Brownie Cake

Brownies are god's gift to women who want chocolate and want cake as well. This recipe creates what can only be the most gorgeously chocolatey gooey cake in the work. I lifted this recipe from my official favourite website ever - joy of baking. On that site they call it a Brownie Tart, however the lack of pastry in the dessert makes this name rub me the wrong way. So I shall call it......a cake!

Technicalities aside, the recipe mades one damned good brownie cake. The combination of cocoa powder, cream cheese and dark chocolate makes my toes curl, and licking the spoon clean of uncooked batter, I was reminded of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream. Speaking of, after using my mother as a (very willing) guinea pig, she suggested serving the Brownie Cake with some ice-cream, which is a brilliant idea. Something not too sweet as the Brownie Cake is quite rich.

So although there is a link to the recipe above, here are my (slightly altered) ingredients and recipe.

For the brownie cake:

85g chocolate (I used Thorntons milk chocolate from a leftover birthday chocolate slab)

200g unsalted butter (no-one said brownies were healthy)

45g cocoa powder (Asda - £1.48 for 250g)

3 eggs (I'm sure they said large for a reason but medium is just as good it seems)

85g cream cheese (Mascapone cheese)

250 granulated sugar

65g plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon vanilla essence (I only had vanilla flavouring-but it works)

(110g toasted & chopped walnuts or pecans-not for me)

For the ganache bits (posh chocolate chips really):

60g dark chocolate (I used Godiva dark with 72% cacao)

80ml whipping cream (whipping, not double, not single, not whipped)

Now for the recipe:

• Melt the butter and chocolate for the brownie cake over a pan of simmering water.
• To this chocolate mix, beat in the cocoa then the sugar. (joyofbaking lady uses a hand mixer, but whisks are easier to wash up)
• Add the eggs (the recipe says one at a time but I beat them all separately first then add a bit at a time)
• Beat in the vanilla and the cream cheese.
• Mix in the flour and salt (by hand this time, all you hand-mixer users)
• Add the nuts here if you must, but toast them first for 10 minutes in the oven at 177°C/350°F.
• Pop the mixture into a 9inch loose bottomed tin, or a 7inch tin with the leftover in a muffin tin, which is greased and the bottom lined with parchment/grease-proof paper. (Trust me this batter leaks without the greaseproof. We live and learn. However if like me you put the tin on a baking tray, then you lose very little batter).
• Put your batter into the preheated oven at 165°C/325°F and leave there for 25-30. (The ones in the muffin tea will be good and gooey if you take 'em out after 20minutes).
  

If ever there was a batter to eat raw, it is this one. OMG it is delicious-I have to admit that less of the batter made it to the oven than I had originally made. So, here is my brownie in the batter stage:

Now when they're done cooking in the oven, butter the end of a wooden spoon and poke holes in them. Then fill them with the ganache, directions for making it are below:

• Boil the whipping cream, then pour it over the chopped up pieces of chocolate.
• Mix it in and let it sit for a few minutes before putting it into the holes with a teaspoon.

And voila....Brownie Cake and Mini Brownie Cakes

So I hope you make this and have a great time eating this. I have and will. After I let it chill in the fridge overnight. Happy baking!

student_gourmand