When Life Hands You Brownies, You Make Cake

On the seemingly never-ending list of birthday party duties that I had, I saved the cake for the last minute. “I’ll shop for the box stuff at Trader Joe’s when I go after work!” I thought. The day went on, one call turned into two calls, and before I knew it, I was picking up the kids. A Trader Joe’s trip for the entire family was quickly in the works. It happens sometimes.

By some miracle, thirty minutes in with a cart-full of fruit and snacks to adorn a park table on a summer morning, I found out that Trader Joe’s was out of their cakes. It was too late to run to another store, the kids were practically melting in the aisles.

When we got home, I realized we had Trader Joe’s gluten free brownies. And while I think I may have been able to figure out a homemade cake or cupcakes, my brain almost found that too difficult to manage. Turning brownies felt like an easy task to swallow some time around midnight.

From the start, Oak asked for “Ninja cupcakes” so I bought Oreos as toppers anyway. A previous night on Pinterest proved that Oreos make great ninja faces with some slight seperating and swiping. But what to do about the gluten free brownie mix?

A quick google search reassured me that it was easy.

Just add the below:

+ 1 egg

+ A teaspoon of baking powder

With these additons, the brownies should form into more of a cake. One egg and a teaspoon of baking powder later, they were sort of–mostly right.

The morning of, I chopped the tops of the oreos and cut the strawberries and hoped for the best. I dare not remove it from it’s pan. It felt risky.

Turns out, it was crazy delicious. Very crumbly, super choclatey and slightly crunchy. It stuck to the pan, and I blame the last-standing non-stick pan in my cabinet. For the tiny last-of-life helpings, I added a handful of extra strawberries from the farmer’s market brought by one of Oak’s classmates.

Turns out, when life hands you brownies, you can kind of make chocolate cake!