Years ago my family started making this cake as dessert on St. Patrick’s day. It’s one of the moistest, densest chocolate cake recipes that I know of. It isn’t very sweet but is moist and amazing. The secret is the use of mayonnaise in the place of oil and eggs. It may sound odd, but it is great. The cake recipe originally comes from the Macaroni Grill. They serve it with a rich, heavy ganache, but I like to top it with one of my favorite icing recipes.

The icing recipe comes with an inside joke. Years ago, my mother had made some chocolate cake with this frosting. A neighborhood friend tried it and begged for the recipe. The frosting is mellow, smooth, luscious, and not too sweet. My mother gave her the recipe and she attempted to make it the next day. The recipe involves using granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar (which is common in many buttercreams). While the neighbor was making the frosting, a nosy (know-it-all) neighbor happened to visit. When the nosy neighbor saw what my mother’s friend was doing, she exclaimed “it’s impossible to make frosting with granulated sugar!”. She talked my mom’s friend into throwing the entire finished batch out. Since then, this frosting has been known as Impossible Frosting.

Ingredients

For the cake:

2 1/4 cups – Cake flour

1 Tbsp. – Baking soda

1/2 cup – Dutch processed cocoa powder

1 3/4 cups – Granulated sugar

1 3/4 cups – Mayonnaise

1 3/4 cups – Cold brewed coffee (I use Pero since I don’t drink coffee)

1/2 Tbsp. – Vanilla extract

 

For the frosting:

5 Tbsp. – All-purpose flour

1 cup – Milk

1 cup – Granulated sugar

1/2 cup – shortening

1/2 cup – butter

1 tsp. – vanilla or almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour, baking soda, cocoa, and sugar together until smooth.

Make sure that the coffee is cool to avoid an early reaction to the baking soda, then add it to the flour, cocoa mixture, along with the rest of the ingredients.

Lightly mix until well incorporated but not over mixed then add to a greased, floured 13×9 inch baking pan.

Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

Now to make the impossible frosting, add the flour and milk to a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the mixture is thickened. Allow to cool fully.

In a large stand mixing bowl, cream together the sugar, shortening, and butter. Beat 8 minutes or until very fluffy. Add the extract (I prefer the almond extract) and several drops of food coloring. Beat 4 more minutes.

Add the cooled flour mixture and beat 4 more minutes. Frost in an even layer on the cake.

Today I have two recipes to share. The first is for one of my favorite brownie recipes. I went to Brigham Young University for my undergrad and one of my clearest memories (and apparently the memory of many alumni, as I’ve found out as I’ve shared these) is of the brownies made by the school’s catering company. They would sell these chocolate brownies at various locations around campus and they were a favorite of all there. When I eat these, they take me instantly back in time.

The second recipe that I have to share is for a gluten and wheat free flour replacement. While I personally don’t have any issues with wheat or gluten, I have friends who do and I was curious as to what sorts of flour replacements where out there. As I’ve tried the different commercial options, I was pretty disappointed. They are awful! Most don’t hold up to be anything like real flour and leave the baked goods that use them a mealy, heavy mess. Then I came upon a recipe on a blog that I like to follow, Ideas in Food. It’s a great blog, written by someone who really knows food and science behind it. I think the real trick is that this recipe has powdered milk which gives the flour protein and weight. I went ahead and tried out their flour replacement recipe and was very impressed. The brownies turned out essentially the same. The difference was so subtle that one would never guess that the brownies were wheat free.

Now, the recipe for this flour replacement is a lot more expensive than all-purpose flour, so unless you need it, I’d recommend using traditional flour. But, if you know someone who can’t eat wheat or gluten, brighten their day by making a fresh batch of these brownies with this gluten free replacement!

What Iif Flour (from Ideas in Food)

175 grams – cornstarch

112 grams – tapioca starch

112 grams – white rice flour

50 grams – brown rice flour

50 grams – non-fat milk powder

5 grams – xanthum gum

Measure ingredients using a scale and mix well.

 

BYU Mint Brownies

Ingredients

1/2 cup – Butter flavored shortening

1/2 cup – Butter

1/2 cup – Dutch processed cocoa powder

2 Tbsp. – honey

4 – eggs

2 cups – sugar

1 3/4 cups – all purpose flour (or What Iif Flour from above)

1/2 Tbsp. – baking powder

1/2 tsp. – salt

1 cup – chopped walnuts (optional)

12 oz. chocolate icing (Use your own icing recipe)

mint icing

 

Mint Icing

5 Tbsp. – Butter (or butter flavored shortening)

dash salt

3 Tbsp. – Milk

1 Tbsp. – corn syrup

2 1/3 cup – powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. – Mint extract

1-2 drops – Green food coloring

 

Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Melt shortening and butter and add to the bowl of a stand mixer, add cocoa and stir well. Allow to cool. Add eggs, honey, sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well using the beater blade until well incorporated. Add optional walnuts and mix until incorporated. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9” by 13” metal cake pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until they test clean with a toothpick. Cool completely.

In the picture below, you can see the brownies using the replacement flour. The sides seem a little weird as seen in the picture, but this might be because I forgot to flour the greased cake pan.

Add all ingredients for mint icing to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk, whip until light and fluffy, scraping the sides with a rubber scraper as needed. Add the mint frosting in an even layer onto the brownies. Place the brownies in the freezer for 20 minutes or until the mint icing is very firm then add the chocolate icing.

Enjoy and try to eat just one!