Okay. My 4-year-old is home for the summer, so how do we spend our time? Why, baking, of course. Today, he begged me to break out the train cake mold I haven’t used since his 2nd birthday. My complaint about cake molds like this one (and Williams-Sonoma has a new cakelette mold on offer every season. Currently, they are selling a caterpillar cakelette mold) is that the little cakes are difficult to ice and come out pretty dry. So today, when confronted with this cake mold again, I immediately thought, “Brownies!” They are the perfect solution because icing them is not a necessity and it’s easier to keep brownies moist (or downright fudgy if you like them the way I do). In fact, this particular mold is the perfect size for fudgy brownies, because the individual train cars are small enough to be single-serving, yet large enough to leave the very center just a little bit under-cooked (when cooked for 25 minutes at 350˚F).
I’ll be honest. I used a brownie mix as the basis for today’s adventure, with a few minor additions to make the brownies come out the way I like them. I used Marie Callender’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix.
I followed the directions on the package, but substituted melted butter for the vegetable oil (the same measurement) and folded in 3/4 cup of Nestlée Toll House Semi-Sweet morsels.
There was not enough batter to fill every train car, but it didn’t matter.
I was pleasantly surprised by the chocolaty quality of the finished product. I usually use Ghirardelli chocolate and go to a lot of fuss, but these were just as good and a lot simpler. My son had a lot of fun helping. Williams-Sonoma doesn’t sell this pan anymore, but Amazon does:
