31Pins: Day 18

Cake in the form of a brownie.  Yum.

I was so going to do a "nails" pin today.  I saw a great idea about painting glitter between two layers of sheer polish.  Well, turns out I don't have the right glitter or sheer enough polish to do this!  So, here I sit with one hand done (again) at 10:20 writing this post because I did this one late in the day.

Josh needed something sweet for his lunch tomorrow, and I easily found a dessert pin to try.

Original pin: 

Click image for original recipe

Simple ingredients: cake mix (I just used the one with the sprinkles already in it), egg, oil, milk, and optional chocolate chips.

Add egg and oil first, then milk just until moist.  Aiming for a very dense cake.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

She was adamant about the edges being just golden and pulling away (the original blogger, that is).

We let it cool for a while to set up, but then tried a piece.  It is VERY GOOD.  Especially if you love cake!  No need for icing with this recipe.  It is super rich by itself. :)

I may try with chocolate if I don't have brownie mix sometime.  Might be a little different than what we are used to in a brownie, but I think it would be good!  I will update if I ever try.

"Cookies & Cream"

Remember the Tiramisu Cupcakes I made the other day?  Well, I had a bunch of extra whipped cream left over that was calling my name from the fridge.  When I was deciding what to eat it with/on, I had a flashback of celebrating my best friend's birthday at a local restaurant and eating "Cookies and Cream" for dessert.  This delicious dish consists of a warm brownie, ice cream, hot fudge/choc. syrup, and whipped cream.  I had everything but a brownie mix....  

This is not a problem, however, with about a gazillion recipes at my fingertips.  I googled "home made brownies" and scrolled down to the blogs.  The word "espresso" caught my eye and I went with it.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Brownies-with-Espresso/

The only thing I did differently was the coffee element.  Of course I did not have any espresso powder, but I have coffee.  Like the tiramisu, I ground the coffee fine and made it in my French press.  It did add extra liquid to the recipe, but it did not seem to affect it drastically.  I halved the recipe because Josh is not home to help eat them.  Unfortunately, I forgot about this "halfing" when it came to the salt, baking powder, and vanilla.  :(  

On the bright side, the extra salt balanced the extra sweetness when I topped it with the ice cream and chocolate syrup.  The home made whipped cream perfectly complimented this dessert!