have lighter swirls of chocolate in them and the chocolate scoops have vanilla? I used one scoop... and it got real messy and real marbled real fast. 

Second, I used a spoon. The three uniform zebra stripes above were made with an ice cream scoop... the giant chocolate center was made using a spoon. With a spoon you're not getting equal amounts of cake batter and it's difficult to pour it just in the center of the previous layer.

See the difference? 

The cake is baked for 50-60 minutes, cooled, and then covered in thick chocolate, fudgy ganache. There's what dreams are made of... and then there's just ganache. I can't even deal.

Another baking tip: leave off the ganache, dust with powdered sugar or leave plain, and just like that... you're 100% getting away with eating cake for breakfast.

This bundt was so simple and easy to bake and a total showstopper, with just the right amount of not-too-sweet vanilla and chocolate stripes and every slice uniquely swirled. And I'm already ready for round 2 of perfecting my zebra striping. 

Because yes: chocolate art. It's totally a thing. 

Zebra Bundt Cake

Printable Recipe

Cake

3 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar (1/2 cup for the chocolate batter, 2 cups for the vanilla batter)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

6 tablespoons water

1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

5 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

Ganache Icing

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate

2/3 cup heavy cream 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a bundt pan with baking spray and dust with flour.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; set aside. 

In a separate medium bowl, place cocoa powder and 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and whisk in the water until smooth; set aside.

Place melted butter and the rest of the sugar (2 cups) in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium high until blended, about 1 minute. Add in vanilla and beat until combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Once all eggs are added, beat mixture until light and fluffy.

Turn mixer speed down to low and add the flour in 3 additions, alternating with the milk in two additions and mixing until just blended (flour, milk, flour, milk, flour).

Add 2 cups of the vanilla cake batter to the chocolate mixture and stir until blended.

Using an ice cream scoop, pour 2 scoops of vanilla batter into the bundt pan. Using a second scoop, pour a scoop of chocolate batter on top of the vanilla mixer. Allow to spread a little on it's own. Alternate between vanilla and chocolate layers until all batter is used.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until cake tests done in the center. Cool cake on wire rack for 15 minutes, then invert onto rack and allow to cool completely.

When cooled completely, make the glaze. Place chocolate and cream in a pan over low heat and stir until chocolate is melted. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes before pouring over the top of the cake. 

Let glaze set, about 30 minutes, then cut and serve. 

Source: Bakers Royale. 

Buttermilk Banana Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Icing.

On days where absolutely nothing goes right, I banana bread. There's just something so satisfying about smashing bananas with a fork, beating butter and sugar, and turning it all into cake. Especially a bundt cake... since everyone knows that bundt cakes are just effortlessly-baked cakes which are fancy, circular quick breads which means you just had cake for breakfast.

This sweet, dense, golden brown banana cake was everything I needed last week. If the secret to a perfectly-moist, sweet banana bread is overripe, mostly brown bananas (and a dash of cinnamon and buttermilk), then the secret to an in-your-face stressful week is an apartment that smells like warm, baked banana bread and the satisfaction of making something successful happen all on your own.

... and then pouring icing all over it. 


Icing this cake was a challenge. As I was smashing bananas into this cake, I kept thinking... don't do it. Do. Not. Do. It.

Do not brown that butter. Do not even think about browning the butter. Brown butter icing? Stop it. Do something new. Do something with chocolate. Something with... peanut butter. Or rum! 

Wait. You're still thinking about it. What are you... DROP THE BUTTER. 

Well. There was only one way that was ever really going to go. 

I fell in love with rich, nutty-sweet brown butter icing when I made a pumpkin buttermilk cake last fall and knew immediately when I pulled this cinnamon-spiced banana cake out of the oven that it would be that icing I poured all over the top of this thing. 

And staring down at that just-moments-ago-glazed-cake makes me realize what a good decision that was... and also crave an iced chocolate cake doughnut like nobody's business. It does look like a giant doughnut, right? Is it just me?

Note: do not write about sugar and cake at 7:16 in the morning.

Note: make giant doughnuts happen. 

Another helpful tip? Sift your powdered sugar before whisking in the vanilla and brown butter for your icing. If you're lazy/rushed and desperate for a slice of cake for dinner like me, you'll end up with these unappealing clumps in your icing. Not a big deal... just not very pretty.

This cake was nearly a chocolate chip-banana situation, but since the last two banana breads I baked were extra-sweet and full of chocolate and fresh berries (dark chocolate raspberry banana bread and white chocolate cranberry streusel banana bread), I really just wanted a banana bread so good and plain it could stand alone without all the add-ins.

Except, you know. For the mini chocolate chips I sprinkled on top.

I can't even. 

Buttermilk Banana Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Icing 

Printable Recipe

Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium bananas)

Icing
1/2 cup butter (confession: I always use salted butter)
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 tablespoons milk
Mini chocolate chips for sprinkling, if desired

Preheat oven to 350°F. Flour and butter a 10-inch bundt pan (or spray with nonstick cooking spray); set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the softened butter and granulated sugar until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated, then add the vanilla. 

Using a large spoon, stir in half of the flour mixture until just incorporated. Stir in the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour mixture. Quickly fold in the mashed bananas. 

Pour into prepared bundt cake pan and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until cake is golden brown and tests done in the center. Allow to cool 15 minutes in pan, then invert onto wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, add the powdered sugar to a medium bowl. Melt butter over medium heat and whisk until it begins to bubble up and foam. Continue to whisk until golden brown (more information on browning butter here). Remove from heat and pour into bowl of powdered sugar. Add milk and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Pour over top of cooled cake and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips, if desired. 

Source: Cake barely adapted from Lick the Bowl Good, originally from Southern Cakes. Icing from Amanda's Cooking.