Brownie Cake Recipe {From A Box!}

To me, nothing beats brownies in terms of dessert deliciousness. I could do without cake (gasp!) or pie (oh my!), but brownies? No way. In fact, I love them SO much that I requested a brownie cake for our wedding. Yes, friends, a brownie cake. I wanted the look of a traditional white cake, but instead of cake there would be brownies. My amazing cake lady said she'd never done brownies in cake form, but that she was willing to experiment and come up with a recipe that would work. Did I mention she is amazing? Well friends, she did it and it was the. best. "cake" I've ever had. Hands down. In between each layer of brownies she alternated caramel and chocolate ganache and then covered the whole thing in white buttercream. So many of our guests made a point to come up and tell me how delicious it was and I still get comments about it three years later. Does that tell you something? 

Isn't it beautiful? After that pretty "cutting the cake" moment, I proceeded to stuff a piece in C's face:

Gotcha!

So this year for my birthday I decided I wanted a mini-version of our brownie wedding cake. We asked our cake lady to make one, but unfortunately she was on vacation that week and her refrigerator had just broken. Sadness. I didn't let that deter me from my mission of having a brownie cake for my birthday though. Why not attempt it myself? So I made my own version, and it was awesome. Not nearly as photo-worthy as the wedding cake, but it tasted fantastic.

In case your mouth is watering from all these cake photos and you too decide you'd like to have a brownie cake, here's how I made my simple, semi-homemade, anyone-can-make-it version. I didn't attempt to ice it with buttercream, but man, it was still so good.

First, gather your ingredients. For me, this meant boxed brownies, oil and eggs :). You'll need two boxes for a two layer cake. If you like a tall cake, you'll need three boxes. Grab a few store bought caramels as well. I needed about 20 total to make the sauce that went in-between the layers and on top. You'll also need a dash of cream to make the caramels melt smoothly.

Confession: I love boxed brownies more than any homemade ones (except the ones my cake lady made). Terrible, I know, but it's true. In particular, I love the Betty Crocker Original Supreme brownies, so that's what I used.

Make the brownies according to the recipe on the box...

Split the batter evenly between two cake pans (I think these were 8" or 9") and bake. Make sure you GREASE your pans really well before adding the batter. That will ensure you can release them cleanly from the pan after baking and cooling.

Run a knife around the edges of the brownies and flip upside down onto a cake stand (or whatever you plan to display the cake on).

Melt the caramels in the microwave with a dash of cream to help them melt smoothly. Make sure you stir every 30 seconds until they're melted so that they don't burn in the microwave (the process is similar to how you melt chocolate chips in the microwave).

Spread the caramel sauce on top of the first brownie layer.

Then place the other brownie cake round on top of the first. The caramel will gush out of the middle and drip down the sides, but that's ok. It just adds to the fun :).

Ice the top of the second layer with the leftover caramel sauce and you're done!

YUM! Since it was my birthday, I made it a little more festive with a mini white paper flag bunting attached to two wooden skewers. Super cute.

Serve the cake with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream if you like - and enjoy!

Though it's no professionally made cake, it was delicious. Brownies for the win!

Anyone else out there a die-hard brownie lover like me?


P.S. I randomly chose the winner of the Ramsign house number giveaway - was it you? 

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