King Arthur Fudge Brownies For Nanny’s 93rd Birthday

King Arthur Brownies

This past weekend we headed out to Gordon, Texas to celebrate my great aunt Nanny’s 93rd birthday! A small group of our extended family came out, and we had a blast.

Nanny LOVES chocolate so my mom and sister and I made her these King Arthur Fudge Brownies. We brought four containers of individually wrapped brownies so Nanny could freeze them and pull them out one at a time when she had a craving for something sweet.

Of course before we gave Nanny her brownies, they had to pass the “taste test” with my Dad. 🙂 They passed his test, as well as mine. True to their name, they are nice and fudgy and would be perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!

Birthday — Nanny with her great grandkids and great niece. Let’s cut into the cake already!

For the whole family, my cousin Brooke made her grandmother Nanny a chocolate cake, as seen above. Her little 2 year old boys loved it, and while they are only two years old, they definitely know the word, “more”! lol.

We had a great time in Gordon as usual and want to thank Aunt Jan and Uncle Kimmy for hosting and for the great BBQ. We had delicious sausage, briquet, baked beans, fresh fruit and a strawberry spinach salad. Yum!

Happy Birthday again Nanny, and can’t wait until the 94th!

King Arthur Fudge Brownies

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Serves: 24

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. expresso powder
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13-inch pan and set aside.
In a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat briefly, just until it’s hot (about 110-120 degrees F), but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating this mixture the second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.
Transfer the sugar mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir in the cocoa, baking powder, salt, espresso powder and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth.
Add the flour and chocolate chips. Stir until smooth.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and let cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

Mallory’s Chocolate Meringue Pie

Matt’s birthday was last month and so to keep the tradition going, I made Mrs. Kelm’s chocolate cake…. the BEST birthday cake in our world, and one that has been made over and over again for the past 25 years. Click HERE for the recipe.

While you can’t beat Mrs. Kelm’s chocolate cake as a birthday cake, you can’t beat Mallory’s chocolate meringue pie as a birthday pie!

Mallory is a sweet friend of ours from church who came to see Harper when Harper was just a few weeks old. Mallory also made us a homemade chocolate meringue pie which was to die for. It’s hard to believe Mallory is only in the sixth grade and only just got her very first Kitchen Aid stand mixer for Christmas. You’d have thought she had been baking for years!

The first time she made us her chocolate meringue pie, she delivered it to us pipping hot and just out of the oven. Matt has no patience for waiting for desserts to cool, so he dug right in, and thus I wasn’t able to get a good picture for the blog.

We made it known to Mallory how good her pie was, so when she saw Matt’s birthday announced in the church bulletin, she decided to surprise him and bake another chocolate pie!

Had I known she was baking the pie, I probably wouldn’t have made him Mrs. Kelm’s chocolate cake. Ends up, Matt totally ditched my cake, and ate the ENTIRE chocolate meringue pie in just 3 days!! I think I ate only one tiny sliver of the pie because I knew how much Matt adored it, and I didn’t want to eat all of HIS birthday pie…. even though I could have had one or two or three more slices myself. 🙂

Enjoy, and thank you Mallory for sharing your homemade chocolate meringue pie with us. I only hope I can make it as well as you can!

chocolate meringue pie

Mallory’s Chocolate Pie

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 8

Source: our friend Mallory

Ingredients

CHOCOLATE PIE:
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 cups milk
3 Tbsp. butter
3 egg yolks (save the whites)
4 Tbsp. cocoa
6 Tbsp. flour
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 baked pie crust
MERINGUE
4 egg whites
6 Tbsp. sugar

Instructions

TO MAKE THE CHOCOLATE PIE: Mix the flour, milk, sugar, cocoa and egg yolks over low heat until thick, stirring frequently in a pot. Remove heat and add vanilla and butter, mix well.
Pour into baked pie crust.
TO MAKE THE MERINGUE: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine egg whites and sugar. Add egg whites one at a time. It will thicken up. Beat until it forms stiff white peaks. Add to pie and bake until golden brown, about 15-16 minutes.

Classic Vanilla Tres Leche Cake

Classic Vanilla Tres Leche Cake is the ultimate summer party and birthday cake! My mom recently celebrated a birthday, and requested we make this gorgeous-looking dessert that we discovered in the June/July issue of Fine Cooking Magazine.

Soaked in sweet milk topped with billowy whipped cream, this Latin-American inspired dessert was also addicting and did not disappoint! Luscious and moist, while not mushy, the tres leche cake was sweet, but not too sweet. It had a cloud-like texture from the egg whites, which created an airiness that helped soak up the milk mixture later.

