Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Cake

So the other main reason I finally started up this blog was because I wanted to join Tuesdays with Dorie.. its this little group of people who are going through the entire Baking From My Home to Yours cook book by Dorie Greenspan. They pick a new recipe every week and then post it on Tuesdays. I love the cookbook and wanted to start baking things I had never tried before - so I figured this was a great way to start.

This was my first week trying something new - The Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Cake.

It looked easy enough. The only thing I didnt already have was the bittersweet chocolate & peanuts. Freeland & I both decided we didnt want the peanuts on top of ours so really I only needed 1 ingredient. I will say that the cake looks amazing in the book with the peanuts on top. I will try it at some point - we just werent in the mood for it this time.

I made the cake today & I had so much fun finally baking again. The recipe is really straight forward. When you combine all the ingredients you get a gorgeous silky batter.

I was interested to see how it was going to turn out. I read other peoples comments and they all had a variety of turn outs. The one thing I knew for sure is that it would sink in the middle some.. thankfully I knew this going into it or I would have been so sad that it didnt turn out. And - it did sink - but really not that much.

The recipe she uses for caramel is different than the normal caramel I make. I tried it out just to see the difference. Dorie's caramel taste more like the caramel that you buy at the store - which some people probably love. I actually preferred the other kind that I normally make. It has a creamier taste to it. I will post the recipe on here some time. I just drizzled the caramel over the cake since we didnt use the peanuts.

The overall cake was really good. It turned out really moist. I do think it tasted more like a german chocolate cake or a Texas sheet cake than a brownie cake. But we both liked it!