Do you ever want to fancy up a dessert without putting a whole lot of time or effort into them? I signed up to bring some brownies to a memorial service a few weeks ago, and I was trying to figure out how to bring something more than just a plate of… well, brownies.
Sometimes I just can’t seem to leave well enough alone!
But the truth is, it was quite easy to turn a regular ole batch of brownies from a box into something a little more lovely. In case you are looking for a creative shortcut to fancy up a boxed dessert, here’s how you do it!
Bake a box of brownies (what you see on the finished tray is actually 2 batches) and let them completely cool. Feel free to bake them a day ahead and let them cool overnight, or at least for several hours. For this recipe I lined a 9X13 pan with tin foil and sprayed it with a canola oil spray. Once the brownies cooled completely I just lifted them out of the pan by the tin foil overhang and slid them onto my cutting board. Then I peeled off the foil and started the process of turning something ho-hum into something pretty!
Next I took a heart-shaped cookie cutter (any shape will work!) and started to punch out heart-shaped brownie pieces. I made mine two different shapes to get the most out of my brownies and fit the most on my tray.
Finally, I just sifted some powdered sugar on top of them and arranged them on my fancy new tray that I bought myself just after Christmas. Actually, I bought an identical set of trays from Costco for a gift exchange. My hope was to steal them and keep them for myself. But, my sister-in-law stole them from me after I stole them from her, so I came home without my beautiful trays. But then, I was at Costco just after Christmas and I saw a big stack of them just sitting there and I thought to myself. “Self, you have no pretty trays and you do a lot of baking and serving. You should buy those trays.” So I did. The end.
This whole thing was so simple that it almost seems silly to do a tutorial of it, but I recognize that all of my good ideas are inspired by someone else and perhaps this idea will inspire one of you take a few extra minutes to turn something ho-hum into something pretty too!
I don’t know about you, but I always feel a little more confident as a hostess when I’m serving up something pretty. Then again, I don’t always have time to make something super fancy from scratch. These fancy brownies offer a happy medium in my opinion!
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