Red Velvet Cake Mix Brownies

This week Vida contacted me and asked if I'd like a drawing she'd done of Brooklyn.  What a question!!!!  What was just as exciting to me as the seeing the drawing itself, was the fact that Vida contacted me out of the blue.  See, I've never met Vida.  She reads this blog and used one of the photos from the Boston Terrier Cake Pops aka Brooklyn Cake Pops post and turned it into a drawing.  How awesome is she and how awesome is her drawing of Brooklyn?! I am so in love with this drawing and how very personal it is and can't wait to have it framed...thanks Vida! LOVE this drawing and Brooklyn loves it too!

Not that anything can compare to the delightfulness that is my new drawing, but I thought I'd share this crazy tidbit I learned this week.  You can make "brownies" from a cake mix.  I know, it is crazy and it is true.

I volunteered to bake something for our office football jersey event.   I very rarely think these things through before I volunteer.   While I do like to bake, it's usually on the weekends and almost never on a Wednesday night at 8:00PM--definitely looking for something fast and easy.   I was one box short on brownie mix, but wondered if I could make something similar with cake mix. Google is beautiful...one quick search later and someone mentioned having success by adding fewer eggs and more fat...kind of like what you do with brownie mix.  Genius and have to say they were quite tasty.  The texture was very dense and brownie like and while three sticks of butter is crazy, it was for a potluck and it was so quick and easy.  

I used two boxes of cake mix and a large sheet pan.  I advocate removing 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup of the batter from the bowl before spreading it into the pan for no other reason that it was just a teeny, tiny bit too much for the pan.  It overflowed just by the smallest amount, but who wants to clean an oven right? Forgive the orange and blue sprinkles.  Everything this past week was orange and blue sprinkletized despite the agony of Monday's defeat.

Red Velvet Cake Mix Brownies

from Duncan Hines

2 boxes Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix

1 1/2 cups of butter, melted

2 eggs

1 cup water

chocolate chips(optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Combine egg, butter, water in a bowl. Add box mixes, stir until the ingredients are combined, and lumps are gone.
3. Add chips.  Remove 2/3 cup batter and pour mixture into the greased baking pan.
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes and place the cake on wire cooling rack. Cool entirely.
5. Frost brownie with cream cheese frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract