Little Chocolate Cherry Brownies and a Charity Bake Off

Every year we run a charity bake-off “bake master” which is a little spin on the TV series Masterchef.  The idea is for each team to come up with  a theme, bake away and raise as much cash for the chosen charity of the year!  This year it was The Fred Hollows Foundation which is a charity which helps to restore sight to disadvantaged communities in Australasia and Africa.  This year we raised just short of $5,000 which is pretty amazing.

Fred Hollows

Fair to say though, this is no ordinary bake off, it is highly competitive with prizes for the best table and theme, and the best cakes, slices, savoury and biscuits….. Australian Country Women’s Association eat your heart out!!  But a little friendly competitiveness never does anyone any harm.  Especially when our team bought home three prizes… ( who said I was competitive!) including best table for “circus theme”…

There was however one complaint, one lady was very upset that I did not submit my chocolate cherry brownies, so I have finally got around to making them this weekend – bit late I know but I will know better next year!  And I thought I would share some photo’s of the winning stand (done on a budget of $20, begging from small children’s toy boxes and left over props from previous years) and my version on a Jamie Oliver recipe.

Little Chocolate Cherry Brownies

(this makes a lot so I usually half the quantities)

175g unsalted butter 200g good quality dark chocolate 100g dried sour cherries (available from delis and fruit and veg stores) 75g cocoa powder – sifted 100g plain flour – sifted 1tsp baking powder 300g caster sugar or golden caster sugar 4 large eggs Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c and line a 20cm by30cm baking pan with baking paper. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of hot water ( be careful not to let the bottom of the bowl touch the water), stir gently until smooth and then add in the cherries and carefully remove from the heat. Mix together the cocoa, flour, sugar and baking powder and mix this into the chocolate meted mixture. Once combined, beat the eggs and add this to the mixture. Pour the mix into the tray and bake for 15-20 minutes, you want the outside to be springy and the inside a little gooey so it should not come clean away from a skewer when you stick one in. Allow to cool in the tray for thirty minutes ( while you enjoy the aroma of chocolate) and then move on to a board and cut into bite size pieces…… Grab yourself a cuppa and enjoy

Thanks for stopping by the circus….. on with the colourful journey

#recipe #Baking #CircusTheme #charity #Cookery #FredHollowsFoundation #ChocolateCherryBrownies