Mommy's brownie

The reason I call it "Mommy's brownie" is because this is her creation which she introduced at  her cake shop"Gourmet Delights". This is not the conventional chewy brownie but a hybrid between the fluffy chocolate sponge cake and the chewy brownie. Trust me, it's delicious and with a lot of practice, I've come somewhat close to bringing to it the original taste! So, it deserved a spot on my blog.

Preparation time: 20 min
Baking time: 28 min
Difficulty level: low
Serves: 8-10 people
Baking temperature: 360F

Ingredients:

Eggs – 4 (at room temperature)
Butter or Oil – ¾ cup (melted and cooled)
Sugar – 2 ¼ cups
Flour – 1 1/3 cup
Baking powder – 2 teaspoons
Cocoa - ¾ cup
Salt – just a pinch
Water – 1 cup
Semi-sweet or Bitter-sweet chocolate chips - optional


Procedure:

Grease an 8" round baking pan or an 8" bundt pan with butter or oil and dust with flour. Pre-heat oven to 360F. It generally takes 10 min for the oven to pre-heat. Break the eggs and lightly mix (do not beat). Keep aside. Sieve flour, cocoa and baking powder in a mixing bowl. In another mixing  bowl mix sugar and butter. Mix in the sieved mixture to the sugar - butter mix. Add the egg mixture to this. Add salt. Add water. Gently mix till all ingredients blend together. Pour the cake batter into the greased pan. Drop a few chocolate chips. Bake for 25 - 28 min. Prick a toothpick into the cake to check if the cake is done. The toothpick must come out clean  or with minimal crumbs. It is okay to take the cake out of the oven a few minutes before it is completely done because it continues to bake for a few minutes after too. Once the cake cools (30 - 40 minutes), flip it over a wire rack to allow cooling on either sides of the cake. Allow the cake to cool completely before icing it.

Happy Baking!

Tips:

• Use parchment paper on the bottom surface of cake pan to avoid the cake from sticking to the pan.
• If the cake seems stuck to the sides of pan, scrape the sides using a plastic spatula.
• For quick cooling of the cake, toss it into the freezer for 7-9 minutes.
• For more moistness, add half cup milk to the cake batter.

Butter cream frosting

Ingredients: For a 9" x 13" cake

Butter: 1 cup unsalted (softened; ice cream like texture)

Powdered sugar: 3 cups (or more depending on required consistency)

Salt: 1/4 teaspoon

Vanilla extract: 1 tablespoon

Milk: Up to 4 tablespoons (or more depending on required consistency)

Confectioner colors: of choice

Procedure:

Beat butter for a few minutes with a hand mixer or a mixer with a paddle attachment. Add the powdered sugar and reduce the speed of the mixer to prevent the sugar from blowing around and messing up your kitchen! Continue mixing until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. You can then increase the speed of the mixer and add the vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk. Beat for another 3 minutes. You can add more sugar if you require a stiffer consistency. And to thin out the frosting, add the remaining milk (1 tablespoon at a time) since you don't want to thin it out completely. Then, if you like you can add confectioner colors of your choice. Add any amount of color depending of what color you desire. I'd suggest you make the colored frosting at one time for all of the cake since you may not get the exact color during the second run.

I tried this out for the first time for my piano teacher's grandson's birthday when I made a "Spider-man" cake for him and the kids simply loved it.