Brownie butter cake

Brownie and a butter cake together. Need i say more? Yeah, didn't think so. Every other day Ro asks me, whats for dessert, do we have cake, whats for tea and the answer to this most of the time is, er chocolates? fruit? He gets distracted with those options most of the time, but otherwise he makes a face and pretends like I've deprived him of his basic necessities.

I made my custard cake sometime last month on a whim, (mostly to finish off the last of the custard powder and baking soda that had gone past expiry) and I wasn't sure it would work because expired baking soda fetches the most horrid cakes. To my surprise however, this one turned out so so good, much better than the first time and it stayed perfectly moist at room temperature for about 5 days- all i did was cover the cake pan with foil.

 

I put Ro through the torture of watching Great British Bake Off and about 2 weeks back on a Sunday evening he wanted to eat cake and trying to get me off the couch challenged me to bake a cake in 1 hr. He did the whole GBBO intro line and all, and me like an idiot fell for it. So i got around baking my mums beat and bake chocolate cake- a cake id grown up with, but never managed to get right for some strange reason. This time I was so hasty with the recipe and couldn't care if it turned out nice or not cos 1- I'm not a chocolate cake fan and 2- Ro would eat anything with chocolate, no matter how it turns out. Surprise, surprise I'd made the most perfect chocolate cake in less than an hour. I was so proud of myself, not because i did it in time, but because i managed to get the taste bang on- the taste of the cake just as i remember from my childhood. Needless to say, the husband polished it all off in no time.

Since the cake luck was prevailing right now, I decided to bake a cake again, today. When I'm in the cake baking mood, its almost always a new recipe I put to test (along with my patience). I'd bookmarked Bee's brownie butter cake ages back and had completely forgotten about it till this morning when i was scouting my bookmarked list. I checked if i had all the ingredients, and except for brown sugar, i had all the other things needed. I still decided to go ahead, substituting brown sugar for demerara sugar.

I initially thought it was going to take time, but nope, had it all done in under an hour again and its a cake that can actually make someone say wow. I am not a big fan of brownies, so i really didn't care too much for that layer, but omg the butter cake was so so good. Moist like nobody's business and so darn tasty. I must remember to make just that one of these days.

Recipe adapted from here

 

For the brownie base

Dark chocolate- 140 gms, chopped into small pieces

Unsalted butter- 50 gms

Demerera sugar- 50 gms

Egg- 1, at room temperature

Plain flour- 35 gms

For the butter cake

Unsalted butter- 120 gms, at room temperature

Granulated sugar- 100 gms

Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp

Eggs- 2, at room temperature

Plain flour- 120 gms

Baking powder- 1/2 tsp

Milk- 50 ml

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 20 x 10 cm loaf pan with baking paper.

On a bain marie melt the chocolate and butter till nice and smooth.

Take it off heat, leave aside for a couple of minutes and into it add the sugar. Whisk well

Break the egg into it, and beat till well combined.

Pour into the greased and lined loaf pan and chuck into the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes

While the brownie is baking, get on with the butter cake.

Cream together the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl till light and fluffy. You can either use a hand held blender or a spatula. I wanted it to be as simple as possible, so i didn't use my free standing mixer. Feel free to do so.

In goes the vanilla extract followed by eggs one after the other, beating well after each addition. The mix may look a bit curdled, but don't worry, the flour would sort this out.

Whisk together the plain flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and add it to the batter, alternating with the milk. 

Once the brownie comes out of the oven, reduce heat to 160C and pour the cake batter on top and immediately even it out with a spatula.

Chuck it back into the oven and bake for a further 30 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Once done, cool the cake on a rack and let the cake settle before slicing.

Notes: Like i mentioned earlier i didn't have brown sugar, so used demerara instead. Please use brown sugar if you have it.

The brownie bit was still very gooey when i cut into it around 15 minutes later. But was fine when i went back to slice it around an hour later. Yes it was torture waiting to dig in. Using a serrated knife helps.

The cake batter when poured on top of the hot brownie melts immediately. Don't panic, just don't wait but try and do the deed as quickly as possible.