June 15, 2016
A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my roommates birthday and shared a recipe for baked eggs that I made for breakfast. She is a lover of savory, so it was a perfect breakfast to make her for her birthday. However, that weekend she had a few people around to celebrate her birthday, and so I thought it was only fitting that I plan out a birthday cake for her. She got a pretty amazing actual birthday cake at work (it was a wagon wheel cake complete with white and dark chocolate mudcake and an amazing chocolate ganache), so I decided to try something a little different. After all, as much as I can think of nothing better than a huge, delicious, sugary cake, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Because we were also having people around and having bits and pieces of food, I thought it might be better to have something that people could eat easily, rather than a cake that required spoons and plates. Less washing up is also a plus in these situations!
So I was trawling the internet as I do when faced with a cooking conundrum, and I saw a picture that got me thinking outside of the box. Sometimes all you need is a picture of something to spark an idea in your head, and that’s why I love using Pinterest to come up with ideas. Usually it ends up in a time sink where I pin a million recipes I’m unlikely to ever try, but occasionally I find something that I can use right there and then.
The picture was of an idea for an unconventional birthday cake, and was a glorious stack of brownies. Someone had baked a batch of brownies and stacked them artistically in a beautiful pile of chocolate goodness. They had then decorated the brownie tower with flowers, butterflies and different coloured candles. The end result was a beautiful looking unconventional cake that offered something different but looked so delicious. I decided that this was what I wanted to cook. Not only was it something a little simpler than a cake that you need to frost, it was also easy to eat for our guests. It was the perfect solution for her birthday party, especially as I was a little time poor that weekend, so I needed something I could make quite quickly that would still be super delicious.
I’ve made many brownies in my time, and normally I make my sister’s brownies because they are fool proof and always absolutely delicious. But I decided this time to try something new, because my roommate has had those brownies before and I felt that this called for something a bit different. She loves colourful things, and so when I found a recipe for funfetti blondies I decided that those were the ones I wanted to cook. I mean what says birthday more than multi coloured blondies? I think that takes the cake (ha-ha…get it?). I know they aren’t really brownies, but blondies are a super delicious alternative. For those who don’t know, blondies are brownies without the dark chocolate, which sounds a bit weird, but trust me, the caramel flavour you get from these is divine! I also added white chocolate which brought them to the next level.
- ¾ cup of unsalted butter roughly chopped
- 2 packed cups of light brown sugar
- 3 eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 2 and ¾ cups of plain flour
- 2 and a ½ teaspoons of baking powder
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of white chocolate chips
- 1/3 – ½ cup of 100’s and 1000’s sprinkles This is up to personal preference. I put heaps in because I wanted them really colourful
- For cake decoration: wafer flowers or butterflies or sugar flowers from the supermarket, and sparklers or candles.
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Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). Line a baking tin with baking paper and set aside.
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In a medium sized saucepan over a low-medium heat, stir the butter and brown sugar until the butter melts and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.
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Pour the sugar mixture into a large bowl and add the eggs one at a time, stirring to combine after each is added. Stir in the vanilla extract.
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In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this to the sugar mixture and stir to mix well. Fold in the white chocolate chips and sprinkles.
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Pour the batter into the baking tin and smooth over with a spatula. Bake in the oven for 25-28 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom. If you want the brownies to be fudgy, leave them in for less time. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into squares once completely cool.
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For the cake: Get a plate and start stacking the brownies on top of one another until you have a bit of a tower. Add your chosen decorations intermittently around the cake, and set aside until serving. You can also dust with icing sugar or additional sprinkles if you’d like. Place candles in right before you are ready to sing happy birthday.
Unfortunately, the 100’s and 1000’s that I used didn’t really retain their colour, which meant that they were a bit lost in the blondies once they were baked. But, regardless of this, these blondies were packed full of delicious caramel flavour which worked beautifully with the white chocolate. They were absolutely amazing, and I ate two on the night because they were so good.
This blondie recipe actually yields brownies that are a little more like a cookie in their consistency, so slightly less fudgy than what I’d normally like. But this worked really well for the structural integrity of the tower, and I think the butter and brown sugar base really leant itself to the texture. You could leave these blondies in the oven for less time though if you weren’t stacking them, as they would be just as delicious with a slightly more brownie like texture.
I loved how simple this recipe was. Brownies and blondies usually are, which is great when you are time poor. I love a recipe where you can use one spoon for the whole recipe to stir up ingredients, and ones where you barely need to do any washing up! For such a simple, easy and fast recipe, these blondies were absolutely delicious. It goes to show that sometimes you don’t need to spend hours in the kitchen to yield amazing results.
These blondies were a hit, and my roommate loved her cake. They were a great alternative to a traditional birthday cake, as it was nice an easy for people to eat, and you didn’t need to fiddle around with cutting a cake (this is important especially if everyone is drinking haha). The best part was that we had some leftover and so we were able to enjoy them for days to come.
Until next time, happy eating!
Ella xx
