Brownie Birthday Cake

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I may have the sweetest sweet tooth out there, but I have to admit, I am not big on cake.  My favorite kinds of cake are yellow and funfetti, and in the past, I have always opted for one of those two as my birthday cake of choice. But this year, I felt like trying something different.  For some reason I have this association in my mind of this time of year and brownies, so when I got a pretty new cake stand for Christmas, I had visions of a cake made out of brownies.

I am not sure what my favorite Christmas gift was this year… I loved them all, but my cake stand is up there in the top two.  I have been eyeing it up for a year and a half.  Maybe you haven’t caught on to this, but I love most of the Pioneer Woman collection of dishes! Not all of it is my style, but most of it is, and the cake stand is no exception.  I have one of those cheap plastic cake carriers, and I certainly use it for taking desserts places from time to time, and I have a cake stand that I have used for desserts and cakes, and during the Christmas season, it doubles as a stand for our Advent wreath.  But I have been wanting a cake stand that has the glass cover, because it just doesn’t look as nice when you have to cover a cake with foil or attempt to cover it with saran wrap, not to mention that it messes up any decorations on the frosting… I know, such big problems…  Well anyway, it’s pretty and practical, and it will look gorgeous as a centerpiece for this Summer’s tea party!  Sorry for the rant about cake stands… Anyway, I love it, and it inspired this year’s birthday cake.

Back to the “cake.”  I decided that instead of trying to make a chocolate cake that was as close to being a brownie without being a brownie and then leaving me utterly disappointed by the fact that it was not actually a brownie, I would just make a double batch of brownies, and bake them in round cake pans.  I used my go-to brownie recipe and a simple buttercream frosting.

The recipe I use to make brownies from scratch is from a small Gooseberry Patch cookbook that I got for free when I ordered a different cookbook through the same company years ago.  The buttercream recipe was a simple buttercream frosting recipe I found on Pinterest.

Double Chocolate Brownies (For the cake):

• 6 1-ox. squares unsweetened baking chocolate
• 12 T. butter
• 1 1/3 c. all purpose flour
• 1/4 t. salt
• 2 2/3 c. sugar
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 2 t. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix together unsweetened chocolate and butter in a medium saucepan over low heat.  Stir until smooth; remove from heat and let cool slightly.  Stir together flour and salt; set aside.  Gradually stir sugar into cooled chocolate mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Spread into two 9″ round cake pans sprayed with non-stick vegetable spray.  Bake at 325 F fro 30-35 minutes.  Let cool.  Use a butter knife to loosen the brownie layer from the cake pan, scraping the knife between the outer edge of the pan and the brownie.  Turn pan upside down onto counter or table and tap until the brownie removes.  I didn’t have any problems with this falling apart at all.  It stayed together perfectly.

Buttercream Frosting:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 4½ to 5 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla
• 5 Tablespoons heavy cream or milk, (I used heavy cream)
• ¼ teaspoon salt

In a medium bowl combine butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, cream/milk and salt and beat for 5 to 7 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add more powdered sugar as needed for thicker frosting. Add cream/milk, a little at a time, to thin frosting.  (I got this recipe from Chef in Training.)

Obviously brownies are pretty darn sweet, as is frosting, and having two layers of each makes this “cake” very rich and sweet.  Have a cold glass of milk handy, and cut your pieces small!  A 9″ round cake of this size could easily feed 16 people or more.  Unless you really love brownies and are really hungry…then it might not feed quite so many people 🙂

What is your favorite non-traditional birthday dessert?
Love ~Danielle