So, these brownies won a bake-off...

You won't believe this, but I never took one picture during this whole process. I knew I wanted to put these brownies on my blog since I first made them, but I couldn't post them until a special event took place---- a Brownie Bake-Off!

It all started with a brownie. I brought a brownie (not one of these) to a lady I work with. She decided that we should have a brownie bake-off. I become one of five contestants. I choose featured brownies. I make two trial batches of brownies. I mess up a pan of my beautiful brownies when taking them out of oven for the bake-off. I fall down steps while carrying afore-mentioned brownies. I am just more than ready to be done with these brownies.

The winning brownies were the following: http://www.joyofbaking.com/barsandsquares/CreamCheeseBrownies.html. One thing this recipe suggested that I found quite helpful was to stir the batter by hand rather than a mixer. I think this might possibly help matters a little bit. These brownies are not for those who do not like themselves a good, super moist, super fudgey brownie. Because they are all of the above.

This is the first recipe that I have added some personal twists to . I added flour, subtracted sugar, divided the baking time, and I multiplied all times two and came up with a slightly different answer.

My Revised Edition---

Ingredients:

Brownie Layer
1. Approx. 13 tblsp of margarine
2. 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
3. 2 cups sugar
4. 2 tsps vanilla extract
5. 4 large eggs
6. 1 1/2 cups flour (although I think you could add even another 1/4 cup)
7. 1/2 tsp salt

Cream Cheese Layer
1. 16 ozs cream cheese
2. 2/3 cups sugar
3. 2 tsps vanilla extract
4. 2 large eggs


Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 9x13 pan. The first time I made this recipe, I followed it to the letter and line the pan with aluminum foil. This was the first and last time I ever plan on doing that. It stuck to the brownies and was just very annoying. I don't know about you, but I do not relish the thought of eating foil. From that attempt on, I simply sprayed the pan with cooking spray.

Put chocolate chips and butter together and heat them at 30-second intervals in the microwave
until they are melted. Once melted, stir in the sugar and vanilla. Once these are combined, stir in eggs one at a time. Stir in the flour and salt until thoroughly blended. Set aside 1 cup of batter to top the pan off with. Pour rest of batter into the prepared pan. I then cooked this for ten minutes while I prepared the cream cheese layer. Ten minutes will not cook it through at all and it won't even look remotely like it was in the oven, but I think this helped take away some of the mushiness.

Next, you will need a hand mixer to prepare the cream cheese layer. First, you will need to whip up the cream cheese by itself. After it is thoroughly whipped up, add in the sugar, vanilla and eggs until it appears creamy and smooth without any cream cheese lumps. Pour mixture over the batter. Top with dollops of the set aside batter.

Cook for 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. The cream cheese layer should appear set and not bounce all over the place. I then let them cool and then of course they are to be refrigerated. I personally prefer them cold, but have been told that they are good warm.

So, here they are. My winning brownies. I'm not sure how soon I will make them again, as I have had quite a few lately, but when I do, I will take pictures and post them.

Not a big fan of chocolate... try this Apple-Cinnamon Cake.

I needed to make a cake for a friend's birthday... the problem(s)? Well, this friend doesn't like chocolate, and making a plain-Jane cake is a challenge to me. I much prefer making cheesecake or cupcakes, but I decided to rise to the challenge rather than deflate in defeat. Last year, my sister made a snickerdoodle cake... yea, snickerdoodle like the cookie (btw, I am not a big fan of the cookie). It was a really yummy cake, and I really am not a big fan of eating plain-Jane cake, anymore than I am of making it. I decided that I too, would make a Snickerdoodle cake. I went online and searched for recipes for Snickerdoodle cake. Most of the recipes were the same, except this one (http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,186,133188-245193,00.html). It caught my eye because its liquid ingredient was different than all the others-applesauce rather then milk. I like different, so I went with different.

My sister had said that the one thing she had not liked about her cake was that it was a little dry. I hadn't noticed, but I decided I was going to try and watch for that when making mine anyway. After I had mixed all the ingredients together, I decided the cake did need a little more moisture, so I added a little milk. I didn't measure it, but if I had to guesstimate, I'd say that it was about an 1/8 of a cup. I must also say that when I first looked at this recipe I was confused as to what I was supposed to do with the cinnamon. After looking at a couple of the other recipes, I decided that I was going to put some cinnamon in the batter and then sprinkle some of it over the greased pan. Armed with this decision and determination and delight and... ok, I'll stop there, I made the cake.


SNICKERDOODLE CAKE

1 cup applesauce
2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon soda
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cinnamon (divided)
approx. 1/8 cup of milk


Preheat oven to 400°F.

Per the recipe, I combined all the ingredients (1/2 of the cinnamon included) in the order they are listed, using my KitchenAid to mix them. I then sprinkled the rest of the cinnamon mixed with sugar over the greased 9x13 pan.

The recipe said to let it bake for 15 minutes and then bake it for 5 minute intervals afterwards if not done. I think that I ended up baking it for 25 minutes.


Buttercream Frosting:
http://www.food.com/recipe/Cinnamon-Buttercream-Frosting-77534

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3 -4 tablespoons milk (I used half and half instead)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat butter. The recipe itemizes when and how to put each ingredient in. I think that I just put all the ingredients in at one time and beat them them in to the right consistency. When finished, spread it on the cake.

The cake turned out pretty good. It didn't really taste very cinnamony until I put the frosting on. After that though, the main taste was cinnamon. (I loved the frosting, btw)