“Pricey” Brownies

At some point after we started dating my now husband decided that box-mix brownies were a waste of time. He came up with the following recipe and it has stood the test of time. These are a dense, slightly chewy, brownie with a deep chocolate taste.

The name “pricey” comes from the fact that Ted calls for high quality chocolate. We typically use a bittersweet chocolate that we get from King Arthur Flour. The original recipe called for Scharffen Berger Bittersweet Chocolate. We’ve used the Ghiradelli Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar with good success. The use of chocolate chips, no matter the quality, isn’t allowed when Ted makes these. 🙂

Brightly Colored Cakes

One of our regular Saturday night attendees turned 4 while we were off at a wedding reception last weekend.  We decided to have a cake for him this week and Ted experimented with paste food coloring for the first time.  The results were bright and Muppetesque.

Here’s a shot of the cake just after they came out of the oven.

The lighting wasn’t great where I took this shot of the assembled cake.

A Slice of Colorful Cake!

The filling between the layers is butter frosting mixed with blackberry jam. There is also a layer of blackberry jam spread over the layers to add a bit of extra blackberry yumminess. Multi-colored sprinkles finished off the top of the cake.

Fruit Swirl bars

My mom has made this recipe for as long as I can remember. Something tells me the recipe originally came off the back of one of the ingredients somewhere back in the 70s. No matter, it still evokes childhood for me.

Fruit Swirl Bars

Ingredient list
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup shortening
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
2 cans cherry pie filling

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease the bottom of a 13″x9″ baking pan.

In a bowl mix to combine all ingredients except the pie filling. The mixture will be very thick. Place 3/4 of the mixture into the pan and press out so you have an even layer.

Pour in the 2 cans of pie filling and spread evenly.

Spoon the rest of the dough in globs on top of the pie filling. Swirl it around a bit.

Bake for 50 minutes. For easiest removal allow to cool completely before cutting.