Brownie Butter Cake | Manju's Eating Delights turned 5!

I'm several weeks late in celebrating my blog's birthday but well these days I'm just not able to keep up with anything...Lol!
Though I wouldn't call last year a successful one at blogging as I was literally MIA for almost 9-10 months, this space is still thriving and it still has a lot of loyal followers. I'm so thankful for the love and attention you all give to this space and thereby to me as well. Muah!!

Manju's Eating Delights published it's first blog post on Oct 15th, 2011. Since then it's been my passion, stress buster and companion all along. I love to cook, bake, take pictures of the food I cook and of my family and my favorite part is sharing it here on this little space where I can pen my thoughts, share my opinions and ofcourse safekeep recipes and memories like an online diary of sorts. I started this blog when my son was a sweet little 3 month old and now he's 5years old and now I have another sweet little 3 month old girl. I love my family and they keep me going. 

As many of you know I love Cakes. No celebration according to me is complete without some cake. I've had my eyes on these Brownie Butter cakes ever since I saw a pic of them on Bee's space via Pinterest.  Btw...I just love Pinterest. My other love is Food Network and I can get spend any number of hours immersed in both :-P

These are so easy to make and its the best of both worlds.  In one bite you get a mouth melting butter cake and rich chocolaty brownie. Yumm!

The Butter Cake here is a killer I tell you. It just melts in your mouth. It's one of the best recipes I've tried and makes a perfect 6" cake if you want to make just the cake by itself.

For the Chocolate Brownie portion, if you prefer a sweeter brownie either use Sugar in your recipe or use semi-sweet chocolate chips. I felt the original recipe of Dark chocolate chips with brown sugar resulted in a rather less sweet brownie but the sweetness form Butter Cake makes up for that. So it's your call.

Brownie Butter Cake

Makes 1 loaf cake or one 6" round cake

You’ll Need

For Brownie

5oz Dark Chocolate (Or use Semi-Sweet Chocolate)

¼ cup unsalted Butter

¼ cup Brown Sugar (Or regular Sugar)

1 Egg

¼ cup All purpose Flour

For Butter cake

½ cup unsalted Butter

½ cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1 cup sifted  All purpose Flour

¼ teaspoon Baking powder

3 ½ Tablespoons Milk

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

2. Grease and line a loaf pan with parchment paper  (Loaf pan size : 4”x8”)

To make brownie

1. Using double boiler method, melt chocolate and butter and once mildly cooled,  add in brown sugar (or regular sugar) and mix until sugar is fully blended in.

2. Add in the egg and mix well. Finally fold in the flour and mix until everything is combined.

3. Pour the brownie batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven.

To make Butter cake

1. In a bowl, beat Butter and Sugar until smooth and creamy.

2. Add in the eggs one at a time and beat it well.

3. Sift and combine the All-purpose flour and baking powder and fold it in alternating with milk and mix well to form a smooth and thick batter.

4. Reduce oven temp to 320F and spread the butter cake batter very quickly over the brownie and bake for 25-30 minutes or until fully baked. A toothpick inserted in the cake should come out clean.

Some Notes:

1. For the Brownie if you prefer a sweeter taste, use regular Sugar instead of brown sugar. Else use Semi-Sweet Chocolate chips instead of Dark Chocolate.

2. The cake batter when spread over the hot brownie may start to melt, so we need to spread it very quickly or pipe it on using a piping bag.

3. This entire brownie Butter Cake can also be made in a 6”x3” round cake pan if you do not have the correct loaf pan. I used mini loaf pans and adjusted my baking time accordingly.

Source: RasaMalaysia

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Do try this out, trust me, you won't be disappointing! I sign-off now wishing myself plenty more years of blogging ahead and a deep heartfelt Thank you to all who are with me :-)

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-Manju

Katherine Hepburn Brownies - the best brownies ever!

I should ideally be sharing something that has to do with Apples or Pumpkins or Halloween to stay with the seasonal craze that's going on all over blogosphere with the onset of Fall.  Our green lawn is completely filled with yellow and orange maple leaves and all kinds of other colorful leaves that's fallling away to glory and I must admit, it does look pretty even with all the added work of now blowing away the fallen leaves and collecting them apart from lawn mowing!

