Chocolate Brownies with Cocoa Cream Cheese Frosting

These brownies are divine!

Moist, rich brownies smothered in a cocoa cream cheese frosting -

wonderful!

Perfect for parties or large gatherings.

This recipe is adapted from: Cooking Classy

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, & salt. Set aside.

In a seperate mixing bowl, mix sugar, brown sugar, and butter with wooden spoon until fully mixed together. Stir in eggs and vanilla and mix until just blended. 

Add half of the flour mixture that was set aside & stir with wooden spoon until just combined. Add milk and mix in slowly while adding the other half of flour mixture. Stir all until just combined. The batter will be very thick.

Grease a 8x8 cooking dish with butter and flour or cooking spray. Spread the brownie mixture evenly on the bottom and bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. Cool completely. 

Frosting recipe:

5 oz cream cheese, softened

3 tablespoon butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder

In a large mixing bowl, with a hand mixer, whip together cream cheese & butter until light and fluffy on medium speed. Add in vanilla, powdered sugar and cocoa until light and fluffy.

Spread over top of brownies

&

ENJOY!

Shark Cake

My little boy LOVES sharks - seriously, just loves them.

We had a "ShArK" party that was lots of fun!

We made this shark cake & it was a hit!

SHARK CAKE tutorial:

Bake 2 cakes in a 9x13 can pan. 

When cool, get a large dinner plate and place on 1 cake.

Cut along the edges of the circle with a sharp knife.

Repeat cutting out circle on cake 2.

Take out circle on cake 1 and set aside.

On cake two - take out circle and cut the circle into a moon shape for the tail (as shown above)

Cut out 3 fins either out of the rest of the circle or the extra cake in the pan.

Put shark together on a large tray.

For frosting, add a couple drops of blue food dye to your favorite frosting, but leave 1 cup of the frosting white. If you do not want to use dye, use blueberry juice from a frozen bag of blueberries.

For a classic buttercream frosting click here.
Now, start frosting!

Start with the mouth. With a frosting spatula, spread the white frosting over the large circle into a mouth shape. However you want it to look. We did ours like above.
Now, frost the rest of your cake with the blue frosting.
Make sure you frost the creases well so it blends together.
For the mouth,
we bought black "red vines" licorice and peeled off strings of licorice.
We cut, laid, and peiced them into a perfect smiling mouth.
For the eyes,
we bought licorice circles, the ones that come in the plastic tubs with black and all different colors of licorice, and then we just placed a glob of frosting on top. If I had to do it again - I would buy Junior Mints .. much easier :)
For decorations, we just cut fish out of cardstock paper and taped them onto a toothpick.
You can add fun blue sprinkles, or whatever you would like!
Enjoy!

Classic buttercream frosting

Classic Buttercream Frosting:

For cupcakes, cakes, & decorating - this frosting is a recipe must.

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

8 oz powdered sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoon vanilla

In a large mixing bowl, add soft butter.

While mixing, add 4 cups of powdered sugar, milk and then vanilla.

Mix well.

Add the remaining powdered sugar until you get your perfect consistency.

From my grandma's kitchen

ENJOY!