Brownie Cake is usually made as a sheet cake or a layer cake, but in my world they are small individually iced round brownie bites. I mean the whole idea of a brownie is to have your own personal serving that you can eat without a fork. Although, I’m sure in the future when I make an entire brownie cake I’ll be saying how cool it is to eat a brownie with a fork; but for now lets stick with finger food. Not quite as big as a cupcake and not as small as a cheesecake bite, I hereby classify this recipe as baby cakes!
So what exactly is it, you might be thinking to yourself? Well I baked my brownie cake batter in muffin tins, topped with a creamy chai buttercream, and then drizzled the final cakes with salted caramel. Cream cheese frosting is great and all, but when you want a strong topping that will hold its shape under caramel, buttercream is the way to go.
Chocolate, chai, and caramel are a trio I usually equate with Starbucks holiday drinks and now you can associate them with baby brownie cake!
Tips for Brownie Cake
- Spray your muffin tin with baking spray. Or lightly oil and flour each well.
- Use high quality dark chocolate and cocoa powder.
- Scoop you batter with an ice cream scoop.
- Remove brownie cakes from the oven when the center is still slightly underdone. They will finish baking from the heat of the pan once removed and thicken as they cool.
- Make sure brownies are cool before frosting.
Tips for Chai Buttercream
- Always use room temperature butter for the best buttercream.
- Steep the chai tea bags in warm milk for 5 minutes. I then take a spoon and gently press the teabags against the side of the mug to squeeze out any excess liquid.
- Add your powdered sugar slowly. This is what thickens your buttercream and makes it smooth.
- If you find after adding the recommend amount of powdered sugar that your buttercream is too stiff, simply add a Tbsp of chai tea or milk and whip again.
- If you find your buttercream to be too thin, add more powdered sugar until you reach desired consistency.
- Remember it takes a much larger amount of powdered sugar in combination with a small amount of liquid to make a frosting texture.
Homemade Salted Caramel
Visit this Link for steps and ingredients for Caramel Sauce.
Baby Chai Caramel Fudgey Brownie Cakes
Ingredients
Brownie Batter
- 7 Tbsp (100 g) Unsalted Butter
- 1 Cup (100 g) Dark Chocolate Chunks
- ½ Cup (100 g) Dark Brown Sugar
- ⅓ Cup (75 g) Granulated Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- ⅔ Cup (100 g) All Purpose Flour
- ⅓ Cup (50 g) Whole Wheat Flour
- 3 Tbsp Dark Cocoa Powder
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
Buttercream
- 4 Chai Tea Bags
- 6 Tbsp Hot Milk
- Pinch of Salt
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 4 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
- 2-3 Cups (160 g) Powdered Sugar
Homemade Caramel Sauce *see above for link*
Instructions
Make Caramel the Day before or several hours prior to making cakes.
Brownie Cakes
- Preheat Oven to 350 F and prepare muffin tin with baking spray.
- In medium bowl hand whisk together flours, salt, baking powder, and powder. (sift and weigh your flours for exact measurements) Set aside.
- Place your chocolate and butter in a small sauce pan on low-medium heat. Stir until both are melted and creamy. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In bowl of stand mixer with whisk attachment, beat together eggs, vanilla, and both sugars.
- Pour cooled but still liquid chocolate butter into sugar egg mixture while continuing on medium speed.
- Once combined, slowly spoon in flour mixture.
- You may need to scrape sides and bottom of bowl to incorporate all ingredients.
- Once blended into a nice thick batter, take an ice cream scoop and transfer a heaping scoop into each muffin well. ( You should have enough for 10 cakes.)
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until top of cake pushes back and center is still slightly gooey.
- Transfer tray to cooling rack for 10 minutes before cooling.
Make your Buttercream!
- Steep your chai tea bags in the hot milk for 5-8 minutes.
- Squeeze excess liquid from tea bags and pour the chai milk into bowl of stand mixer.
- Add vanilla and room temperature butter.
- Beat on medium high speed with whisk attachment until smooth.
- Slowly add powdered sugar until thick and creamy.
- Transfer buttercream to plastic piping bag fitted with desired tip or cut end of bag for smooth piping.
- Pipe frosting onto each cake.
- Drizzle with caramel sauce and enjoy!