But there’s one thing that definitely ‘all-time and any season’ to me, and that’s Chocolate!!!  I’m very much a chocoholic in every sense. Give me a choice of desserts and you’ll always see me pick up something that has chocolate in it. 

            " Whether I’m happy or sad, yellow or blue, all I need is you…Chocolate! " 

Hey that rhymed…well, somewhat….and I totally just made it up :-D 

Lil’Appu has started learning about colors at his daycare so I spend all my time asking him what color is your shirt, what color is your spoon, what color is your toothbrush etc, hence the mention of colors in the rhyme as well, yellow and blue being his current fav ones, which keeps changing every other day!

Lil’Appu has his mommy’s taste buds and is ready for a chocolaty treat anytime. So I have company at home…or should I say competition with Manish included? ;-) 
And the fact that my b'day is just 2 days away I'm already considering something chocolate for the day, but I donno if I'll prepare my own b'day cake (I kinda find that weird) and I'd rather have someone pamper me with something they made or brought than me cooking/baking on my b'day...anyways its a working day for us, so plans are limited :-)

These brownies are popularly known as Katherine Hepburn Brownies, named after the legendary American actress Katherine Hepburn, ‘coz its believed she is the creator of this marvelous recipe. They are so smooth, chocolaty and fudgy and absolutely melts in your mouth. I mean like literally melts in your mouth...trust me!

They are so simple to make and I even read somewhere that the consistency is such that even if you over-bake these brownies a bit, they still remain fudgy & chewy…now, I have NOT verified this point, but isn’t that good ? They turn out with a crusty top and a soft and chewy interior and are just yumm!  These will forever be my go-to recipe for Brownies for sure.

Read this before you start:

These brownies may stick to your pan like crazy, especially in the middle….I had to literally scrape them off the pan, breaking the brownie into bits and pieces to get them out the first time I baked these, inspite of greasing & flouring my pan.

So cut out a wax paper or parchment paper that will cover the bottom of your pan. Grease your pan, put in the wax paper, grease the wax paper and dust with flour and then add brownie batter. Once baked, the brownie will come out easily and just peel the wax paper away…simple!

Katherine Hepburn Brownies

Recipe source: Joy of Baking

Makes approx 16 brownies if cut into squares

You'll Need

Unsweetened Chocolate, coarsely chopped - 2 ounces (60 grams)

Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces – ½ cup (113 grams)

Granulated white Sugar - 1 cup (200 grams)

Eggs - 2 large

Pure Vanilla extract – ½ teaspoon

All-purpose flour – ¼ cup (30 grams)

Salt - a pinch

Chopped Walnuts or Pecans (optional) - 1 cup (100 grams)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F (165C) and place rack in center of oven.

2. Cutout a wax paper to cover bottom of an 8” square baking pan. Butter the pan on all sides, put in the wax paper, butter the wax paper and dust with flour  on all sides.

3. Melt the chocolate and butter in a stainless steel/glass bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water.

4. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Next, stir in the vanilla extract and eggs. Finally, stir in the flour, salt and chopped nuts (if using).

5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 - 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve at room temperature or chilled. 

Some points:

1. I have used Semi-Sweetened Chocolate as well for these brownies and they still taste great.

2.  I have baked these in my 9”round cake pan as well with a reduced baking time, and though it was thinner, the brownies tasted great and you can cut them into triangular wedges and pretend it’s a cake slice instead ;-)

3. A scoop of vanilla Ice Cream or some whipped cream would really be good on these brownies…yeah!

I made these for our close family friends who were leaving from Minneapolis and they had planned to drive down to another state where they would be settling down with their 3 small children. As the drive was long I felt it would be nice for them to have something to munch on and I made these brownies for a chocolaty snack. As I wasn't sure if any of the kids were allergic to nuts, I omitted from adding walnuts for them. I later tried these for ourselves with the Walnuts, and trust me, both ways these brownies will blow your mind. 

So try them out any time you crave for Brownies or anything Chocolate :-) 

Happy Fall you All !!  Another rhyming sentence, I guess I'm in a mood for rhymes today...Teehee...

-Manju