Cake Crumb Fudge Brownies

Imagine taking buttermilk vanilla cake crumbs, frying them in butter until they’re a teeny bit crunchy, then sprinkling them over The World’s Greatest Fudge Brownie batter, then popping the pan in the oven and waiting for 27 pain-staking minutes of your life to go by until they’re ready to eat?

I know. Exquisite torture.

You might remember the stroke of genius presented to you recently, known as Birthday Cake Fudge Brownies. I was so proud to chop up pieces of my favoritest-ever vanilla cake and stir them into the brownie batter. Oh, and then topping the finished masterpiece off with rich chocolate frosting. But this time I took a new approach: throw a huge hunk of the cake into the food processor to make an impossibly tasty pile of cake crumbs. Then crisp them up in a pan with a hunk of butter, and top the chocolate-chip-studded brownies with it. The inspiration was divine and it needed no fine-tuning. These were a hit and a half and I’ll make them again. (Gasp! What if I used my Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake for crumbs? Or both? Must… go… bake…)

Adapted from my World’s Greatest Fudge Brownie and Buttermilk Vanilla Cake recipes…

CAKE (this recipe will make more than you need; you can split in half if you’d like):

1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cups + 2 tablespoons buttermilk

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

¾ cup sugar

3 eggs

2 tablespoons butter (to make crumbs)

BROWNIE:

4 ounces chopped unsweetened chocolate (the better the chocolate, the better the brownie)

3/4 cup unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons real vanilla (use the real stuff)

3 lightly beaten eggs

1 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Optional: 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1. CAKE:
  1. Preheat oven to 350˚, and grease 18 cupcake liners or two 9″ cake pans.
  2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and set aside.
  3. Pour buttermilk into a measuring cup and stir in vanilla.
  4. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 4 minutes). Reduce the speed and add the eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds between additions.
  5. Add alternating increments of the flour mixture and the vanilla-buttermilk, blending well after each addition (starting and ending with the flour mixture); this should take up to 5 minutes.
  6. Pour batter into greased cupcake liners/pans and bake 18 minutes for cupcakes, or 30 minutes for layer cake pans, until a cake tester comes out clean. Check cupcakes after 15 minutes to make sure you don’t overbake them. Remove from oven and let cool for 20 minutes on rack before unmolding from pans to finish cooling (especially if using a patterned mold).
  7. Allow to cool completely and save enough cupcakes or cake from a single layer to equal about 1 1/2 cups of cake crumbs*. In a medium frying pan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add cake crumbs. Stir regularly until lightly browned and fragrant, about 3-5 minutes. Set aside to cool while making brownie batter.
2. BROWNIE:
  1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9 x 9 foil-lined pan.
  2. Melt chocolate & butter in microwave for 2:15 minutes and stir.
  3. Stir in sugar, then vanilla, then eggs, then salt, espresso powder (optional), chocolate chips & flour.
  4. Pour into prepared pan, and sprinkle toasted cake crumbs over the top of the batter.
  5. Bake for 27 minutes (until center is just set).
Tips:
- Cake quantity: The recipe above makes two layers; you will only need 1/2 of one layer, so either split the recipe in half, or go full-out and just have a spare cake to freeze or eat on a whim. (Same thing if you make cupcakes- this will make about 18, and you’ll use about 4.)
- *The cake will turn out better in the food processor if it’s a day-old or if you cut it into chunks, then freeze them, and food process from a frozen state.
- Too lazy to make the cake? Buy the cake, and throw it in your food processor. Whatever.
- Read the original brownie post for more tips on how to make the best brownie ever.
- This freezes well, so bake now and eat later. Love it.
- Enjoy!
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February 11th, 2015 | More Sweets Please | 2 Comments | Tags: Brownies & Bars, Cakes, Vanilla, World's Best

2 Responses and Counting...

Cammie Risley 02.11.2015

I want to unsubscribe how do I do it???
More Sweets Please

Hi Cammie- I just took you off the email list.
Cheers, and happy baking!