Category: Recipes

I am willing to stick my neck out on this one. This is the best chocolate brownie recipe EVER!

Growing up, I have fond memories of being allowed to buy those brownies in a box as a treat, to bake at home. They usually consist of a bag of dry mixture that you have to add water to or sometimes egg or oil. Anyway, they always tasted so nice.
So, I set myself the challenge of being able to make from scratch ‘the best chocolate brownies ever’, as voted for by my daughters and me! I want to be ‘that mum’! Over the years, I have tried many brownie recipes but none ever matched up to those packet mixes.
Until now.
With trials and tweaks, at last I have the best ever recipe for perfect chocolate brownies; Soft and squishy on the inside with a glossy crust that cracks. The smell when these were cooking took me right back!

Ingredients For The Best Brownies Ever

100g plain chocolate
100g milk chocolate
200g butter
100g self raising flour
3 large eggs
150g sugar
2 Heaped tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Recipe Method For The Best Brownies Ever

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Stir whilst you are doing this to make a glossy chocolate sauce. When everything is blended, remove from the heat and add a teaspoon of vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together, until you have a creamy looking, frothy mixture.

Add the flour and whisk that in gently.

Add the melted chocolate sauce to the egg/flour mixture and whisk together.

I use a wonder whisk (small hand whisk) but you could use a balloon whisk or electric whisk if you wanted to.
This is how your chocolate brownie cake batter should look.

Then pour into your pan. I actually use a pyrex dish lined with foil and greaseproof paper.

Bake at 175 degrees C for approx 20 minutes. You know there are ready when you put a skewer in, and it comes out with bits of cake on it, not liquid brownie batter. Keep an eye on it and use your baking skills to assess whether it needs to come out sooner or later. You don’t want a dry brownie or an uncooked brownie.

These brownies are the best chocolate brownies ever! They have a light crisp to the top and a slight sheen, and the inside is soft and chocolatey and moist.

This recipe makes enough for two x 8.5 by 8.5 inch square cakes – I cut these into 12 pieces, yielding 24 of the best chocolate brownies ever in total.

So to recap – 6 steps to the perfect chocolate brownies

1. Melt chocolate & butter together in bowl one. Add vanilla
2. Whisk eggs and sugar together in bowl two.
3. Add flour to bowl two.
4. Add contents of bowl one to bowl two. Whisk
5. Bake
6. Eat

Leave me a comment if you try this recipe, and let me know if you agree that they are indeed the best brownies ever!

This sticky lemon cake is certain to win itself a place amongst your best and favourite recipes.  It requires a little forethought as I find that this a cake best enjoyed on days 2 and 3 (if it lasts that long) but trust me, it is worth the patience.

This is not a heavy cake.  This is a light, lemony and moist cake, perfect as a mid-morning snack, or equally as a guaranteed people-pleaser for afternoon tea. You could even serve it warm with custard as the ideal comfort food or pudding. However you eat your version of this cake

Ingredients For The Cake

4oz butter

40z caster sugar

40z self-raising flour

lemon essence OR  (lemon juice & lemon zest)

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

 

Ingredients For the syrup

8oz sugar

125ml water

lemon essence OR lemon zest and lemon juice

 

Recipe Method

Cream your butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy. Beat your 2 eggs.  Add half the flour to your creamed butter and sugar, then blend in half the beaten egg. At this point, add your lemon essence or lemon juice and lemon zest. Then add the rest of your flour and baking powder before adding the rest of the egg. I like to use a wonder whisk to ensure a nice smooth batter.

Transfer your sticky lemony cake mixture to a greased and floured tin, and bake for 18-21 minutes, until it has gone a lovely golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

When baked, allow 5 mins to cool before releasing it from the cake tin. Then use a skewer to poke holes all the way to the base of the cake. The more holes, the better. Try to ensure an even distribution as this will make the syrup step more effective.

Next we make the syrup. Add the sugar and water to a pan and bring gently to the boil, swilling the water round to encourage the sugar crystals to dissolve. You want to let this mixture bubble away for around 5 mins. Keep an eye on it as if it starts to burn, your syrup will be discoloured and not tasting at its best. Once you turn off the heat, add in your lemon essence OR lemon juice and zest, and decant into a cup to cool.

Now this next step is a labour of love, but it is ultimately what makes this cake shine. At 10 minute intervals, you want to spoon a little bit of your lemon syrup over the cake, allowing it to trickle down in the holes. If you’ve ever made a Christmas cake, it’s like the process of feeding the cake with alcohol. It’ll take about an hour or so to saturate your lemon cake with the syrup. Then all you need to do is wait for 24 hours and dig in. *This may be impossible. Just eat the cake when you want! Let me know what you think if you try it!

You can serve it on its own or with some lemon cream and strawberries, or raspberries. This cake differs from a lemon drizzle cake as there is no crunchiness. This is soft, fluffy, moist, lemon loveliness! I hope you love it as much as I do!

 

 

Ode To My Sticky Lemon Cake

I love your moist deliciousness.

I love your lemony crumb.

I love your sticky indulgence.

You were made to fill my tum!

I’ll serve you up with strawberries

Or simply by yourself.

In fact, dear sticky lemon cake,

I’m keeping you all to myself!

Poem Ode To My Sticky Lemon Cake and recipe Ⓒ Ms Moem