Three milks make up the soaking mixture, in which the cake gets its Spanish name: “tres leches.” Condensed milk adds sweetness, while evaporated milk and whole milk lightens the cake’s texture.

The whipped topping finishes the cake off. While some tres leches cakes are topped with meringe, this one uses sweetened whipped cream. (We actually used Cool Whip, which was easier and just as tasty). Layer it on thick and garnish with sliced fruit, nuts, chocolate shavings or coconut.

Enjoy!

*P.S. >>> There are four different variations of this tres leche cake: chocolate, coconut, cafe con leche or boozy berry, as seen below.

After baking the cake and letting it cool, prick the cake to the bottom with a toothpick in 1/2-inch intervals.

Fine Cooking Magazine…classic vanilla tres leches cake

After pouring soaking liquid onto the cake, prepare frosting (or simply top cake with Cool Whip).

Combine berries and lime zest.

Spoon berries over frosting.

Be prepared to dig in!

Enjoy!

Classic Vanilla Tres Leche Cake
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE
Unsalted buter; softened, for the pan
4 1/2 oz (1 cup) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup whole milk
3/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract

FOR THE SOAKING LIQUID
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
Pinch kosher salt

FOR THE FROSTING
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 Tbsp. confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
*(to save on time, just use Cool Whip for the frosting)

TOPPING
2 cups strawberries
2 cups raspberries
1 tsp. grated lime zest

Directions
BAKE THE CAKE
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13-inch Pyrex baking dish or a non-reactive metal pan. Line the bottom of the baking dish or pan with parchment and lightly butter the parchment.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
4. Separate the eggs, putting the whites in a medium bowl and the yolks in a large bowl. With an electric mixer, beat the yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on medium speed until the mixture is pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the milk and vanilla and beat until combined, 1 minute more.
5. Clean and dry the beaters and then beat the egg whites, gradually increasing the speed to high, until they reach soft peaks, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a stream, continuing to beat on high, until you reach firm but not dry peaks, 1 to 2 minutes more.
6. Whisk a third of the dry ingredients into the yolk mixture until thoroughly combined. Gently fold in a third of the egg whites with a rubber spatula. Fold in the remaining dry ingredients and egg whites, alternatively, in two more batches each, until fully incorporated.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared dish or pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean from the center, 20 to 25 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then invert the cake onto the rack, remove the parchment, and let cool completely. Return the cake to the baking dish or pan (the cake will soak up more of the liquid if returned to the pan it was baked in), or invert it onto a rimmed platter.
SOAK THE CAKE
8. In a 2-quart saucepan, stir together the condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream, and salt until the condensed milk is well blended. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring to avoid scorching, until it begins to bubble around the edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour into a heatproof 4-cup measuring cup.
9. With a toothpick, prick the cake to the bottom in 1/2-inch intervals. Pour the soaking liquid slowly over the cake, starting at the edges and pausing to let it soak in before adding more. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the cake is well chilled, at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.
TOP THE CAKE
10. In a large bowl, beat the heavy cream with an electric mixer on medium speed. When it begins to thicken, slowly add the sugar and vanilla and continue to beat just until it holds firm peaks, 3 to 4 minutes (be careful not to over beat).
11. Spread the whipped cream (or Cool Whip) all over the top of the cake and serve.
12. Combine berries and lime zest. Spoon over whipped topping.

Yield: 12-16 servings
Recipe from: Fine Cooking June/July 2012

*Variations
To make a chocolate version of the classic or any of the following variations, replace 1/3 cup of the flour with the unsweetened cocoa powder.

TOASTED COCONUT
In the soaking liquid, substitute one 13.5-oz can unsweetened coconut milk for the cream. Beat 3 Tbsp. dark rum into the whipped cream topping with the sugar and vanilla. Scatter 1 cup lightly toasted flaked coconut over the topping.

BOOZY BERRY
Beat 3 Tbsp. gin or tequila into the whipped cream topping with the sugar and vanilla. Combine 2 cups each raspberries and sliced strawberries with 1 tsp. finely grated lemon or lime zest. Spoon over topping.

CAFE CON LECHE
In the soaking liquid, substitute strong brewed coffee for 1/2 cup of the evaporated milk. For the topping, stir 1 tsp. instant coffee into 2 Tbsp. of the cream until dissolved. Add the remaining cream and beat as directed. Sprinkle the topping with toasted slivered almonds or chocolate curls.